The Drowning Room

The Drowning Room

$38.50 AUD $10.00 AUD

Availability: in stock at our Melbourne warehouse.

NB: This is a secondhand book in very good condition. See our FAQs for more information. Please note that the jacket image is indicative only. A description of our secondhand books is not always available. Please contact us if you have a question about this title.

Author: Michael Pye

Format: Hardback

Number of Pages: 256


In the mid 17th century, when the Dutch first established a settlement on the island of Manhattan, Gretje Reyniers was the town whore. She also lent money and dealt in pelts. She is listed in the court records; whom she slandered and sued; who sued and slandered her back; debts welshed on; debts demanded; minor assaults; charges on lewdness. Michael Pye discovered Gretje Reyniers while researching the early history of New York. Nothing was known about her until she arrived in America, so he has conjured a life for her: a childhood in Amsterdam in the 1620s, where she grew up working with the fishwives, as a maid to a whore; where she has a child, married, was widowed until her emigration to the colonies. This book is part history, part love story, part memoir, and above all, an account of one woman's life.
SKU: 9780140141207-SECONDHAND
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Description
NB: This is a secondhand book in very good condition. See our FAQs for more information. Please note that the jacket image is indicative only. A description of our secondhand books is not always available. Please contact us if you have a question about this title.

Author: Michael Pye

Format: Hardback

Number of Pages: 256


In the mid 17th century, when the Dutch first established a settlement on the island of Manhattan, Gretje Reyniers was the town whore. She also lent money and dealt in pelts. She is listed in the court records; whom she slandered and sued; who sued and slandered her back; debts welshed on; debts demanded; minor assaults; charges on lewdness. Michael Pye discovered Gretje Reyniers while researching the early history of New York. Nothing was known about her until she arrived in America, so he has conjured a life for her: a childhood in Amsterdam in the 1620s, where she grew up working with the fishwives, as a maid to a whore; where she has a child, married, was widowed until her emigration to the colonies. This book is part history, part love story, part memoir, and above all, an account of one woman's life.