Not as engrossing as Slammerkin, but interesting, informative and engaging as a fictionalized version of a true story exposing the lives of well-off women (and feminists and lesbians) in Victorian England.

It's hard to avoid comparing Donoghue to Sarah Waters; their books read totally differently though even if their subject matter and depth of research feel the same. Donoghue seems primarily committed to telling the balanced truths of characters while Waters first priority always seems to be writing ENTERTAINING stories (that succeed on every other level, too). I could be wrong, though; the only Donoghue books I've read are Slammerkin and The Sealed Letter. I do want to read everything else she's written but I can't say that I HUNGER to read more of her work the way I HUNGER to read more Sarah Waters. On the other hand, there's a little more of the mundane and an amount of space between characters in Donoghue that makes me feel more intimately connected as an individual to her work.