"By Any Other Name" | Reviewed by Susan Ferguson

“By Any Other Name,” by best-selling author Jodi Picoult, is a well-researched historical fiction novel that tackles modern topics like feminism and diversity. It is an intertwining story of two women set centuries apart that are both aspiring playwrights trying to make themselves heard in a man’s world.

Seven-year-old Emilia Bassano is orphaned and sent to live with a Countess in England. It’s 1581, and Emilia’s family has emigrated from Italy to England to be the court musicians for King Henry VIII. The countess cares for and educates Emilia. She tells Emilia that “Life as a woman is not without risks.”

The countess is set to marry Sir John and move to Holland. Emilia is sent to live at her court musician cousin Jeronimo’s home. Jeronimo sells 12-year-old Emilia to Lord Chamberlain to be his mistress. Lord Chamberlain oversees the London theater productions, providing Emilia with access to the theater. He shares the plays he receives with Emilia, asking for her input. Emilia quietly begins writing her own plays, told from a woman’s perspective. Unfortunately, being a woman prevents her plays from being produced. That is until she sells them to William Shakespeare who produces them as his own.

The novel then jumps forward to modern times and we meet Melina Green who graduated from Bard College as a playwright. Melina discovers a photo of a distant ancestor in her father’s genealogy packet, poet Emilia Bassano. Years later with the encouragement of her roommate, Andre, her best friend and fellow playwright, Melina begins writing a play about Bassano. Once she starts writing, she can’t stop. Bassano is the inspiration Melina needs. Their stories as women playwrights are similar.

Andre convinces Melina to complete an application and submit her script to the Fringe Festival. The winning play will be produced at an Off-Off- Broadway Theater. Melina realizes that the artistic director will be Felix Dubonnet who is notorious for only producing plays written by men. Melina never submits her script, but Andre does so under the name Mel Green.

To give away the conclusion of “By Any Other Name” would do it a disservice. Picoult’s newest is inspirational, and thought provoking. The Shakespearean references in the back of the book raise questions about the authenticity of Shakespeare’s works. The intertwining narratives of Emilia and Melina, set 400 years apart, are work well together.  Although it is a long read, 544 pages,I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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