The Miniaturist

Jessie Burton was inspired by a visit to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where she saw on display, a miniature house from the late 17th century that belonged to Petronella Oortman. Learning that Petronella spent as much on this doll house as a normal house would have cost at the time, Burton’s interest was piqued. Who would do such a thing? These cabinet houses were popular among the Dutch upper classes during this period. They were often wedding gifts, displayed at the front of the house where guests could see them, with additions and embellishments made over time.

Burton’s Petronella is barely eighteen and when the novel begins, she arrives at her new home in Amsterdam, to join her husband Johannes Brandt, a wealthy trader. Nella bears an ancient Dutch family name (Oortman) but the family is poor, and her marriage to Johannes is a way to secure her future. Nella is young and naive and has no idea what to expect from her new family, and the Brandt household are indeed a strange lot. Johannes is absent when she arrives, instead she meets his stern sister Marin who believes in austerity and knows almost as much as Johannes about the family business; the maid Cornelia, and the manservant Otto who is the first black person that Nella has ever seen. Otto is an oddity in Amsterdam but within this home, he is cared for and along with Corneila, works to keep the household running smoothly. When Johannes eventually appears, he is pleased to see Nella, but he remains preoccupied with his work. If Nella expected love, she does not find it in Johannes.

One day Johannes brings Nella a present, a gesture of conciliation. It is no ordinary present. It is a miniature cabinet house, an exact replica of the Brandt house. Marin is incensed at the expense (3000 guilders, Johannes says, carelessly), while Nella is insulted by the insinuation that she is a child who needs a doll house to distract her. Regardless, the miniature house is now hers, to furnish and change as she pleases. An enigmatic advertisement by a miniaturist catches her eye in the local trade papers. Nella writes, seeking a few objects for the cabinet house. She soon receives  the miniatures she requested, each of them exquisitely crafted. But there is something more in the package - a few additional objects that she clearly did not request. When Nella examines these, she is suspicious and uneasy - the objects belong to the house and their precise detail is something the miniaturist could not possibly know. Thus begins an exchange with the miniaturist, letters from Nella and unsolicited tiny figurines from the miniaturist. Nella becomes convinced that the miniaturist has prophetic power, that through the figurines she sends Nella, she may be trying to warn her. 

While the miniaturist is Nella’s big secret, the other members of the Brandt household have their own, and as these are gradually revealed, the family plunges deep into crisis. In the end it is on Nella that the burden rests, to try and save them all. 

An atmospheric novel, beautifully written, Jessie Burton brings 17th century Amsterdam alive for the reader.