Book Review
Apr. 22nd, 2019 10:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariThe Dress Lodger
by Sheri Holman
The Dress Lodger is set in Sunderland in 1831, ground zero for England's first cholera outbreak. The story revolves around Gustine, a 15 year old potter's assistant, prostitute, and mother of a fragile son born with a rare deformity; and Henry Chiver, an aspiring young surgeon desperate to continue his study and teaching of anatomy. In the hope that Chiver can eventually help her child, Gustine helps him find recently dead bodies to dissect. As the quarantine wears on and cholera preys on the town, it is the poor that suffer most acutely, causing tensions to run high. This tide of anger and desperation sweep both Gustine and Henry along into tragedy.
Holman unflinchingly brings to life the lives and struggles of the 19th century poor, as well as the less savoury aspects of the medical science of the time. It's a very different view of the early 19th century than most contemporaneous or modern novels provide - I would almost call it refreshing if that wouldn't be an excess of irony. The characters, even the minor ones, are all very vivid and engaging, even if very few of them are likable. I did find Gustine the most sympathetic. She does some terribly unethical things, but I admired her dedication to providing the best life she could for herself and her baby, and her pride in herself as someone who worked to support herself and her son. I grew to greatly dislike Henry Chiver, though. He was increasingly arrogant, entitled, and self-serving. I did like the underlying theme of sympathy for the poor who work so hard for so little and deserve so much better.
by Sheri Holman
The Dress Lodger is set in Sunderland in 1831, ground zero for England's first cholera outbreak. The story revolves around Gustine, a 15 year old potter's assistant, prostitute, and mother of a fragile son born with a rare deformity; and Henry Chiver, an aspiring young surgeon desperate to continue his study and teaching of anatomy. In the hope that Chiver can eventually help her child, Gustine helps him find recently dead bodies to dissect. As the quarantine wears on and cholera preys on the town, it is the poor that suffer most acutely, causing tensions to run high. This tide of anger and desperation sweep both Gustine and Henry along into tragedy.
Holman unflinchingly brings to life the lives and struggles of the 19th century poor, as well as the less savoury aspects of the medical science of the time. It's a very different view of the early 19th century than most contemporaneous or modern novels provide - I would almost call it refreshing if that wouldn't be an excess of irony. The characters, even the minor ones, are all very vivid and engaging, even if very few of them are likable. I did find Gustine the most sympathetic. She does some terribly unethical things, but I admired her dedication to providing the best life she could for herself and her baby, and her pride in herself as someone who worked to support herself and her son. I grew to greatly dislike Henry Chiver, though. He was increasingly arrogant, entitled, and self-serving. I did like the underlying theme of sympathy for the poor who work so hard for so little and deserve so much better.
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Date: 2019-04-23 06:49 pm (UTC)I read this novel the year it came out! I picked it up cold in a bookstore. I still love its collective narrative voice. I also liked Holman's first novel A Stolen Tongue (1997), which I no longer own; I gave my copy to a theologian who I thought would appreciate it properly.