false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1256070322m/15807.jpg 15807 11 <I>The Dress Lodger</I> is engrossing historical fiction. As in the best of its genre, Sheri Holman's atmospheric, miasmic tale set in cholera-stricken Sunderland, England, circa 1831 is based on fact. Its epigraph from Ambrose Bierce's <I>Devil's Dictionary</I>--"Grave: A place where the dead are laid to await the coming of the medical student"--casts the novel's thematic lodestone, steering the reader into a deathly plot pursued through streets emanating the sounds, insufferable smells, humor, adversities, and disease of an early-19th-century industrial city. <p> Fifteen-year-old Gustine--the dress lodger--is a potter's assistant by day, prostitute by night. Her overbearing pimp and landlord has her permanently shadowed by an indefatigable, mysterious old woman "called Eyeball or Evil Eye or Gray Sister by boys who have read their Homer, but mostly called just plain Eye." Otherwise how could he guard his investment in the startling blue dress in which Gustine rents herself? Her trade, he explains, "works on this basic principle: a cheap whore is given a fancy dress as a higher class of prostitute, the higher the station of the clientèlle; the higher the station, the higher the price." Gustine's garment beckons Henry Chiver, an ambitious young surgeon who has fled Edinburgh, having been implicated in the convictions of infamous pioneer anatomists Burke and Hare for murder and grave robbing. For this doctor, desperate to reestablish his tarnished reputation through medical discovery, the heart is the favorite organ, "the singular fascination of his life." But to further his researches, and quell the increasing demands of his paying students--who are restless for induction into the arts of the scalpel--Henry requires dead bodies for dissection, to the horror of his naïve, philanthropic fiancée. But the Anatomy Act, which allows doctors to obtain corpses legally, has yet to pass through Parliament, and a suspicious public is terrifying itself with stories of murderous "burkers." <p> Street-smart Gustine, a pragmatist trapped in unrelenting poverty, is all heart for her nameless little son who wears--literally--his heart on the outside. His rare case of <I>ectopia cordis</I> is just the sort of anatomical anomaly whose study would make a name for the doctor. Amid the gathering momentum of the cholera epidemic, Henry and Gustine strike up a fatal pact: life for her son in exchange for a fresh supply of dead bodies for Henry's dissection. With mordant Dickensian wit and Elizabeth Gaskell's deft touch for gutsy outcast women seizing control of their destiny, Sheri Holman carves out a rich, imaginative adventure as incisive and as gruesomely fascinating as a 19th-century operating theater. <I>--Rachel Holmes</I> 17627 book 2000 The Dress Lodger total:1130|5:184|4:422|3:366|2:113|1:45| 1130 3977 1512 187 3 2 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 01 06:46:11 -0700 2007 Sun Oct 21 06:41:37 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Jul 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 18 10:34:38 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 08 20:29:51 -0700 2009
I finished this book today. I loved it. It does remind me of Dickens and his dark view of society. The cholera epidemic makes for a bit of a downer! I wish I could study this book with a class. ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Nov 20 15:53:53 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 20 16:15:47 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Wed Nov 04 11:31:04 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 11 07:40:39 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Oct 07 22:35:18 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 13 14:00:49 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Feb 06 11:45:13 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 06 11:48:20 -0800 2009
Then there's Gustine covered in pottery clay head to foot a...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jun 14 19:09:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 14 19:23:40 -0700 2009 2 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Dec 09 04:59:31 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 09 05:06:58 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Sat Sep 19 20:22:14 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 19 20:28:53 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Apr 24 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Thu May 14 21:28:46 -0700 2009 Thu May 14 21:29:14 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Thu May 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun May 10 12:33:02 -0700 2009 Mon May 18 09:12:27 -0700 2009 1 I’ve had a hard time deciding how to approach a journal entry for this book. It was disturbing and beautiful both. While reading it I kept thinking, ‘Dr. Henry Chivers is a horse’s ass’ but really he wasn’t. He was possibly mentally unbalanced and he was casually cruel in the way...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Aug 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 13 17:03:29 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 27 18:01:43 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Nov 10 16:47:49 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 10 16:52:18 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Aug 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Dec 07 23:35:32 -0800 2008 Fri Aug 28 07:54:56 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Nov 10 19:19:28 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 10 20:03:17 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Aug 27 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 28 06:16:45 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 28 06:16:45 -0700 2008
The narrative method i...more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 18 08:04:01 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 18 08:33:49 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Jul 05 05:10:49 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 05 05:12:29 -0700 2008
Gustine has an unusual edge in her trade, her pimp and...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed May 28 19:52:25 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 03 14:20:13 -0700 2008
In this well drawn historical novel, we find a young lady with raw courage, resolve and cunning amid filthy, horrible, dire conditions.
A mere 14 year girl when she first takes to the street life of prostitution to survive, her ch...more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Fri Dec 21 07:25:53 -0800 2007 Fri Dec 21 07:27:26 -0800 2007
The titular character, Gustine, is a girl who walks the street...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=15807