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The Maternal Element
Siberia 1833.
Forty-one-year-old Maria Mendeleeva is enduring her seventeenth pregnancy. Her husband Ivan has lost his sight, and her brother Vasily has left their grandfather’s glass factory in ruins. The factory Maria hungered for as a child. On the brink of poverty and her family’s only remaining hope, Maria must find a way to make the factory viable. She must find the power to bring her grandfather's dreams back to life. She must make the glass sing.
The Maternal Element is a sweeping, gripping epic with an extraordinary woman at its heart. Maria Mendeleeva – mother of Dmitri Mendeleev, who devised the Periodic Table of the Elements – is a heroine like no other. A woman who refuses to be quashed by circumstance, Maria fights against the strictures of her time to gain an education for herself and for her children as she traverses the Urals of Russia seeking opportunity and safety for her family. A vivid and visceral portrait of a woman history has long since forgotten, The Maternal Element is a manifesto for truth, female empowerment and defying societal expectations.
Forty-one-year-old Maria Mendeleeva is enduring her seventeenth pregnancy. Her husband Ivan has lost his sight, and her brother Vasily has left their grandfather’s glass factory in ruins. The factory Maria hungered for as a child. On the brink of poverty and her family’s only remaining hope, Maria must find a way to make the factory viable. She must find the power to bring her grandfather's dreams back to life. She must make the glass sing.
The Maternal Element is a sweeping, gripping epic with an extraordinary woman at its heart. Maria Mendeleeva – mother of Dmitri Mendeleev, who devised the Periodic Table of the Elements – is a heroine like no other. A woman who refuses to be quashed by circumstance, Maria fights against the strictures of her time to gain an education for herself and for her children as she traverses the Urals of Russia seeking opportunity and safety for her family. A vivid and visceral portrait of a woman history has long since forgotten, The Maternal Element is a manifesto for truth, female empowerment and defying societal expectations.
400 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 15, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 24, 2026
Wow.
As soon as I read the blurb for this book, I knew I had to read it. I have been obsessed with Russian history and Russian culture for decades, since studying it in my History lessons, and being lucky enough to visit Moscow and St. Petersburg on a school trip. I have longed to read more historical fiction set there, and this book transported me there immediately. The culture of the country oozed from the pages, and it brought back my fascination straight away.
The characters are where the book really shines though. I love books that teach me about lesser known people from history, and this is the perfect example. A woman called Maria, who had seventeen pregnancies, one of them being the future deviser of the Periodic Table. This is a truly wonderful novel.
As soon as I read the blurb for this book, I knew I had to read it. I have been obsessed with Russian history and Russian culture for decades, since studying it in my History lessons, and being lucky enough to visit Moscow and St. Petersburg on a school trip. I have longed to read more historical fiction set there, and this book transported me there immediately. The culture of the country oozed from the pages, and it brought back my fascination straight away.
The characters are where the book really shines though. I love books that teach me about lesser known people from history, and this is the perfect example. A woman called Maria, who had seventeen pregnancies, one of them being the future deviser of the Periodic Table. This is a truly wonderful novel.
August 14, 2026
The Maternal Element, by Kate Nicholls, follows the waxing and waning fortunes of Maria Mendeleeva (née Kornilyeva) from 1899, when she’s an inquisitive six-year-old living with her middle-class family in Tobolsk, Siberia, to her death in reduced circumstances in St Petersburg in 1850.
Over the course of her life, Maria bears 17 children – nine of whom survive childbirth/infancy, with three of the survivors dying in their teens or twenties – spends some years managing the Kornilyev glass factory after her teacher husband Ivan loses his sight, and places a high value on education, while lamenting Russia’s lack of schooling provision for girls. Towards the end of her life, she goes all-out to secure a university place for her last child, Dmitri – who later gains recognition for devising the Periodic Table, among other scientific achievements.
I found The Maternal Element a really absorbing read! By giving close attention to this resouceful and determined nineteenth-century Russian woman and her family, the author renders the ordinary extraordinary, and creates a full cast of distinct characters I quickly grew attached to and wanted to keep following. In times of fortune, the Mendeleev household feels cosy and full of good cheer; in times of strife, I felt devastated for the characters, yet also warmed by the ways they cared for one another.
Nicholls portrays Maria as resolute, resilient, and a loving parent, without rendering her unrealistically perfect or universally admired. For example, there are periods when Maria is emotionally unavailable to her children due to grief, or practically unavailable because she needs to be on site at the factory (both understandable, though not ideal). Furthermore, Maria’s stridency does alienate some people, including her brother Vasily, and prevents her from recognising how deeply her son Vanechka suffers when he’s sent to an elite boarding school in Moscow (paid for by Vasily).
Despite their number, we get to know the personalities and interests of each of Maria’s nine surviving children, and I felt a real loss when, at disparate points, three of them died of causes that we can now vaccinate against and/or treat more effectively. I also built up detailed pictures of Maria’s likeable husband Ivan; the idiosyncratic “Nyanya” who helps bring Maria up after her mother dies in childbirth, and goes on to help Maria raise her first few children; and Peter Grigorievich, groundsman to the Kornilyevs and (later) the Mendeleevs. Additionally, there are lots of supporting characters who make lasting impressions through short but memorable descriptions.
With my “historian of childhood and the family” hat on, it was really interesting to see the various family dynamics that arose from birth order, gender ratios, age gaps, and employment/financial circumstances at different times. I found the playful bond between Mashenka, Ekaterina, and Olga – Maria’s first three children to survive childbirth/infancy – especially endearing, easily grouped together as they are by age and gender.
Similar groupings emerge among the later arrivals, and while a couple of the siblings seem somewhat set apart from the others by their experiences (Vanechka’s boarding school ordeal) or peculiarities (Appolinaria’s asceticism), nobody is overlooked, excluded, or unloved. When the family lives in Tobolsk, the tumbledown apple store at the back of the house proves a useful place for some or all of the children to confer, away from the watchful eyes of their caregivers.
That’s not to say all of Maria’s children had fundamentally similar childhoods, though. The older siblings have memories of houses and people the younger ones don’t (Nyanya and a beloved sister who died in her teens being prime examples), and everyone’s early experiences of their parents vary depending on how stressed Maria and/or Ivan were at particular times by bereavement, ill health, financial circumstances, moving house, and the political climate as determined by the Czar (this sometimes having a bearing on Ivan’s job as a teacher, and the need to relocate).
Furthermore, some of the children grow up living with more of their siblings, and for a longer time, than others, as the older ones leave home to get married or learn a trade. By the time the widowed Maria settles in St Petersburg, only Elizaveta and Dmitri (by then in their mid-teens and mid-twenties respectively, and born either side of Vanechka, Detochka, and Pavel) are still living with her, in rented rooms. This is where she succumbs to tuberculosis: a rather small-feeling death for a woman who at one time simultaneously helmed a successful glass factory and a lively young family.
The Maternal Element is an absorbing and moving historical novel that will stay with me.
I was given this book for free in return for an honest review.
Over the course of her life, Maria bears 17 children – nine of whom survive childbirth/infancy, with three of the survivors dying in their teens or twenties – spends some years managing the Kornilyev glass factory after her teacher husband Ivan loses his sight, and places a high value on education, while lamenting Russia’s lack of schooling provision for girls. Towards the end of her life, she goes all-out to secure a university place for her last child, Dmitri – who later gains recognition for devising the Periodic Table, among other scientific achievements.
I found The Maternal Element a really absorbing read! By giving close attention to this resouceful and determined nineteenth-century Russian woman and her family, the author renders the ordinary extraordinary, and creates a full cast of distinct characters I quickly grew attached to and wanted to keep following. In times of fortune, the Mendeleev household feels cosy and full of good cheer; in times of strife, I felt devastated for the characters, yet also warmed by the ways they cared for one another.
Nicholls portrays Maria as resolute, resilient, and a loving parent, without rendering her unrealistically perfect or universally admired. For example, there are periods when Maria is emotionally unavailable to her children due to grief, or practically unavailable because she needs to be on site at the factory (both understandable, though not ideal). Furthermore, Maria’s stridency does alienate some people, including her brother Vasily, and prevents her from recognising how deeply her son Vanechka suffers when he’s sent to an elite boarding school in Moscow (paid for by Vasily).
Despite their number, we get to know the personalities and interests of each of Maria’s nine surviving children, and I felt a real loss when, at disparate points, three of them died of causes that we can now vaccinate against and/or treat more effectively. I also built up detailed pictures of Maria’s likeable husband Ivan; the idiosyncratic “Nyanya” who helps bring Maria up after her mother dies in childbirth, and goes on to help Maria raise her first few children; and Peter Grigorievich, groundsman to the Kornilyevs and (later) the Mendeleevs. Additionally, there are lots of supporting characters who make lasting impressions through short but memorable descriptions.
With my “historian of childhood and the family” hat on, it was really interesting to see the various family dynamics that arose from birth order, gender ratios, age gaps, and employment/financial circumstances at different times. I found the playful bond between Mashenka, Ekaterina, and Olga – Maria’s first three children to survive childbirth/infancy – especially endearing, easily grouped together as they are by age and gender.
Similar groupings emerge among the later arrivals, and while a couple of the siblings seem somewhat set apart from the others by their experiences (Vanechka’s boarding school ordeal) or peculiarities (Appolinaria’s asceticism), nobody is overlooked, excluded, or unloved. When the family lives in Tobolsk, the tumbledown apple store at the back of the house proves a useful place for some or all of the children to confer, away from the watchful eyes of their caregivers.
That’s not to say all of Maria’s children had fundamentally similar childhoods, though. The older siblings have memories of houses and people the younger ones don’t (Nyanya and a beloved sister who died in her teens being prime examples), and everyone’s early experiences of their parents vary depending on how stressed Maria and/or Ivan were at particular times by bereavement, ill health, financial circumstances, moving house, and the political climate as determined by the Czar (this sometimes having a bearing on Ivan’s job as a teacher, and the need to relocate).
Furthermore, some of the children grow up living with more of their siblings, and for a longer time, than others, as the older ones leave home to get married or learn a trade. By the time the widowed Maria settles in St Petersburg, only Elizaveta and Dmitri (by then in their mid-teens and mid-twenties respectively, and born either side of Vanechka, Detochka, and Pavel) are still living with her, in rented rooms. This is where she succumbs to tuberculosis: a rather small-feeling death for a woman who at one time simultaneously helmed a successful glass factory and a lively young family.
The Maternal Element is an absorbing and moving historical novel that will stay with me.
I was given this book for free in return for an honest review.
August 16, 2026
Time taken to read - in and out as able, 5 days
Pages - 400
Publisher - SALT
Source - Review copy
Blurb from Goodreads
Siberia 1833.
Forty-one-year-old Maria Mendeleeva is enduring her seventeenth pregnancy. Her husband Ivan has lost his sight, and her brother Vasily has left their grandfather’s glass factory in ruins. The factory Maria hungered for as a child. On the brink of poverty and her family’s only remaining hope, Maria must find a way to make the factory viable. She must find the power to bring her grandfather's dreams back to life. She must make the glass sing.
The Maternal Element is a sweeping, gripping epic with an extraordinary woman at its heart. Maria Mendeleeva – mother of Dmitri Mendeleev, who devised the Periodic Table of the Elements – is a heroine like no other. A woman who refuses to be quashed by circumstance, Maria fights against the strictures of her time to gain an education for herself and for her children as she traverses the Urals of Russia seeking opportunity and safety for her family. A vivid and visceral portrait of a woman history has long since forgotten, The Maternal Element is a manifesto for truth, female empowerment and defying societal expectations.
My Review
So I don't know much at all of Dmitri Mendeleeve but know absolutely zero about his family, up bring and indeed his mother. I do enjoy reading people's history especially going back to the 1800's because it is such a different time. This one takes us back to when Maria is just a bairn, what life is like for her desperately wanting everything offered so freely to her brother. Girls are meant to prepare for being married and keeping a home. Maria is like a wee sponge, so inquisitive, wanting to know and learn everything, science in particular, how things work, following her dad about. Her brother is a bit bitter, he hates being forced to go to school and learn. We follow Maria across country, Russia, fighting for her families survival, education, having a voice and actually being listened to in a time where women just weren't, especially back then!
Across a lifetime, navigate grief, love, loss, hardship, survival against so many odds ooft. This is a fictionalised retelling of a true story through letters, vivid imagery and some really emotive, challenging and heart tugging interactions and scenes. The family dynamics, how they love, dislike, push against each other and change and react to the curveballs life throws at them. How love, determination and the force and dedication of one woman who will stop at nothing and for no one to ensure the absolute best for her loved ones. She seemed like an absolute force of nature! In books sometimes when you have timelines that jump about and go back and forth it can be distracting and off putting, add into that letters, however it flows and works effortlessly, 4/5. I really liked this and think I need to look more into this family and their history, this book has definitely peeked my interest and I may well actually learn something!
Pages - 400
Publisher - SALT
Source - Review copy
Blurb from Goodreads
Siberia 1833.
Forty-one-year-old Maria Mendeleeva is enduring her seventeenth pregnancy. Her husband Ivan has lost his sight, and her brother Vasily has left their grandfather’s glass factory in ruins. The factory Maria hungered for as a child. On the brink of poverty and her family’s only remaining hope, Maria must find a way to make the factory viable. She must find the power to bring her grandfather's dreams back to life. She must make the glass sing.
The Maternal Element is a sweeping, gripping epic with an extraordinary woman at its heart. Maria Mendeleeva – mother of Dmitri Mendeleev, who devised the Periodic Table of the Elements – is a heroine like no other. A woman who refuses to be quashed by circumstance, Maria fights against the strictures of her time to gain an education for herself and for her children as she traverses the Urals of Russia seeking opportunity and safety for her family. A vivid and visceral portrait of a woman history has long since forgotten, The Maternal Element is a manifesto for truth, female empowerment and defying societal expectations.
My Review
So I don't know much at all of Dmitri Mendeleeve but know absolutely zero about his family, up bring and indeed his mother. I do enjoy reading people's history especially going back to the 1800's because it is such a different time. This one takes us back to when Maria is just a bairn, what life is like for her desperately wanting everything offered so freely to her brother. Girls are meant to prepare for being married and keeping a home. Maria is like a wee sponge, so inquisitive, wanting to know and learn everything, science in particular, how things work, following her dad about. Her brother is a bit bitter, he hates being forced to go to school and learn. We follow Maria across country, Russia, fighting for her families survival, education, having a voice and actually being listened to in a time where women just weren't, especially back then!
Across a lifetime, navigate grief, love, loss, hardship, survival against so many odds ooft. This is a fictionalised retelling of a true story through letters, vivid imagery and some really emotive, challenging and heart tugging interactions and scenes. The family dynamics, how they love, dislike, push against each other and change and react to the curveballs life throws at them. How love, determination and the force and dedication of one woman who will stop at nothing and for no one to ensure the absolute best for her loved ones. She seemed like an absolute force of nature! In books sometimes when you have timelines that jump about and go back and forth it can be distracting and off putting, add into that letters, however it flows and works effortlessly, 4/5. I really liked this and think I need to look more into this family and their history, this book has definitely peeked my interest and I may well actually learn something!
August 24, 2026
I've been really enjoying historical fiction recently and The Maternal Element is another wonderful read that has taught me so much. There are some historical figures whose names are everywhere, yet the names of the people who supported them are unknown. In The Maternal Element, Kate Nicholls turns her attention to Maria Mendeleeva, mother of Dmitri Mendeleev, who devised the Periodic Table of the Elements and gives this remarkable woman the recognition that she really deserves.
This is a fabulous, immersive novel. Maria is a woman living in a society that has very definite ideas about what women should and should not do. She is a wife and mother, she has had seventeen pregnancies. She is also extremely intelligent, curious and determined. When circumstances threaten her family, Maria refuses to simply accept what fate appears to have decided for her.
The author brings Maria to life so vividly. She is formidable, certainly, but she is never presented as some impossibly perfect heroine. There are frustrations, difficult decisions and moments when the demands placed upon her feel almost overwhelming. Her complexity makes her so compelling. Her determination to secure education and opportunity, both for herself and for her children, is particularly powerful.
The setting is really so impressive. The cold, the distances, the isolation and the sheer physical effort required to keep a family and a business going are wonderfully described. I was especially fascinated by the glass factory and the descriptions of the craft itself. There is something almost magical about the transformation of raw materials into something beautiful.
This is a substantial, sweeping historical novel, but at its heart is a very intimate story about motherhood, ambition, sacrifice and the hunger for knowledge.
I knew Dmitri Mendeleev's name before opening this book. I didn't know Maria's. Thanks to Kate Nicholls, she is not a woman I will easily forget.
This is a fabulous, immersive novel. Maria is a woman living in a society that has very definite ideas about what women should and should not do. She is a wife and mother, she has had seventeen pregnancies. She is also extremely intelligent, curious and determined. When circumstances threaten her family, Maria refuses to simply accept what fate appears to have decided for her.
The author brings Maria to life so vividly. She is formidable, certainly, but she is never presented as some impossibly perfect heroine. There are frustrations, difficult decisions and moments when the demands placed upon her feel almost overwhelming. Her complexity makes her so compelling. Her determination to secure education and opportunity, both for herself and for her children, is particularly powerful.
The setting is really so impressive. The cold, the distances, the isolation and the sheer physical effort required to keep a family and a business going are wonderfully described. I was especially fascinated by the glass factory and the descriptions of the craft itself. There is something almost magical about the transformation of raw materials into something beautiful.
This is a substantial, sweeping historical novel, but at its heart is a very intimate story about motherhood, ambition, sacrifice and the hunger for knowledge.
I knew Dmitri Mendeleev's name before opening this book. I didn't know Maria's. Thanks to Kate Nicholls, she is not a woman I will easily forget.
August 13, 2026
This is a fascinating historical novel. I really enjoyed it. Set in Siberia between 1799 and 1850 and centred around Maria Mendeleeva the mother of Dimitri who devised the periodic table. This is a true story that has been fictionalised, based on family recollections and Maria‘s letters written between 1837 and 1850. The book opens with a prologue in 1868 at the country residence of Dimitri Mendeleev where he is hosting some of his family. Then the book goes back to meet 6 year old Maria Kornilyeva.
Briefly, Maria was always an inquisitive child and was well educated for a girl at this time. However, at the age of 16 she married and over the next 25 years had 17 pregnancies, one of whom, her last born, was Dimitri. Her husband Ivan was a teacher but when he lost his sight Maria decided that she would take over her grandfather’s glass factory which had been brought to the ground by one of her brothers.
What an amazing woman. In any era she was amazing, but particularly in the 1800’s in Russia. Without her strength and resilience the family would not have survived as they did after her husband’s death. Her belief in Dimitri led her across Russia to find him a place at university although it’s sad she didn’t live to see his triumphs. I couldn’t put this book down, I do like a good retelling and this is a good one. Up there with my favourite historical fiction books this year.
Briefly, Maria was always an inquisitive child and was well educated for a girl at this time. However, at the age of 16 she married and over the next 25 years had 17 pregnancies, one of whom, her last born, was Dimitri. Her husband Ivan was a teacher but when he lost his sight Maria decided that she would take over her grandfather’s glass factory which had been brought to the ground by one of her brothers.
What an amazing woman. In any era she was amazing, but particularly in the 1800’s in Russia. Without her strength and resilience the family would not have survived as they did after her husband’s death. Her belief in Dimitri led her across Russia to find him a place at university although it’s sad she didn’t live to see his triumphs. I couldn’t put this book down, I do like a good retelling and this is a good one. Up there with my favourite historical fiction books this year.
August 24, 2026
This is such a book of strength, determination and the sheer will to do and become what you want in life. With such a hard delt life, not just in her body having to go through the joy but upheaval and pain of that number of pregnancies, but also in having to find a new ay to become part of the life she always wanted.
I loved getting to know such a strong woman, especially knowing that her determination led to a son to discovered everything that became the chemistry we know today. It seems that she clearly taught him well and showed through the work and pure pain and want that she worked through that you can achieve.
It was interesting to see just how much she had to go through and work through to get by in life. I found it his book enlightening and really exciting to read. I hope to read more from this author.
I loved getting to know such a strong woman, especially knowing that her determination led to a son to discovered everything that became the chemistry we know today. It seems that she clearly taught him well and showed through the work and pure pain and want that she worked through that you can achieve.
It was interesting to see just how much she had to go through and work through to get by in life. I found it his book enlightening and really exciting to read. I hope to read more from this author.
July 5, 2026
I couldn’t recommend this book more! Beautifully written, it tells the story of a remarkable woman muddling through the highs and lows of life while raising, strong, compassionate children, surrounded by good, loving men. It’ll break your heart but in the best way possible!
July 8, 2026
Such a beautiful powerful book, you learn to love each character. Maria Mendeleeva is a hero. The writing transports you! You feel as if you are living with the Mendeleev’s.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews