Set in 1700s Amsterdam, The Naturalist of Amsterdam follows the life of Dorothea Graff, daughter of the famed artist and naturalist, Maria Sybilla Merian.
From her early years within the confines of the Labadist community of Walter Schloss to her mother’s artist studio in Amsterdam and the wilds of South America, Dorothea’s story charts an amazingly rich and colourful period of discovery and explores the challenge of being the offspring of one of the most famous female artists in history. Dorothea decides to join her mother on a once in a lifetime expedition to the Dutch Colony of Suriname to observe and paint its insect and plant life. Dorothea finds love on the trip and then questions how long does she have to live in service to her Mother’s ambition and when does her own life begin?
I am torn about this book because the pacing was slow and I found myself having to re-enter the story every time I picked the book up. This meant I wasn’t totally connected.
Although the pacing made this a more difficult read for me, I really enjoyed learning about the world of early discovery and the race in the scientific world to be first. It is clearly well researched and I was fascinated by the process of capturing eggs, watching them hatch and then drawing and recording the process in enormous detail. Maria was a true pioneer and sacrificed her marriage and her family to fulfil her ambition. Fans of Melissa Ashley’s will not be disappointed.
Reviewed by Nicola Skinstad
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT THE AUTHORMelissa Ashley is the author of the best-selling, award-winning historical fiction novels The Birdman’s Wife and The Bee and the Orange Tree.
In the 2017 Queensland Literary Awards, her novel The Birdman’s Wife won the University of Queensland Fiction Book Award. It also received the Australian Booksellers Association Nielsen BookData 2017 Booksellers Choice Award.
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