Queen of the Platform: A Novel of Women's Rights Activist Ernestine Rose by Susan Higginbotham: A Book Review

Queen of the Platform: A Novel of Women’s Rights Activist Ernestine Rose

Author: Susan Higginbotham

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: Susan Higginbotham

Publication Date: 2024

Pages: 373

Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: From the award-winning author of The Stolen Crown and Hanging Mary comes a novel based on the life of the indomitable Ernestine Rose, whose fearless advocacy helped bring about the rights women enjoy today.

Question everything, Ernestine vows while growing up in a Poland ravaged by the Napoleonic wars. Accept nothing blindly.

Rejecting her rabbi father's religion and an arranged marriage, Ernestine strikes out on her own, arriving in New York in 1836. Distressed by the injustices around her, she takes to the public speaking platform, pressing for the abolition of slavery and for women's rights alongside activists like Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. But at a time when women are expected to confine themselves to the parlor and the hearth-and when an atheist is best advised to say nothing at all-is Ernestine's adopted country ready to hear her?

Following Ernestine through triumph and heartbreak and across two continents, The Queen of the Platform brings out of history's shadows a heroine who braved public scorn to fight for the values she held dear.

My Review: Ernestine Rose was an abolitionist and an activist in women’s rights. Ernestine Rose grew up in Poland which was under the rule of the Russian czar. Her father was a Jewish rabbi. Ernestine eventually rejects her Jewish religion and the man that her family arranged for her to marry. She eventually emigrates to the United States. Ernestine begins speaking out about the injustices that have plagued her new country. She befriends many activists like Frederick Douglas, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cary Stanton.

I have never heard of Ernestine Rose. Therefore, I was interested in reading about her. Ernestine was a very likable character. She is very intelligent. She loves reading and knows several languages. She has a thirst for knowledge and has an inquisitive mind. However, Ernestine is very rebellious. She turns against her father who tries to force her to marry a man she doesn’t love. She runs to Berlin to live with her sister. I found Ernestine to be very spirited. There were times that I found she was reckless, and I did not like the decisions she made in the story. However, she never stops fighting for what she believes is right. She was always true to herself. Therefore, I found Ernestine to be a very admirable and courageous character.

Overall, this book is about choices, justice, and freedom. I found all of the characters to be very realistic and complex. I loved Ernestine Rose’s mission for the equality of women. I did think that this novel was very slow-moving and drawn out. However, I thought that it was meticulously researched, and it felt as if I was walking beside Ernestine Rose. This book made me want to research more about this little known historical figure. I recommend this book for fans of Madame Presidentess, Finding Margaret Fuller, and A Right Worthy Woman!

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Interview with Meihan Boey

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing author, Meihan Boey. She is the author of The Formidable Miss Cassidy , which is the first novel in the Miss Cassidy trilogy. The first novel is about how a Scottish governess helps her employer's family who is haunted by a malevolent spirit. She has recently released, The Enigmatic Madam Ingram , which is the second novel in the trilogy. In this interview, we discussed not only her latest novel, but also Singaporean mythology. Thank you, Mrs. Boey! What inspired you to write The Formidable Miss Cassidy ? Did you know it would be a trilogy before you started writing or did it form while you were writing it? Yes, I did know I wanted to create a trilogy - I just didn’t know at the start whether or not I would be able to get there! The Formidable Miss Cassidy started life as a COVID project, sent as a short story to a little Canadian indie press. Because I didn’t think a typical Canadian audience was go...

Eleanor of Castile: Queen and Society in Thirteenth Century England by John Carmi Parsons: A Book Review

Eleanor of Castile: Queen and Society in Thirteenth Century England Author: John Carmi Parsons Genre: Nonfiction, History, Biography Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Book Release Date: 1998 Pages: 388 Source: Personal Collection Synopsis: Medievalist feminist studies' early concentration on the lives of prominent women has more recently given way to an interest in their less exalted sisters. Historians have seemingly avoided the careers of medieval queens, creatures of romance and legend, women who enjoyed rank and wealth merely as a consequence of birth or marriage. A renewed interest in such women has, however, followed the opening of new avenues to the study of women and power in the Middle Ages. That the lives of these women will reward reconsideration has been amply proven in the works of such historians as Pauline Stafford and Janet Nelson. Eleanor of Castile studies the wife of Edward I of England, a woman eulogized since the sixteenth century as a model of ...

The Enigmatic Madam Ingram (Miss Cassidy #2) by Meihan Boey: A Book Review

The Enigmatic Madam Ingram (Miss Cassidy #2) Author: Meihan Boey Genre: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Paranormal Publisher: Harper Perennial Book Release Date: September 8, 2026 Pages: 512 Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: Miss Cassidy returns to nineteenth-century Singapore to help solve another dazzling supernatural mystery in this follow-up to the award-winning novel that The Guardian called a “classic-in-waiting.” When Letty Ingram arrives in Singapore in 1906, she is an enigma even unto herself. To the residents of the small Scottish village where she lives, she is a wealthy, half-Malay recluse who emerges from her home only for walks with her great beast of a hound. To Letty, she is a woman trying to lift a curse that causes her lose consciousness and wake up in strange places—sometimes, with blood on her hands—and no memory of what occurred. Letty ...

History from a Woman's Perspective- A Book Blog

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