This novel takes the little that's known about Helena Jans van der Strom, the servant girl who bore philosopher Rene Descartes a daughter, and weaves it into a full-blown story; real characters mixed with fictional ones.
Descartes plays a large role in the book, yet he comes across as somewhat bloodless, as do most of the male characters. This is a pity, because you begin to feel that all Helena's love for him - and grumbling about him - is wasted on a person who isn't worth it in the first place.
It's an interesting story, but I found it hard to warm to the main character. It's understandable that she feels used by those around her, women as well as men, and it's understandable that she's frustrated by Descartes' unwillingness to take the relationship further, although given the age they lived in it was unlikely he ever would.
Perhaps it's hard for a male reader to be entirely sympathetic with a woman living in such a time and place, but in some stretches of the book I wanted to shake her. She has warmth, and vitality, and intelligence, but Glasfurd undermines these qualities too often, for me, by making her incoherent when she needs to speak, and silently angry when others are actually listening to her.
My grumbles aside, this is well researched, and presents a vivid picture of some aspects of life in the 17th century.
