Marguerite is comparable to the tomboys of the modern world. She refuses to just sit idly and participate in what she deems as a boring waste of time. These wastes happen to be embroidery, art, and a few other lessons she has to take as a countess. I knew for sure she would be a tomboy during this little exchange when she was a child, ""Quiet," says Willem, trying to calm things down. "It's just something we have to do on our own, Marguerite."
"Yes, this is men's work," boasts Hendrik. "Unless you're a man and can pee against a tree standing up, we don't want you."
"So if I can pee against a tree standing up, I can come?" I ask.
"Yes, if you can do that, you can come," Hendrik blusters, far too confidently.
Willem looks at Hendrik angrily, as if to say, "Did you really have to promise that?"
"What?" Hendrik asks, his hands spread in certainty that I won't be able to perform his task in a hundred years.
But I've already turned around. Standing in front of a tree, I use one hand to hoist up my skirts, while with my right hand I do something the boys can't see. And in a beautifully curved stream, I pee against the tree." This excerpt from the book is a fairly comical and lighthearted example of how she shows that she is a tomboy. Later on, Marguerite also gains a rapier with her namesake on the hilt. Her namesake is the flower shown below.
This book is a beautiful and creative rendition of how Marguerite of Male's life might have been. This is a historical fiction that has the main character as a real person instead of them being fictional. I wish I could know whether she actually acted the way she was portrayed, or if she was like most other women of the time. I recommend this book to people who enjoy extrapolations about largely mysterious historical people's lives.
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