This novel is set in Renaissance France, an era of splendour and excess. It is about two women from completely different worlds, whose lives cross with unexpected consequences. One is the fictional Jehane/Josse and the other is the real-life Margueritte de Navarre, the King’s sister. Very different women, from two different places in society.
Jehane is a difficult child, cast on the streets and longing to be a printer like her late father. For her own safety, she begins to dress as a man, using the name of Josse. She appreciates the freedoms this deception gives her, eventually joining a group of printers and publishers in Paris.
Margueritte’s story begins with her bemoaning her mother’s marriage plans for her. It is her fate to marry and provide political support for her brother, François, who became King Francis I. Margueritte’s life is an interesting one. This is the first of a trilogy, so we shall read more of her and her glittering descendants.
The story is a tad pale for me, with Margueritte spending much of her time chafing against the bars of her gilded cage. This characterisation, while no doubt reflective of the life of a woman of royal blood of the time, is not terribly engaging. Jehane/Josse is more interesting, but then she can be, as she is fictitious. Even though history is littered with women who have donned men’s clothing for their own purposes, some of her behaviours struck me as far-fetched.
Nonetheless, The Queen’s Apprenticeship is a quietly entertaining story about the lives of women who, while so different, still want the same thing – independence.
Reviewed by Lesley West
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tracy Ryan was born in Western Australia and grew up there as part of a large family. She has taught literature, creative writing and film at various universities in Australia and in England, and worked as a bookseller, editor and translator.
Tracy currently teaches fiction writing at the University of Tübingen, Germany. Her poetry has won many awards. The most recent collection is Rose Interior (Giramondo 2022), and she is the author of five critically acclaimed novels. Claustrophobia, her fourth novel was published by Transit Lounge in 2014 and by Newton Compton Editori as Una vita tranquilla in 2015. It was shortlisted for the 2016 Western Australian Premier’s Awards.
racy was the Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards Fellowship winner in 2023. Tracy speaks German, French and Italian as well as English. The Queen’s Apprenticeship is the first in a series of three novels focussed on the Queens of the Navarre.
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