In Riikka-Maria Rosenberg's novel, the women's manor has joys and sorrows.
Novel
R. M. Rosenberg: Free Lady. Oak. 441 pp.
“The Russians approaching! All gold, silver and tin must be collected and hidden quickly.” writes the historian Riikka-Maria Rosenberg in his novel Baroness. The year is 1808.
The tsar's army conquers Finland almost without resistance. As early as March 1809, the members of the House of Commons gather at the Diet in Porvoo to listen of Alexander I ruler's insurance.
According to publisher information Baroness belongs to the entertainment and romance category. It is The women of Hakoin – the second part of the novel series.
First part Hakoinen Anna appeared in 2022. This Give it and the second part Helena Elisabeth von Burghausen are women who once lived. They are not related, but they both once owned the same mansion.
Now Rosenberg himself lives on the Hakoinen farm. He belongs to its current owner family. In the manor's archives, he found account books, charter books and letters written in old Swedish. The author became familiar with the life of a Finnish country horse by reading non-fiction about it.
After the background work, the imagination took flight. The end result is a smooth story about a manor that a mother and her daughters manage when men draw new borders on the map of Europe.
Hakoinen's current two-story main building, among other things, dates from this period. The novel reveals what it was supposed to be and what it was.
Rosenberg clearly strives Enni Mustonen and Kristiina Vuoren among such entertainment writers. Women's history in a light, touching and addictive way. Preferably as a series.
Rosenberg investigated in his dissertation on 17th-century courtesans and wrote about one of the most famous, of Ninon de Lenclosin his debut novel Ninon – the master of love (2021).
Compared to Ninon, Helena is a master of survival.
The free lord's hair is naturally shiny, dark, and thick. Eyes big and bright. But the nose bends upwards and the lips are narrow.
So the beauty Helena is not, because perfection is not interesting, but pretty enough and of good family to end up marrying lieutenant colonel Erik Abraham Leijonhufvudin with.
The story begins about when Helena gets her husband back years later Gustavus III about the war: “Häkellys broke out when he met Erik's eyes. Their gaze was dark and impenetrable where before it had been hopeful and full of joy.”
A man's mind was broken in the war and his civilian life ends prematurely. The next war destroys the couple's only son.
Helena is left to run the estate, which with its crops, animals, crofts, servants, new buildings, plans and debts is like a medium-sized company.
In addition to that, he has to take care of his daughters' upbringing and future. We live in a time of romance, but marriages are made at the market price.
That's why the fate of ugly Erica and sickly Margareta touches the mother's heart. No one will propose to them, even though they are more skilled in financial matters than their married sisters, and also gentler in nature.
“
Th
ere is joy and sorrow in the women's mansion.
In the women's mansion rejoice and mourn. Moods are anchored by the exotic “jewel green Parrot”. It snorts or clicks its beak when the atmosphere thickens.
Sometimes Helena even resents the Almighty, who allows her one adversity after another.
Rosenberg is at his best when describing Helena's tenderness or the desire she feels for her husband in her memories. Indirectness gives space to the reader's own imagination!
However, what I remember most about the reading experience is the novel's bursting depiction of time. The most valuable and controversial equipment in the new building will be donated Adolf Fredrik Munck. The count himself had once received it from Gustavus III.
Girls have an endless need for cardoon, taffeta and cambric dresses. Helena wears a black widow's dress.
At Supé, dishes that are strange to the modern taste are served, such as a pressure cooker made from pig's head. The list of party treats is long and the wine is of course French, “dark red in color, rich in aroma”.
A couple of hundred in a year, customs have changed and social equality has leaped forward, but Finland's eastern border is still vulnerable.
That is why the events during the war in Finland increase the interest Free lordship to similar period novels right now.
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