The Burgomaster’s Wife

Name: The Burgomaster’s Wife
Rating: 2.5 (5 reviews)

by Georg Ebers

First published 1882

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2.5(5)

Leiden, 1574. Spanish forces surround the city while its citizens endure hunger, political strain and the fear that relief may never come. Ebers brings the siege inside homes and council chambers, centring the story on the burgomaster’s household and the choices demanded when civic duty and family safety point in different directions.

William of Orange’s struggle against Spanish rule forms the wider political frame, but the novel gives equal weight to the endurance of ordinary townspeople. The result is both a domestic drama and a siege narrative about resistance, sacrifice and the survival of a Dutch city during the Eighty Years’ War.