The Queen of the Platform: A Novel of Women’s Rights Activist Ernestine Rose
Ernestine Rose, Polish-born freethinker and women’s rights advocate, lived a life that spanned most of the 19th century. This novel narrates her story as imagined through her own voice at its end. Born into a Jewish heritage whose traditions she later rejected, Ernestine’s journey took her from Poland, Berlin, and Paris to London and New York during a time of revolutions and civil war. She experienced anti-Semitism throughout her life, as well as distrust at being a foreigner, and rejection for her participation in public politics as a woman. Nevertheless, she insisted on defying conventional female norms and made her views widely known on topics such as women’s property rights, divorce, suffrage, atheism, and abolition. Through her prolific public lectures, she became known as the queen of the speaking platform.
The character of Ernestine Rose is compellingly human in this novel. Her developing roles as daughter, sister, mother, and wife pull readers into the narrative as it unfolds. The nature of her relationships with her allies and her adversaries further shows how she made sense of her social and political environment, and how she tried to live her best life in those challenging times. Filled with episodes of seemingly unsurmountable odds overcome with extraordinary persistence, this novel offers inspiration at its core.
