Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Die widerwillige Vestalin
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About 5 h 50 min to read.Für wen es gedacht ist
Readers who enjoy Roman settings with real rituals, spirited heroines, comic scenes and a love story kept waiting for thirty years will find plenty here.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
What would you do if your father swore you would be a Vestal priestess before sunset tomorrow, and you would rather marry a boar pig? That is the threat that opens The Unwilling Vestal. Brinnaria is nearly ten, tall as a grown woman, and sharp enough to out-argue any adult. She loves a young man named Almo, and she believes she has found a way out.
Edward Lucas White wrote this comic, tender and sometimes fierce novel of Imperial Rome. It follows Brinnaria across thirty years, and its rules, robes and punishments rest on real evidence.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A defiant girl fights a marriage and a priesthoodFree
- 2Plague leaves one girl eligible for the vacant place
- 3The Atrium tests her manners, her temper and her courage
- 4A cold altar leads to a flogging and a revenge
- 5Loss, suspicion and a careful farewell fill the years
- 6Almo vanishes and returns as a gladiator
- 7A foggy night ride carries her to Aricia
- 8Jealousy sends her to killers and then to the young Emperor
- 9Promises, rules and justice drive the story
- 10A comic voice and Roman detail carry the tale
Punkt 1 von 10
A defiant girl fights a marriage and a priesthood
Brinnaria looks eighteen and thinks like a grown woman. Her father orders her to marry Pulfennius Calvaster, a sly boy whose family land borders his own. She refuses, because she loves Almo. Her father answers that he will offer her as a Vestal, since one of the six priestesses died that very morning.
She swears she would marry a boar pig rather than become a priestess. Then her father sends her out while the men talk. When the fathers find her, she is sitting on Almo's lap in a marble courtyard, kissing him loudly. Pulfennius storms out, and the fathers agree to keep the young pair apart for four years.
She then asks Truttidius, an old sieve-maker, whether the Vestal Tuccia could really carry water in a sieve. He says a fine, lightly greased sieve, held level in dry weather, might hold a thin layer of water.
A girl who cannot be frightened into obedience can still be trapped by circumstance.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
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Go deeper: the whole of Die widerwillige Vestalin
About 5 h 50 min to read.Questions about Die widerwillige Vestalin
What is The Unwilling Vestal about?
It follows Brinnaria, a bold Roman girl forced to become a Vestal priestess before she turns ten. Over thirty years she guards the sacred fire, waits for her love Almo, and faces trouble from plague, a jealous enemy and two emperors.
What is a Vestal in ancient Rome?
A Vestal was a priestess of the goddess Vesta who tended the sacred fire of Rome. She served about thirty years, held great privileges and honor, and was expected to remain chaste while in service.
Is The Unwilling Vestal a true story?
It is a novel, though the author says the Vestal customs, dress and duties follow historical evidence. Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, the Colosseum and the great pestilence are real, while Brinnaria and her friends are invented.
Is The Unwilling Vestal easy to read?
The style is plain and lively, with brisk dialogue, short chapters and plenty of humor. The narrator explains Roman customs as they appear, so the story is easy to follow even without background knowledge.
Who is Almo in The Unwilling Vestal?
Caius Segontius Almo is the young nobleman Brinnaria loves. He waits for her, and his odd decisions to become a slave, a gladiator and a priest of a sacred grove drive much of the plot.
Cite this edition
White, Edward Lucas. The Unwilling Vestal. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-unwilling-vestal.
White, E. L. (2026). The unwilling vestal. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-unwilling-vestal (Original work published 1918)
White, Edward Lucas. The Unwilling Vestal. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-unwilling-vestal.
@book{white2026unwilling,
author = {White, Edward Lucas},
title = {The Unwilling Vestal},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-unwilling-vestal},
note = {First published 1918}
}
