Brigitte Goldstein is a native of Germany and has had a lifelong passion for literature and history. As an undergraduate at Towson University in Maryland, she focused on both areas with particular emphasis on the development of the culture and civilization of Western Europe from the Early Middle Ages to modern times. She went on to graduate studies at New York University in European intellectual and social history as well as the history of modern Germany, for which she earned a Ph.D. degree. Before coming to the United States, she studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, and received a certificate in the study of French Civilization in the areas of the literature, history, philosophy, and art of France from the medieval to the modern period. She has taught college-level courses in Western Civilization, European Social History, and the History of European Women.

In the course of her studies, Brigitte developed a particular interest in the mentality and living conditions of ordinary people in the past and the influence of historical forces on their lives that lie beyond their control. Dissatisfied with the trend in historical studies of applying prefabricated paradigms to the past made to serve as procrustean beds into which historical events are made to fit, the idea ripened in her mind to combine her twin interests and put the story back into history through the writing of fiction. A vivid narrative of the trial and tribulations of fictional, yet flesh-and-blood characters within a particular historical setting which faithfully reflects the events, customs, way of life and thinking of the past and peppered with all the dramatic elements of love and friendship, conflict and betrayal, she concluded, was the exciting stuff of historical fiction into which she could pour her creative juices and a wide readership could enjoy.

For background material of her writings, Brigitte was repeatedly drawn to the conflict-ridden history of early modern France. Her most recent novel, Princess of the Blood, was inspired by the religious conflict in sixteenth-century France that pitted Catholics against Protestant Reformers in a protracted, bloody civil war. The result is an epic story of a woman’s struggle for freedom from poverty, superstition, cruelty, and fanaticism that characterized this period. For her first novel, Court of Miracles, she turned to the turbulent time before and during the reign of Louis XIV, again incorporating into the narrative plot social and political conflicts, customs and mentality, living conditions of nobility and commoners as they affect the lives of the fictional characters.

Besides her avocation as a writer of historical fiction, Brigitte Goldstein is a freelance literary translator and copyeditor. She also has several published translations of German literary works to her credit. She is currently at work on a third novel.