The Wandering Harlot

Set in 15th century Germany, this is the tale of Marie, a respectable young lady from a wealthy family who is accused of promiscuity by a nobleman trying to get her father's land, aka her inheritance. She is tried, convicted, whipped, and exiled. The book follows her travels around the country as a prostitute, while at the same time she plots her revenge. There are many cliches in this novel, but also some good history of medieval Germany and the church workings. The prostitutes are an interesting group, but the villains seem to be very one-dimensional. Lots of implied sexual violence and of course, women are much abused. I listened to this on Audio. 13 hrs 46 min

Plot: hard to find thanks to all the plotholes, and highly predictable. There's no surprise, the only unknown factor is when certain things are going to happen. A lot of the time solutions are far too convenient to be realistic.

Characters: Black and white, no gray anywhere. One single character goes from good to bad at one point, but aside from that no-one ever changes or grows. The main issue that the characters don't seem affected by what happens to her. The central character goes from maiden to rape victim to whore to avenger to married respectable woman, and never changes in any way.

Style: The good thing: it improved after the first two hundred pages. The bad: it started from such a low level that even this improvement isn't show more enough. The worst offenders are constant point-of-view changes - every few paragraphs, enough to give you whiplash - and such a simplistic prose style that it's just not fun to read. Another issue is the idealized portrayal of the environment: no one ever worries about sexually transmitted diseases, no-one has unwanted babies, no-one really suffers from illnesses. Add to that a very casual use of sex and violence that never actually affects anything, and you get a book that leaves you unaffected.

Plus: Some of the side character plots are interesting, when they aren't abandoned.

Minus: Terrible style, a plot with no surprises whatsoever, and characters who make it impossible to care.

Summary: I have no idea why this is as popular as it is - it's an incredibly naive and simplistic book. show less

The Wandering Harlot - Iny and Elmer Lorentz
2014/ AmazonCrossing

In 1400s Europe, society is coming apart. Fights over who is the Pope - with three vying contenders, will eventually lead to a council in the medieval town of Constance.
Before that however, a young virgin of prominent standing, Marie, becomes a weapon for an evil Lord Rupert to begin amassing property. Her father approves her marriage to Rupert, only to find his daughter accuse d of wanton behaviour. Marie is quickly tried, convicted and whipped out of town. Her life will never be the same.
Is she strong enough to even survive her brutal whipping?? Will she find a way to survive - and somehow gain back her standing and exact her revenge??

I couldn't put this book down, from show more the very first page I was hooked!!! I will definitely recommend "The Wandering Harlot" to my book lover friends!!!
I received this book for free to review. I am a member of NetGalley, Goodreads, Librarything and maintain a book blog at dbettenson.wordpress.com show less

i think that the life of a whore was much harder than it was projected in is book. it reads like it is no big deal to end up as one. no problem with std or inwanted babies or death during cjildbirth which i think was quiet common during that time. even the rapes are just shortly announced and then over like a rainstorm with any deeper wounds or mental scares. very simple and native read. fast and easy to read on. rainy week end if you want to be transported into a clean 1500 germany.

Das Buch ist absolut furchtbar, ich verstehe wirklich nicht, warum es so populär geworden ist.

- Die Figuren sind zweidimensional und eher Typen als Persönlichkeiten.
- Das Verhalten der Figuren ist unrealistisch und nicht nachvollziehbar
- Niemand entwickelt sich weiter, der Charakter jeder Figur bleibt von Anfang bis Ende genau gleich
- Der Ablauf der Geschichte ist vorhersehbar und nicht besonders phantasievoll
- Die Zeit, in der die Geschichte spielt wird nicht besonders lebendig und auch nicht sehr realistisch dargestellt

Langweilig.

Corre el año de 1410. Matthis Schärer de Constanza está encantado de que Ruppertus Splendidus, el hijo de un conde, corteje a su hija Marie. Aunque ella se opone, Matthis firma el contrato de matrimonio sin sospechar que ha sellado el destino de su hija. Y es que Ruppertus ha ideado un plan diabólico. La víspera de la boda, un hombre acusa a Marie de prostitución y Ruppertus arroja a su novia a un calabozo, donde es violada. Declarada culpable de prostitución, Marie es expulsada de la ciudad, y no tiene otra alternativa que vagar por los caminos.
En ellos se encuentra con Hiltrud, mujer «de placer», quien la curará de sus heridas y la protegerá en un mundo desconocido para ella. Desengañada de que su padre acuda en su show more rescate, Marie sólo tiene una alternativa: convertirse en una ramera errante. Sin embargo, una idea la obsesiona: tarde o temprano conseguirá vengarse de su cobarde prometido. show less

Das Buch "Die Wanderhure" wurde mir von einer Freundin empfohlen und ich habe es als Urlaubslektüre mitgenommen. Ich habe das Buch verschlungen. Es ist spannend zu lesen, man taucht ein in das Deutschland des 15. Jahrhunderts und in das Schicksal von Marie, der übel mitgespielt wird und die dadurch gezwungen wird, sich als Wanderhure zu verdingen. Ich habe mitgefiebert, habe mich reinziehen lassen in das Geschehen und war fast traurig, als ich den Roman nach nicht mal einer Woche zu Ende gelesen hatte. Ich freue mich schon auf den zweiten Teil.