The Virgin Blue - Tracy Chevalier

A novel documenting the lives of two women living 400 years apart struggling against the prejudices of the society surrounding them, The Virgin Blue is an uncomfortable and sometimes devastating read.

It surrounds the linked but very different lives of two female characters. In the 16th century, Isabelle lives in a harsh French village, where she is cast under constant suspicion and disdain because of her red hair. Four hundred years later, her ancestor Ella moves from America to a rural French town with her husband Rick. Both have very different struggles against the people around them.

Despite the 400-year gap, there are similarities and themes which link the women. Both live in unhappy marriages; both feel osctracised in the villages they live in; both are outsiders. Ella is phonetically similar to Isabelle and both are midwives. As the novel progresses, Ella is also nicknamed La Rouss as her brown hair gradually turns red.

But for every similarity, there are dozens of historical, social and cultural changes that separate them. Isabelle is forced to marry bullying rapist Etienne to save her family from financial ruin. He beats her, virtually imprisons her and sexually abuses her. Ella married Rick for love and he is a loving and respectful husband. Isabelle is made to give up midwifery by Etienne; Ella must give it up until she gets her qualifications in France. Isabelle has no choice but to have children; Ella decides to have a child and gleefully empties her contraceptive pills into the river near her home.

Their parallel yet often opposing experiences act as a mirror for the different pressures, expectations and limitations of women's lives. Isabelle is at the complete mercy of her husband, his violence and his wishes. She is controlled, stifled and locked away. When she is accused of an affair which she never had, she is beaten to within an inch of her life.

Ella has the freedom to make friends, indulge in an affair and explore her vilage. She makes the choice to leave her husband and end their stale marriage despite his wishes. But for all her freedom, Ella is still not completely free. She falls victim to the wicked gossip of women in the village and feels trapped, frustrated and isolated by her inability to work.

Isabelle isn't the only woman who falls victim to the misogyny of the world surrounding her, however. Her daughter Marie is joyous, wilful and passionate; her brave words save her Huguenot family from slaughter when they are confronted by Catholics. But Marie's lively personality lead to her downfall. When she is found with her mother's precious patch of blue cloth underneath her black dress, she is eventually tricked and drowned by her father and brothers. In killing Marie, they take away Isabelle's only love in her life.

Colour is a central theme in the novel. Isabelle is obssessed with the blue of the Virgin Mary and deceives her husband in order to purchase the precious cloth in the shade. Ella is plagued with nightmares of this blue, which suffocate and terrify her.

The Virgin Blue is Chevalier's first novel and it sets out the interest in gender politics and colour that shape her later works. While colour is central to the novel, it is not realised as expertly as it is in Chevalier's later classic work Girl with a Pearl Earring.

By contrasting Isabelle and Ella's lives, Chevalier beautifully exposes the gulf between both women's experiences. But the gender politics don't ring so true in Ella's story. She is swept off her feet by her lover Jean-Paul, who accepts her unquestioningly even when she is pregnant with her husband's child. While the reader can understand that Ella feels lost and isolated, the character of her husband Rick is so marginalised it is difficult to sympathise with Ella and her affair. Rick isn't a bad husband like Etienne; he does nothing wrong. This makes it difficult to empathise with Ella and her choice to end her marriage.

Despite this, The Virgin Blue is an interesting read filled with brutal examples of how hard life was for women in the 16th century. Packed with atmosphere and lyrical observations, it shows the devastating lack of choice women 400 years ago had, how far we have come and how far we still have to go.

My next read: One Day by David Nicholls.