Book review: The Burgermeister's Daughter

[CHARLAINE.C.COOK@Global-One.net]

Good folks of the Merry Rose.  I saw this recently in Publishers Weekly and
thought it might of interest to others in the group.

THE BURGERMEISTER'S DAUGHTER: SCANDAL IN A SIXTEENTH CENTURY GERMAN TOWN
By Steven Ozment.  St. Martin's Press. $24 ISBN 0-312-13939-X Due out March 1996

Ozment brings a medieval drama to life in this meticulously researched and
engrossing narrative of the 30-year lawsuit between Anna Buschler (1496/98-1552)
and her family.  Anna's father, Burgermeister (mayor) of the German town of
Schwabisch Hall, banished his daughter from the family home in 1525 after he
read letters that confirmed her sexual involvement with two men.  Anna responded
by suing her father, and after his death her siblings, for disinheriting her.
Ozment details the twists and turns of Anna's legal battle, which continued
during her two marriages and resulted in her being shackled to a table for six
months by her father and later jailed briefly by the town council.  She escaped
from both incarcerations.  Although Anna was promiscuous, Ozment convincingly
argues that the Burgermeister's treatment was overly severe, and Anna emerges in
this account as an unusually resourceful and feisty woman.  Illustrated.
(History Book Club selection).

I have not read this book and this review was done by Publishers Weekly who are
out to sell books and will not critically review but people interested in German
family life might keep an eye out for the book or petition the local/university
library to acquire it.

Alesia la Sabia de Murcia
<CHARLAINE.C.COOK@sprintintl.sprint.com>