THE WILD GIRL

Kate Forsyth

If historical fiction is one avenue for us to access historical fact then “The Wild Girl” is more than up to the task. Besides the tiny little details stirred in like sugar in your tea, such as the war between the British and Americans more than thirty years after America won independence from the British and some of England’s history under George 111, it is the unveiling of the pertinent details of the experiences of the people of Hessen-Cassel, Germany, in early 19^th century which is really fascinating. Dortchen Wild’s family and the Grimm family’s story reflect the experiences of their little kingdom beginning with the escape of their Kurfurst, the occupation by the despotic Jerome Napoleon during the Napoleonic wars, occupation by the Russians, back to the French and then, after Waterloo, the Kurfhurst’s return.

All of this is wonderfully described but it is the love story between Dortchen and Wilhelm which has been so beautifully told and imagined in ‘The Wild Girl’. This is truly gorgeous, turn the page stuff with lovely little snippets of the tales Dortchen told Wilhelm and which went to make up some of the Grimms Brothers  Fairy Tales we grew up with. Like Wilhelm, Forsyth believes that the truth has to be exposed and it is her portrayal of some ugly experiences as the cause of the barriers between Dortchen and Wilhelm that kept me reading well into the night and picking it up again a mere few hours later.  

 

 

Like the early versions of fairy tales, this is not a children’s book. It is simultaneously a gripping, gritty, beautiful and fascinating story about the lives of people who really lived and loved and lost and I urge you to read it.

 

 

 

 

Therese Noble