The Miniaturist
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How do you thing Nella's life proceeded on after the book ended?
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Susan
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Feb 23, 2015 02:32PM
(Possible spoilers) The book seemed to imply that Nella took over the business. Is such a thing realistic? How else would she support herself?
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I think she would have led a quiet life.
Total spoilers here, but...I reckon her best bet of anything like independence is to bring her brother in, hang on in there for a few years while he gets trained up and hope he's talented. He'd be able to do all the stuff she couldn't like travel, and use the trading house offices and she could have a Marin-like role. Problems might arise if and when he wanted to marry but family ties might hold it together.
If she tried to go it alone, she'd be forced to rely on agents as Johannes said, and that would drain her profits. It seems like a short-term solution at best. A more likely solution is that she would be expected to remarry, perhaps want to, and very likely benefit economically from doing so. If we want a nice story we can imagine she falls in love with someone who loves her.
Alternatively, she could sell out and the whole household could run away to London, but the suggestion was that matters for a female head of household were no better there.
Very interesting, Anne. Had one of the Bradts lived, I think either one would have recognized her abilities, but on her own . . . I felt the shortness of time covered in the book cut off what could have been an interesting career for her, albeit in the background.
Good question. I would further question WHO the Miniaturist was, where did her "abilities" come from, etc etc etc. I felt that the story just left me hanging and didn't feature the Miniaturist as much as I would have hoped/thought. Just an odd book all the way around. I will say that the author had a way with trapping you into the story so that you just had to keep reading but I felt that the ending just left me somewhere "out there"!
I totally agree. I thought the story was dragging until the Miniaturist entered the picture. She was the interesting part. But then she was just dropped. Wondering if this was supposed to be a series -- see how the miniaturist changed people's life. If it is, there is no definitive answer as to what happens to Nella.
I don't think Nella would come to much. In that era, women were at the beck and call of men and totally dependant of who they were. They just took care of the household. In this day and time, I would have left Brandt in a heartbeat!!!
In the prologue of the novel, the miniaturist places an even smaller version of the Brandt's home on top of Merin's tomb stone, which contains five figurines.I assume that being Nella, Cornelia, Otto and the baby, but who is the fifth?
I wasn't sure if this was the miniaturist final dig in the ribs at Merin at who she believed should really be living in the Brandt's household (as if she believed that Johanne and Merin didn't belong there and she was rubbing Merin's face in it, so to speak.) But that doesn't add up because she seems to become angered at the women who are watching the burial of Merin and making snide remarks. I have to say I was confused at the purpose of the miniaturist and reread the prologue after finishing the novel several times to see if I could pull anything from it but I just kept coming to a dead end.
In my idealistic way of thinking, I believed that some how Nella, Cornelia and Otto would all pull together and raise the baby while living a frugal lifestyle. Perhaps Nella would have to sell some of the houses more expensive contents to fund things. But due to the course of events that had unfolded they had all forged inextricable bonds with one another and would make it work.
Part of the way through the book I thought Nella was going to learn the business from Johannes, and theirs would be a business relationship rather than a marriage. But he didn't stay around long enough. Then I thought that she and Marin would partner up and continue to run the business together, but she didn't stay around long enough. I then wondered if there were enough assets to keep Nella afloat in the house with Otto and Cornelia & the baby, or if she would try to take Johannes business over. But the latter is impossible because she didn't have time to learn. I thought it was a waste of a plot; it could have shown how the women came to run a business of their own. And I have NO idea what the miniaturist was all about. She did not serve to move the plot along at all.
Russ wrote: "In the prologue of the novel, the miniaturist places an even smaller version of the Brandt's home on top of Merin's tomb stone, which contains five figurines.I assume that being Nella, Cornelia, O..."
The 5th figure is the wet nurse, I forget her name.
Anne wrote: "Russ wrote: "In the prologue of the novel, the miniaturist places an even smaller version of the Brandt's home on top of Merin's tomb stone, which contains five figurines.I assume that being Nella..."
Oh yes! I forgot about her.
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
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