Steven Ozment is McLean Professor of history at Harvard University. He lives in Newbury, MA.
Review
"A very considerable history by an accomplished scholar."
--Atlantic Monthly
"A splendid and very unusual entry into the private life of the distant past."
--New York Times Book Review
"Compelling, suspenseful, and 'sexy'...impossible to put down."
--Yale Review
Harper Collins Web Site, February, 2001
Summary
In an era when women were supposed to be disciplined and obedient, Anna proved to be neither. Defying 16th-century
social mores, she was the frequent subject of gossip because of her immodest dress and flirtatious behavior. When
her wealthy father discovered that she was having secret, simultaneous affairs with a young nobleman and a cavalryman,
he turned her out of the house in rage, but when she sued him for financial support, he had her captured, returned
home and chained to a table as punishment. Anna eventually escaped and continued her suit against her father, her
siblings and her home town in a bitter legal battle that was to last 30 years and end only upon her death.
Drawn from her surviving love letters and court records, The Burgermeister's Daughter is a fascinating examination
of the politics of sexuality, gender and family in the 16th century, and a powerful testament to the courage and
tenacity of a woman who defied the inequalities of this distant age.
