THE PORCELAIN MENAGERIE, fiction about the world's most important object of industrial espionage

THE PORCELAIN MENAGERIE
JILLIAN FORSBERG
History Through Fiction LLC (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$9.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: In a world where ambition is as fragile as porcelain, two lives are shaped by a king's dangerous obsessions.

In 18th-century Dresden, the dangerous whims of King Augustus the Strong shape the court and the lives of those held captive, both people and animals. Johann Kändler, a talented young artist, is drawn into the world of King Augustus the Strong. The king's relentless desire for a lifelike porcelain menagerie could make or break Johann's future. As Johann works to meet the king's impossible demands, he finds unexpected allies in former royal mistress Maria and her daughter Katharina. Johann's art might secure his future-or ruin it if he fails to satisfy the king.

Decades earlier, another story unfolds. Fatima, a Turkish handmaiden, is chosen to replace Augustus's discarded mistress. As she tries to create a menagerie of exotic animals and navigate the intrigues of an unpredictable court, Fatima must learn to survive in a world that values beauty and power above all. She must fight to keep her identity and unlock her own cage in the king's dangerous realm.

Two timelines, bound by a king's art and survival intertwine as Johann and Fatima navigate the king's unpredictable demands and the deadly allure of court life, where ambition can be as fragile as porcelain.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Royalty has never had much reason to behave pleasantly to the lower orders...what, after all, can they do to a royal personage?

1789 still scares tyrants. But that's decades away from Augustus the "Strong"'s reign in Saxony. The story of Fatima, a beautiful young servant who catches the King's eye and is traduced by him, and how she manages life as Maria the lowly mistress of the King, exemplifies this.

Before I go on: Animal cruelty in this book turned my stomach. It's well known as a real activity in this royal court. Do not look it up. Trust me. If you read the book for other reasons, do not read chapter 30. At all.

If porcelain had never made it to Europe, the *astonishing* wealth transfer beginning in the 1400s into China, and later into Japan, would never have drained the economy dangerously. It is immensely superior to pottery in strength and durability. It is beautifully translucent, it takes colored glazes readily...being by nature soft white when fired properly...and can be made into very fine, very small shapes, like miniature marble. You most likely don't give much thought to the porcelain in your kitchen cabinets, and only a little more to Granny's stuff in the breakfront, or the figurines Mom used to make you dust.

Augustus the Strong gets credit for that. His decades-long search for the secret to making porcelain...in English we mostly call it "china" nowadays...was a quest to stem the treasure hemorrhage to the country of East Asia where they made whichever of the tens of thousands of pieces he coveted. It's bloody incredible to read about his collection.

Those facts are related in a rather tedious history book called The Arcanum by Janet Gleeson, which has the virtue of being well-researched so worth reading if you really enjoy your china. This novel, being fiction, isn't limited to the history. It delves into a story, based on real people's real lives. Of course it's necessary to burnish up the bones of fact, to pad in some likely-sounding dialogue, to speculate on unrecorded emotional factors that all lives possess.

The resultant novel is a very emotionally affecting read. Maria/Fatima-that-was and her bastard royal daughter Katharina come to life, though not modern life (a good thing), making the very best of the choices open to women in 18th-century Saxony. Johann's efforts as an artist, his careful treading as a man beholden for both living and life to a capricious, moody obsessive of a king, and his relationship to the women of the story all coalesces in a satisfying, if not truly happy, ending.

If not for (factually accurate) chapter 30, I'd rate it higher. Just can not dismiss, diminish, or relativize this one.