Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Vanora Bennett

Rating: 8 of 10 stars

How often when you read a book do you know that you are likely to reread it at a later time? For me, that's rarely. I love the surprise of discovery, be it language, plot or turn of character. And these pleasures usually fade, no matter how wonderful, upon a second reading. There are some, however, that I do set aside for the future. Portrait of an Unknown Woman is one of these.

I am generally interested in things that can be found out by piecing history together, bit by bit...in other words, the perspective of a mystery lover. And yet for me, mysteries, as such, are not a first-sought-for genre. It is the tale of the mystery and its clues, overtly named or subtly placed, that draws me: an engagement brought about by the structure of an artful unfolding.

The portrait in "Portrait" is that of Sir Thomas More and his family; it is one that is both literal--a painting by Hans Holbein--and the image of how More's family responded to, and was affected by, the changes in England during Henry VIII's struggle with the Catholic Church. While that sounds like a ho-hum, it is the personal that brings history alive and makes it memorable.

For a modern example of that how that works, a reference to the gasoline shortage of the mid-seventies is far less interesting than a story of waiting for gas in a city-block long queue, engine off, with a car full of sweaty kids in a Florida summer.

And so, told through the eyes of More's adopted daughter, Meg Giggs, the book speaks to how larger forces play themselves out in the daily lives and events of the household, and in Sir Thomas's and Holbein's lives. For me, it's the closest I'll ever come to understanding what it might have been like to have lived in a period as complex as the one in which I find myself today.


Usual borrowers: Adults interested in More, Holbein or history
Genres: Artists, historical fiction

Additional hints to the story can be found in the differences between the sketch for the painting (1527) and a 1593 copy of the painting itself, both of which are supplied.

Image of the 1527 sketch:
http://nibiryukov.narod.ru/nb_...
Image of a 1593 copy of holbein's painting
http://www.english.upenn.edu/~...