At the Sign of the Star

After I got this book home from the library, I wondered again why I had checked it out- then I began reading. Katherine Sturtevant has written a window to the late 17th century, a time when the role of women was expanding- more and better education, access to literary works. Women could be playwrights and authors. 


In this story, the 12 year old daughter of a bookseller (and publisher) realizes her father intends to marry again, and consequently she will lose the extent of her inheritance (when she might have succeeded him in the publishing business). Thus, she is really quite nasty to her step-mother (who isn't bad, especially as far as step-mothers in the literary world go). Eventually, her father gives her an ultimatum: go live with her cousin in the country, or shape up and start behaving nicely. Because she (Margaret, called Meg) loves London and her proximity to the wits, playwrights, and authors within it, she chooses to stay.


Anyway, it's well done. I liked it much more than I expected to, and the characterization was terrific.

Blue