The Dress Lodger

Jul 27, 2012 Bev Hankins rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, fiction

Once upon a time, (I don't remember what prompted me to do so...a review I read somewhere, a synopsis of the book, perhaps both of these or neither) I put The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman on my TBR wish list. And there it sat until I came across a nice, gently used copy at my local library's used book shop. I promptly brought it home and put it on the physical TBR pile(s) gracing my back bedroom. Then, this week I found myself at loose ends. I've finished all my formal book challenges for 2010....more Once upon a time, (I don't remember what prompted me to do so...a review I read somewhere, a synopsis of the book, perhaps both of these or neither) I put The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman on my TBR wish list. And there it sat until I came across a nice, gently used copy at my local library's used book shop. I promptly brought it home and put it on the physical TBR pile(s) gracing my back bedroom. Then, this week I found myself at loose ends. I've finished all my formal book challenges for 2010. It's not yet time to begin those that I've signed up for in 2011 and I wanted a little break from Georgette Heyer. So, I picked up Holman's book in anticipation of finally reading what I expected to be a fine book.

Oh. My. This book has what I can only describe as one of the most god-awful opening two chapters I have ever read. And the weird, omniscient, yet second person point of view is incredibly irritating. Stilted writing. Bore you to tears historical detail about beating clay for pottery for heaven's sake (among every other detail about the early 1800s that you never wanted to know). This book has all the right elements for an extremely fascinating historical read used in every way to their worst advantage.

Set in Sunderland, England during the cholera epidemic of 1831, it follows the stories of a beautiful 15 year old girl who works at the pottery yards by day and as a dress lodger by night (read prostitute in a fancy dress) and a doctor who wants to find a way to provide bodies for research and knowlege to better combat the diseases that face the people of this tragic time. She is trying desperately to support her frail young son....a son who could benefit from the doctor's help. The two lives become entwined....but the suspicion that follows those who dare to be doctors make life difficult.

As I said...if you read the synopsis, this book has all the elements for a terrific historical story. Except the one thing every piece of fiction needs...engaging story-telling. At no point did I ever really care about Gustine and her baby. I didn't really care if Dr. Henry Chiver was able to help her or anyone else. The reader was meant to feel the heartbreak and become invested in the tragedy of these lives. I found myself wishing I had invested my time elsewhere.

I have always said that I am perfectly willing to praise a book to the skies or reveal how badly it stinks. I have no problem giving a poor review. This one rates half a star...and I'm not sure that this isn't being generous. There are only 16 days left in this year....I will be hard pressed to find another book which will be a greater disappointment to me. At this point, The Dress Lodger has the dubious honor of being the worst read of 2010.

This review was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.(less)

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Oct 21, 2007 Katie rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: doctors and medical students

I read the first half of this book in a tremendous rush, totally engrossed by the story and both horrified and fascinated by Holman's depiction of the cholera epidemic of 1831. I'm not sure exactly what happened in the second half of the book, but somehow the spell was broken. Holman (inconsistently) employs a fair amount of narrative trickery that didn't seem to add much to the book, and the lack of subtlety became frustrating after a while. I've recently read several books set in the drawing r...more

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Jul 08, 2009 Anika Ferguson rated it 5 of 5 stars

So far I love the unique voice this book is told in. VERY original narration! What fun!

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. I know there are a ton of metaphors and great comparisons within the story that would be fun to delve deeper into with a group. If it weren't for the prostitution story line I would think it would be great for classroo...more

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Feb 23, 2013 Isabella rated it 4 of 5 stars

I would probably also put this at 3.5 stars, but when forced to choose, I bumped it up instead of down. It was a really interesting book, if confusing in certain parts.
The Good: Gustine was a kick-ass heroine. She could have had a depressing, pitiable, weak position, but she didn't. She was a prostitute. She worked two jobs. She was dirt poor. Her baby was on the edge of death. And yet...and yet, she feels no shame, she needs no pity or charity, she unsqueamishly views death and pain and deals w...more I would probably also put this at 3.5 stars, but when forced to choose, I bumped it up instead of down. It was a really interesting book, if confusing in certain parts.
The Good: Gustine was a kick-ass heroine. She could have had a depressing, pitiable, weak position, but she didn't. She was a prostitute. She worked two jobs. She was dirt poor. Her baby was on the edge of death. And yet...and yet, she feels no shame, she needs no pity or charity, she unsqueamishly views death and pain and deals with them. She is pretty darn awesome. Her weakness comes not from loving a man (annoying, at best) but from viewing a man as a miracle worker who could save her son (more interesting). She never falls desperately in love. She can be all-business or a sweetheart mother or an adolescent, but she is always strong.
And that's my favorite thing to see. Other good: For the most part the writing was beautiful, sometimes ironic or funny, and enjoyable to read, and I loved Pink and Mike (I didn't like him as a person, but rather as a character). I liked seeing all the different perspectives--and I sympathized with Audrey and Pink and Gustine and even Henry. I was able to feel sympathy for almost all the characters, which was cool, even when I didn't always like all the characters. I liked how the central conflict wasn't a simple good-guy-versus-bad-guy scenario. I also think there's something a little beautiful about a book that inevitably ends in tragedy, as this one does.
The Less Good: *includes some spoilers* Sometimes the narrative became confusing or off-putting, especially when the spoke in second person and almost seemed to be switching between past and present tense. Also, I was a little disgusted by some of the dissection, but I guess that was kind of the point. The ending, while not necessarily rushed, had a different feel than the rest of the book, which I wasn't sure I liked as much. It was very distant from the characters. Yes, there were many details about the time that could be exhaustive to other readers, but I wasn't bothered by it. The cholera was described in a way that made it seem a little unrealistic (not being an expert on the subject, I can't judge, and it probably was described well, but it just felt a little fantastical). The only other thing I wasn't fond of was the "revelation" of who the narrator was. It just wasn't as cool as I think the author expected it to be.

Anyway, I liked the book overall. I stayed up pretty late finishing it, and was able to lose myself in it, despite the sometimes-awkward narration. I don't read that much historical fiction, but I would recommend it to people who are interested in history. (less)

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May 27, 2012 Philippa rated it 1 of 5 stars

Might have been OK with a better editor. The writing style is pretty pretentious, but the bigger issue is the weird continuity problems - there are a whole lot of scenes where the author seemed to forget whom exactly the narrator was supposed to be addressing, who the narrator *was*, or what the characters were doing from one sentence to the next (e.g., a woman barrelling into a group of men hard enough to scatter them, though she's also supposed to be holding an extremely delicate, sickly infan...more

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Feb 09, 2012 Karo rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historicalfiction, british

I've recently embarked on a historical novel kick -- a satisfying read with the added bonus of learning a little chunk of history, what could be better? I came across Sheri Holman's novel on the "paperback favorites" table when I was browsing in a local bookstore. It looked intriguing, so I thought that I'd give it a try. The book is about a 19th century cholera epidemic in an English town, and features Gustine, a poor girl with a very ill child who works as a potter's assistant by day and a pro...more

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Feb 15, 2011 Holly rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Body Trade

Reviewed by Frederick Zackel

I love Gustine. She is already one of my favorite characters in popular fiction. An underfed, 15-year-old illiterate street urchin and the mother of a 4-month-old infant, Gustine has spent her last two years in Sunderland, England, as a "dress lodger" -- a prostitute who rents a beautiful dress to attract a better class of clientele. I love her because she is all heart.

The narrator of Sheri Holman's new historical thriller, The Dress Lodger, describes th...more

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Feb 26, 2010 David Abrams rated it 4 of 5 stars

Turn the pages of The Dress Lodger and you’re turning the dial on a time machine. Destination: England, 1831.

Sheri Holman’s novel is one of those rare pieces of historical fiction which thrust you so completely into another time, another place, that the modern world—with all its bright, sparkly conveniences—melts away. Welcome to the Industrial Revolution, dear reader. You’ll feel the mud, you’ll smell the rotting wharf life, you’ll taste the bitter cholera on your tongue. You’ll also want to sh...more Turn the pages of The Dress Lodger and you’re turning the dial on a time machine. Destination: England, 1831.

Sheri Holman’s novel is one of those rare pieces of historical fiction which thrust you so completely into another time, another place, that the modern world—with all its bright, sparkly conveniences—melts away. Welcome to the Industrial Revolution, dear reader. You’ll feel the mud, you’ll smell the rotting wharf life, you’ll taste the bitter cholera on your tongue. You’ll also want to shower afterwards.

The Dress Lodger is part thriller, part character study, part social treatise. But it’s all good.

Written in the florid style of Charles Dickens, but with the darkly ick-factor of a modern-day Stephen King, the book follows several characters through the port town of Sunderland during a horrific cholera epidemic in the fall of 1831. Gustine is a potter’s assistant by day, a 15-year-old prostitute by night. As she walks the streets of Sunderland looking for a “quick poke” from any man with coins in his pocket, she’s trailed by an ugly old hag known only as the Eye. The one-eyed crone is paid by Gustine’s pimp to “keep an eye” on her while she plies her private wares. Gustine is one of those prostitutes who’s known as a “dress lodger”—each night, she wears a blue gown to attract men. Her pimp hires the Eye spy to make sure the valuable dress isn’t stolen. Here’s how Holman describes the arrangement:

Dress lodging works on this basic principle: a cheap whore is given a fancy dress to pass as a higher class of prostitute. The higher the class of prostitute, the higher the station, the higher the price. In return, the girl is given a roof over her head and a few hours of make-believe. Everyone is happy.

Except everyone in Sunderland is miserable. The town has been quarantined, strangling the city’s economy. Ships must remain off-shore while their cargo rots in the holds below. Meanwhile, most of the residents believe the cholera epidemic is a government conspiracy created to scare the poor classes. Most people don’t even believe there’s such a thing as the deadly disease. To the working class citizens, doctors are the real villains in early 19th-century England—after all, they’re the ones who go around robbing graves and dissecting corpses, all in the name of science.

This brings us to our next character: Dr. Henry Chiver, a zealous young surgeon who’s recently fled Edinburgh where he was involved in a famous case of two anatomists—Burke and Hare—who were convicted of murder and grave robbing. Holman paints Henry in some pretty unflattering light—he’s selfish, self-righteous and chillingly devoted to the pursuit of science…even at the expense of human life.

Henry and Gustine collide early in the course of the novel as each discovers the other has something they want. For Henry, it’s a chance for more bodies as Gustine leads him to corpses she discovers during her street peddling. For Gustine, the possibly deranged doctor represents her last best hope for her infant, a little boy who was born with his heart on the outside of his body (yes, literally…you have to read it to believe it).

The novel is filled with bodysnatching, crude dissections and scenes of primitive medical horror that Hannibal Lecter would probably read like pornography. The weak-stomached are warned that some pages are rather hard to…well, stomach. But, thanks to Holman’s incredible eye for detail, the language is always vivid and rich. Here, for instance, is one particularly memorable grave-robbing scene:

Henry drops the body sharply against the coffin and scrambles back to the surface. This isn’t happening. Calm down. Calm down, he tells himself. Men far less competent and careful than you have dug up bodies and not been driven mad by it. Reach in, feel under her armpits. Pull. Yes, this is not the smell of rye, but merely a ripening body not yet preserved in salt. This heaviness I understand; it is not a frantic pulling back to the grave but the purely scientific phenomenon of blood pooling in the extremities. He lies flat on his belly and tugs the young woman free of the earth.

Holman’s way with words is so good that it overshadows some of the book’s problems—namely, the unlikable Henry who takes center stage in the narrative like a raving Dr. Frankenstein, and the pitiable Gustine who blindly and resolutely walks toward tragedy even as we’re clenching our fingers where they grip the book and calling out, “No, no, no!” The Dress Lodger ends in a heap of grim, cluttered tragedy which almost literally hurts to read. But I can see Holman’s point: this wasn’t the best of times, it was the worst of times.
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Nov 20, 2009 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars

A poised, accomplished, and frequently touching historical novel about a poor part-time prostitute and potters' drudge who crosses paths with a high-minded body-snatching doctor while she's trying to eke out a precarious living in the north of England during a cholera epidemic. Full of quasi-Dickensian lowlifes with strange physical deformities, and practically reeking with atmosphere. The author, who has read widely in Victorian literature, both fiction and nonfiction, has an authoritative gras...more

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May 12, 2012 Nenia Campbell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: x-1990s

"The greater good? ...Good and Evil are opposite points on a circle. ...Greater good is just halfway back to bad" (266).

fear and panic reign in nineteenth century England as cholera runs its course through the city streets. in the midst of this mass hysteria are gustine, the prostitute, and dr. chiver, a physician. the two are linked by their respective desires: gustine wants love, and assurance that her weakened baby will grow up strong. dr. chiver wants bodies. dead bodies. and plenty of them....more

"The greater good? ...Good and Evil are opposite points on a circle. ...Greater good is just halfway back to bad" (266).

fear and panic reign in nineteenth century England as cholera runs its course through the city streets. in the midst of this mass hysteria are gustine, the prostitute, and dr. chiver, a physician. the two are linked by their respective desires: gustine wants love, and assurance that her weakened baby will grow up strong. dr. chiver wants bodies. dead bodies. and plenty of them.

sheri holman really captures how dark medical practices used to be, at a time where the cure could kill you just as easily as what you were trying to treat with it (using mercury as a drug for certain STDs, for example - eek!). before we had noninvasive means of studying the human body, and the oh-so-handy computer simulation, physicians had to dig up corpses for autopsy. sometimes this meant hiring thugs to kill people off the street and haul 'em in; other times, it meant grave robbery. if you are interested in this topic you might want to read stiff by mary roach, who goes into forensic history with enthusiasm that's rather terrifying.

at first, i wasn't really sure i'd like this book. ms. holman has an odd narrative style. some parts of the story are narrated in second person (i.e. 'you'), before switching over to he/she again. ordinarily, little attempts to be gimmicky like this really annoy me but she made it work, using it to showcase secondary characters that became more important later, and it lent a really interesting magic-realism aspect to the story that i really liked.

what i liked about this book:
interesting narrative, creepy setting, colorful history, medical science.

what i disliked about this book:
annoying characters, very dark, lots of people dying who i didn't want to die, a bit confusing at times.

overall, this was a very satisfactory read. it certainly makes me grateful for twenty-first century medicine! three stars prescribed with a jar of leeches (for those more unmentionable symptoms).(less)

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Mar 30, 2011 Suzi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Sheri Holman's The Dress Lodger tells a story of desperation, hope, and superstition. Gustine is a dress lodger -- a prostitute who rents an expensive dress from her landlord in order to claim a higher price. She is followed by The Eye, a one-eyed old woman, in order to prevent Gustine from running away with the dress. She also has an infant son with a rare heart defect in need of medical attention.

Henry Chiver is a doctor and anatomy professor in desperate need of donor cadavers for his studen...more

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Dec 25, 2012 Lindsay rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: wishlist

Absolutely brilliant. So utterly and absolutely brilliant. Historical fiction like this is so very, very hard to come by. One of the best modern books I've really enjoyed in a long time. I read this in two sittings, the first one of eight hours where I could not put it down. One of those books that I set down after finishing and had to catch my breath and let everything sink in. One of those books where all the threads tie together at the end and you just marvel at her narrative skill. Nothing i...more

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Mar 04, 2012 Peg rated it 3 of 5 stars

Set in Sunderland, England during the cholera epidemic of 1833, The Dress Lodger describes the brutal condition of the very poor against the seemingly more privileged life of a local doctor. In a time when medicine and doctors were generally mistrusted, those in the poor class are encouraged to believe that the epidemic has been set upon them by the upper class in an vile plan to eradicate them. The young girl, in a rented dress, sells herself at night to add to her meager income as a potter's a...more

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Nov 21, 2010 Celeste McLean-Cote rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I adored this book, but couldn't get beyond the first few pages until the second try, over a year later. It sat on my bookshelf until I had absolutely nothing else to read in my house, and in desperation I decided to go ahead and start it again until I could get to the library or bookstore. Two days later, I gave it a 5 star rating here. Not too bad for a book I thought I'd be hating...

The story is dark and gruesome, but the writing is so enveloping and pert that I didn't feel as if I was readin...more I adored this book, but couldn't get beyond the first few pages until the second try, over a year later. It sat on my bookshelf until I had absolutely nothing else to read in my house, and in desperation I decided to go ahead and start it again until I could get to the library or bookstore. Two days later, I gave it a 5 star rating here. Not too bad for a book I thought I'd be hating...

The story is dark and gruesome, but the writing is so enveloping and pert that I didn't feel as if I was reading some overwrought, swooning gothic novel. The story moves at a fast clip without sacrificing imagery or robust secondary characters; both can be found in great abundance. I really did feel immersed in the town of Sunderland, trapped by the quarantine and fearful of the cholera epidemic. The town's citizens effectively helped convey the everyday life of our primary characters, and some of the more outlandish actions taken by them had more impact and seemed more realistic when taken in context of their surroundings.

I did find the events at the end to move along a little too quickly, much like the end of Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth when I wanted to relish one antagonist's grisly comeuppance, but just as in that novel, it actually seemed like the point here. Being swept away by the momentum of the mob mentality, there was little time for reflection on the intensity of the action, which was a beautiful contrast to the very descriptive writing used to convey previous dissections of sneakily acquired cadavers. To me, however, the pace did seem a little too frantic. Rushed.

Gustine's son is an interesting plot device rather than a character, but I have to admit that I didn't think that his passing was conveyed with enough intensity. True, it triggers the whirlwind action of the rest of the story and maybe it was the writer's intention to have that moment spark the frantic energy that would take the reader almost to the very end of the book. But still. Same as the action mentioned above.

Speaking of the end, I found the resolution of this story very satisfying. Having learned much about the character of The Eye and her similarities to the young girl Pink, it was wonderful to leave the book feeling hopeful for Pink's future. I found her to be completely annoying throughout the novel and could not even feel sorry for the lack of attention that led to her, well, stupidity. But as I was happy to hear in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice that moving away from Longborn and staying close to the Elizabeth's influence at Pemberly helped mature and change Kitty, I was relieved to read that Pink may have had a chance, with Gustine's help and away from her own father's lodging house. And, in the end, I felt horribly sorry for The Eye, misunderstood, even by herself, until the very end.

If you've picked up this book and couldn't get into it immediately, I encourage you to at least give it a good try again. That is, if frank discussion of human dissection and grave robbing isn't reason enough for you to turn away. (less)

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Oct 04, 2010 Skyring rated it 4 of 5 stars

An interesting contrast to The Mammoth Cheese by Ms Holman. I also liked the interview conducted by Mr Liss at the end of the book, where Sheri talks about the background and the writing.

This is an odd book in almost every way. The characters are gruesome and diverse. Deformed, depraved, desperate. The setting is squalid. The plot is disturbing and confronting.

And the narrative style is ... different. The author makes some comments on this at the end, but for the first few pages at least it is a...more An interesting contrast to The Mammoth Cheese by Ms Holman. I also liked the interview conducted by Mr Liss at the end of the book, where Sheri talks about the background and the writing.

This is an odd book in almost every way. The characters are gruesome and diverse. Deformed, depraved, desperate. The setting is squalid. The plot is disturbing and confronting.

And the narrative style is ... different. The author makes some comments on this at the end, but for the first few pages at least it is a little unsettling. In keeping with the theme of the book.

However, it works, and the occasional "foregrounding" of the storyteller distracts the reader, in a book where distraction is sometimes welcome.

This is a book which engages the senses. All of them. Feel the mud of the river bank and the chill of the water. The smells alone almost require a lavender-scented kerchief held against the nose. And who cannot see the eerie glow in the gloom of the lodging-house as Pink snuffs the glim to show a visitor something.

The setting is Sunderland, England, early in the Victorian era. We walk in the filthy lanes, tread warily in the grander streets, and visit the varied workplaces, lodgings and entertainments of the poor. The poverty hits us hard. Who amongst we cossetted children of the modern age could survive in such conditions? It would be far more a struggle than the characters of this novel find it, and they find it very hard indeed.

The promises of engineering, medicine and science, not to mention reform politics, are faint in this time. All of these are in the hands of the powerful, and they are hardly keen to hand out riches and rewards. Not unless there is another promise. A promise of improved efficiency or profit. Cure the disease and the workers will remain hard at work. If they live longer, they work longer.

We look, thanks to the curious narrative style of this novel, directly into the thoughts of the major characters, and a fascinating view it is. They have their various obsessions and objectives, and there is plenty of room for conflict and confusion. Oh boy!

It all flows along, gathering pace nicely, though perhaps "nicely" is not a word to describe the plot or the setting or the characters. There's really only one character who is anywhere "nice", and well, you'll just have to read to find out what happens.

All told, it is a fascinating look into a neglected sliver of time and space. The curious narrative style extends the view through both in many directions, so we readers are in context throughout. Contexted, but not contented. This is not a book for a pleasant reading session!

But, having said that, if you get through the first chapter or so, you'll likely continue reading, out of morbid fascination at least!(less)

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Nov 11, 2009 Quiltgranny rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: stash

This is a dark story of a prostitute and doctors set during the time of the cholera epidemic in the mid 1800's. The epigraph from Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary:Grave: A place where the dead are laid to await the coming of the medical student"sets the theme for this time period of the adversities of an early 19th-century industrial city.

The 15 year old protagonist, Gustine, is a potter's assistant by day, and prostitute by night. An interesting vehicle to tell the story is a startling blue...more

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Apr 17, 2011 Terence rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, wishlist

A very strong 3.5+ stars, which I’m rounding up to 4 because I enjoyed it more than other recent books I’ve given 3 stars to (damnit GR, give us ½ stars or more of them to play with!).

The Dress Lodger takes place in 1831 in Sunderland, an industrializing seaport on the northeast coast of England, as cholera gains its first foothold in the kingdom. It’s a decidedly grim novel, uncompromising in showing the desperate and dehumanizing poverty of the city’s denizens, and the callow and callous indif...more

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Feb 04, 2012 Frank rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical

Although the writing style of Holman was a little disconcerting at first, you get used to it as the story progresses. The story was very captivating and disturbing about the life of a young prostitute during the Cholera epidemic of 1831. Gustine is a "dress lodger" -- a prostitute who rents a dress from her landlord and then sells herself on the street. Interwoven into the novel is the story of Dr. Henry Chivers, a doctor who specializes in anatomy and his quest for human cadavers to further his...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Lisa James rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, owned

This was a pretty intense book for what I originally thought was going to be a typical historical fiction romance type book. Set in the early 1800's in a poor section of England, it deals with the cholera epidemic, the struggles of the surgeons of the time to procure cadavers to work on & teach from to better understand the workings of the human body, & a strange form of prostitution called dress lodging, where a landlord "rents" a fancy dress for the girl he sends out to walk the street...more

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Mar 30, 2013 Joti rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I am so surprised that I turned out to really like this book - I was reading it for my gr. 11 english class so it started out a bit slow - the first 40 or so pages but then it really picked up the pace & got very interesting & i was hooked - Gustine, the protagonist, is a 15 year old prostitute with a son, and she whores herself in a blue dress & is followed around by this character called the Eye, who only has one eye & Gustine is followed around by her b/c her employer, Whilky,...more I am so surprised that I turned out to really like this book - I was reading it for my gr. 11 english class so it started out a bit slow - the first 40 or so pages but then it really picked up the pace & got very interesting & i was hooked - Gustine, the protagonist, is a 15 year old prostitute with a son, and she whores herself in a blue dress & is followed around by this character called the Eye, who only has one eye & Gustine is followed around by her b/c her employer, Whilky, doesn't want her running off with his dress. So Gustine works a day job too to keep her baby alive - And she meets Dr. Henry Chiver, who has a tarnished reputation b/c of the events that occurred in Edinburgh, Scotland - the murders of Burke & Hare, who killed people & sold their fresh bodies to Dr. Robert Knox, who Henry worked with. Now, he's engaged to Audrey Place & the town is infected with Cholera Morbus, this infectious disease that Henry & his UNcle, Dr. Clanny are trying to study - but Henry needs bodies to dissect so Gustine gives him a hand & gets him one. The story is very deep & rich with imagery - and I pitied Gustine & found Henry's obsession with the heart to be freaky & how he does things in the name of science to be wrong. He's ambitious but his ambition is also part of this darker side of him - and he doesn't want that side of his world to go into Audrey's, which is why he's so different around her& kinda freaked out by Gustine. Audrey who sees Gustine's baby, tells Henry who comes to see himself & is shocked at the 'medical impossibility.' He and Gustine meet & she wants his help but he wants her baby to study - & she's uncertain. Also, Fos, a fellow lodger, died & Henry stole her body & Audrey is starting a petition for people to give up their bodies for dissection - Whilky treats his pet ferret, Mike, better than he treats his daughter, Pink & he's an asshole. So Gustine doesn't want to give Henry her baby after all & one night, she comes home & finds the Eye touching her child & she freaks - thinking the Eye is evil & her child will die, she runs to Henry for help & he ends up having sex with her, which was really weird - she was muddy & dirty & it's like he gave in to this darker side, this desire, that's he's had for her since the beginning. And Gustine takes her baby but Henry tells her that he's going to legally take her child away from her - WTF, this is where his character started pissing me off - what did he think he was doing, cutting people up for 'science?' it's ridiculous & then Gustine runs off, chased by the Eye & then the unthinkable happens.
Her baby dies.
:O
....
I never thought that would happen - i was so sure that her baby would survive & that she & Henry could work something out. But it's an unexpected twist, which made me even more interested in the plot. Henry finds out & is devastated & then there's more insight into the Eye's past, which is just kinda sad. It talks about how she lost her eye. There's this ferret tournament that Whilky's ferret, Mike wins & then there's some crazy ressurerection at the Trinity church graveyard & everyone runs over, digs up their dead to see if they're still there - some are relieved & others are devastated to find that they're gone - Gustine included.
Of course, Henry took her child - dug up the baby from the ground :O OMG, he's disgusting.
So Gustine goes over, demanding her child & then a whole riot happens & the town comes to Henry's a ruin his house & she leaves, meeting the Eye, who she finally understands, was never her enemy, but a friend. Who also loved her son. The Eye gives her the infected clothes that a sailor (who'd walked with Gustine before) was going to deliver to the Place's - Audrey's father's death. Gustine takes them there herself - this is her revenge on Henry - A loved one for a loved one. I love the author for doing this. I never liked Audrey, but felt bad for her - she was rich, stuck-up; i just never liked her character at all - so anyway, Gustine is about to chicken out & Audrey finds her father's clothes anyway & she starts crying & everything & Gustine even warns her that she should burn the clothes but Audrey doesn't listen. So overnight, the next morning, Eye has also fallen ill after being happy as she danced the night before, & Pink follows her father Whilky, while him & his friends drag Henry back to his house & force him to cut up Audrey, whose name was first on the petition that was printed in the paper - HE FINALLY GOT WHAT HE DESERVED - HE NEVER UNDERSTOOD WHY PEOPLE NEVER GAVE THEIR DEAD FOR DISSECTION & SAID THAT 'MEN OF SCIENCE' HAD TO BE GIVEN BODIES TO DISSECT & NOW THAT HE HAS AUDREY'S BODY, HIS FIANCEE'S BODY ON A TABLE IN FRONT OF HIM, WHY DOESN'T HE DO IT?!?!?! BUT THE MEN MAKE HIM, EVEN THOUGH HE'S CRYING & EVERYTHING - CONSEQUENCES. ANYWAY, PINK sees Audrey - who she'd become friends with & screams & screams until Mag Scurr (a pawn shop woman) gets her out of there - Eye passes away & she fortells the future for Gustine in a way - she'll marry that sailor, never have children but be happy, have a good life - Pink will grow up, get married at seventeen, have her own 4 kids, which Gustine will help her raise - And she's die at an old age, after the Cholera Morbus has come into her life many times -& the disease came about when she was born & it'll leave when she dies - Henry will have moved back in with his mother, forever changed & ruined after Audrey - The Eye will see Gustine's baby in heaven for people learned to love at the end of their life - and Eye dies but not before Gustine thinks she hears her last words - "Nothing without labour." I thought she was saying that you won't get anything in life without hard work.
This book explored many themes - love, prostitution, poverty, a mother's love for her child, a man's ambition, right & wrong, dissection, appearance & reality, & so much more - it was so deep, set in vividly described Sunderland.
I LOVED THE ENDING - HENRY FINALLY GOT WHAT HE DESERVED - & GUSTINE FINALLY GETS A WAY TO A HAPPIER LIFE :)
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Nov 08, 2011 Laurie rated it 4 of 5 stars

To tell the truth I was drawn to this book by the cover! I knew absolutely nothing about it. Then when I went to check it out my local librarian told me what a great book it was!

I was sold!! Until I began to read the first few pages.... What the?? I nearly didn't continue. After struggling along, things began to come together. Then before long I realized that I was reading a very well researched work of historical fiction! THIS was a good read! And although gruesome at times (no more so than a...more

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Jun 06, 2010 Ruth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

320 pages.

In Sunderland, England, a city quarantined by the cholera epidemic of 1831, a defiant, fifteen-year-old beauty in an elegant blue dress makes her way between shadow and lamplight. A potter's assistant by day and dress lodger by night, Gustine sells herself for necessity in a rented gown, scrimping to feed and protect her only love: her fragile baby boy. She holds a glimmer of hope after meeting Dr. Henry Chiver, a prisoner of his own dark past. But in a world where suspicion of medicin...more

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Oct 13, 2009 Christine rated it 3 of 5 stars

This a strange story about a young prostitute named Gustine who wears a beautiful blue dress provided by her pimp, also her landlord. This dress kind of tricks people on the street into thinking she is a higher class kind of girl thus helping her get some decent johns. Her pimp employs a one-eyed old lady, called "The Eye" who shadows Gustine everywhere she goes.

Gustine somewhat befriends herself to the local noteworthy doctor by helping him procure bodies, AKA stealing them. He needs them to he...more

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Feb 06, 2009 Michele rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a gritty, dark book. It takes place during the Spanish Cholera outbreak in England. I can still see in my mind the slimy vegetable leavings on the front porches, the polluted air, the poor families starving to death.

Then there's Gustine covered in pottery clay head to foot as she works in the factory and then dons the blue dress at night to earn money as a prostitute, all to feed her precious baby boy.

There's the Eye who follows her to make sure she doesn't steal the dress, and Dr. Chi...more

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May 11, 2012 Patrice Sartor rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: bleak-harsh, bonding-through-trauma, community-society, drugs-alcohol-and-or-crime, ethical-dilemma, health-illness-exercise, historical-fiction, love-sex-romance

If I finish a book and am somewhat unsure how much I enjoyed it, a helpful measure is how long it took me to finish. What began as a 4-star book ended up a 3. I read it faithfully, a bit every day, yet I never yearned to read it, and didn't especially look forward to it. Perhaps the writing was a bit heavy, though I did enjoy the use of the narrator that speaks to the reader.

The story takes place in England in 1831, in a small town that is being struck by Cholera Morbus. We follow a doctor that...more

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Sep 08, 2011 Adelina rated it 2 of 5 stars

I thought it was just ok. I mean.... It was interesting to see how all of the characters interacted without anyone really knowing each other but other than that, boring. It did not have what I wanted from the book at all. I wanted late night hunting for corpses, running with the dirt still sticking to the coffins, excitement, chases, and just dead corpses. Instead I got Henry, a boring character that had no substance to him that was haunted by ghosts of his past, but nothing really good or inter...more

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Apr 22, 2010 Peggy rated it 3 of 5 stars

I liked this book, but found it very dark and morbid to read. It really made me think how the upper class has one set of rules and expectations for themselves, but another set of rules for the lower class.

This book had to do with cholera. A young doctor was always looking for dead bodies to autopsy to find the causes of cholera and to learn how the human body works. He was a teacher to young men wanted to be doctors and they used the bodies to practice on. If he didn't have a body, he would exhu...more

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Aug 02, 2010 Deana rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those who like historical novels, and don't mind a bit of disease stuff...

Shelves: 2010, gave-away, 4-5stars

As a whole, I enjoyed this book. Don't let the first chapter turn you away - it's super annoying, written in second (?!!) person, and I almost just ditched the book because of this. But then there was a long plane ride, and I was bored, so I pulled it out, and I'm glad I did. The second person returns a few times for brief interludes, but is far less annoying at that point. The book takes place in 1831 in the midst of an epidemic in the town. Though the book is fictional, I felt I learned a lot...more

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Jun 14, 2009 Georgina rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: pat and michelle

I read this book again after reading it about 6 years ago. I love this era in historical fiction and it has everything you could want in a book. Set in England in the time of Cholera it depicts the story of a fifteen year old girl Gustine who is a factory worker by day and prostitute by night. It's well written and a page turner, I was completely engrossed by the begining right through to the end. It depicts the time in the 1800's very well as I am a huge historical fiction reader, it had everyt...more

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Aug 28, 2012 Gwendalin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: top-10-fav-books, 2012, victorian

This is the book i came across just when i was thinking 'no author has ever written a book well enough to satisfy me' and i didnt mean this arrogantly. Just that my soul was in a desperate need of a very specific book and this was it!
This is a cruel book, that turns you into some sort of a mazocist. You want to let go and yet you are so absorbed you cant. You are disturbed to the bone but you enjoy it after a while. İ nearly put the book back in the shelf a few times, but im glad i had the guts...more

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