Name: The Wild Girl
ISBN: 9780749015572

Kate Forsyth

Dortchen Wild has loved Wilhelm Grimm since she was a young girl. Under the forbidding shadow of her father, the pair meet secretly to piece together a magical fairy tale collection.

The Wild Girl

One of the great untold love stories - how the Grimm brothers discovered their famous fairy tales - filled with drama and passion, and taking place during the Napoleonic Wars. The Wild Girl tells the story of Dortchen Wild. Growing up next door to the Grimm brothers in Hesse-Cassel, a small German kingdom, Dortchen told Wilhelm some of the most powerful and compelling stories in the famous fairytale collection. Dortchen first met the Grimm brothers in 1805, when she was twelve. One of six sisters, Dortchen lived in the medieval quarter of Cassel, a town famous for its grand royal palace, its colossal statue of Herkules, and a fairytale castle of turrets and spires built as a love nest for the Prince-Elector's mistress. Dortchen was the same age as Lotte Grimm, the only girl in the Grimm family, and the two became best friends. In 1806, Hesse-Cassel was invaded by the French. Napoleon created a new Kingdom of Westphalia, under the rule of his dissolute young brother J r me. The Grimm brothers began collecting fairytales that year, wanting to save the old stories told in spinning-circles and by the fire from the domination of French culture. Dortchen was the source of many of the tales in the Grimm brother's first collection of fairy tales, which was published in 1812, the year of Napoleon's disastrous march on Russia. Dortchen's own father was cruel and autocratic, and he beat and abused her. He frowned on the friendship between his daughters and the poverty-stricken Grimm Brothers. Dortchen had to meet Wilhelm in secret to tell him her stories. All the other sisters married and moved away, but Dortchen had to stay home and care for her sick parents. Even after the death of her father, Dortchen and Wilhelm could not marry - the Grimm brothers were so poor they were surviving on a single meal a day. After the overthrow of Napoleon and the eventual success of the fairytale collection, Dortchen and Wilhelm were at last able to marry. They lived happily ever after with Wilhelm's elder brother Jakob for the rest of their lives.

Natalia Hernandez

I actually filmed a review so :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRaq1...

Eryn Bradshaw

The Wild Girl has left me speechless, heartbroken, and hopeful for the magic worked by love. Dortchen was a wonderful narrator and Kate Forsyth wrote her pain and longing so beautifully. Every time there was a moment between Wilhelm and Dortchen, I just wanted that moment to last forever, partly because the longing Dortchen feels throughout the novel was so powerful I could resonate with her, because I didn't want her to go through any more troubles she ran into with her father, and because I absolutely adored how Dortchen and Wilhelm's relationship seemed so wonderful.

I thoroughly enjoyed the historical aspects of the novel as well. I loved learning about the Grimm family and about all the happenings around Kassel and throughout Europe. Having a lacking knowledge of European history, I found the bits of historical facts interesting and loved the depth it added to the story. I felt like I learned more about the Napoleonic Wars and just how life might have actually been for people living during that era instead of reading a book that romantised the time period.

This is a book that I hope will stick with me for a long time. Forsyth has worked a dark magic into this book through her writing, and I do hope it never lets me go. Despite how dark and cruel this book got at times, the amount it made me feel hope and love gives it 5 Stars for me. I just wish all the books I read held and hold the same passion put into this one.

Flavia

A wonderful true story told as a fairytale. Once again Kate Forsyth show us her competence to re-telling fairy tales (and the story of their authors), she merge magic and reality in a fascinating, remarkable story.

Abby Beatrice Quick

Kahli Scott

Nat Lim

"Dortchen Wild lives in the small German kingdom of Hesse-Cassel in the early 19th century. She finds herself irresistibly drawn to the boy next door, the handsome but very poor fairy tale scholar Wilhelm Grimm. It is a time of tyranny and terror: Napoleon Bonaparte wants to conquer all of Europe, and Hesse-Cassel is one of the first kingdoms to fall. Forced to live under oppressive French rule, Wilhelm and his brothers quietly rebel by preserving old half-forgotten tales that had once been told by the firesides of houses grand and small over the land. As Dortchen tells Wilhelm some of the most powerful and compelling stories in what will one day become his and Jacob's famous fairy tale collection, their love blossoms"--Amazon.com.

The Wild Girl

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