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The Lost Orphan
A mother’s love knows no bounds…
London, 1754. Six years after leaving her newborn, Clara, at London’s Foundling Hospital, young Bess Bright returns to reclaim the illegitimate daughter she has never really known. Dreading the worst—that Clara has died in care—the last thing she expects to hear is that her daughter has already been reclaimed. Her life is turned upside down as she tries to find out who has taken her little girl—and why.
Less than a mile from Bess’s lodgings in a quiet town house, a wealthy widow barely ventures outside. When her close friend—an ambitious doctor at the Foundling Hospital—persuades her to hire a nursemaid for her young daughter, she is hesitant to welcome someone new into her home and her life. But her past is threatening to catch up with her—and will soon tear her carefully constructed world apart.
Set against the vibrant backdrop of Georgian London, The Lost Orphan explores families and secrets, class and power, and how the pull of motherhood cuts across them all.
London, 1754. Six years after leaving her newborn, Clara, at London’s Foundling Hospital, young Bess Bright returns to reclaim the illegitimate daughter she has never really known. Dreading the worst—that Clara has died in care—the last thing she expects to hear is that her daughter has already been reclaimed. Her life is turned upside down as she tries to find out who has taken her little girl—and why.
Less than a mile from Bess’s lodgings in a quiet town house, a wealthy widow barely ventures outside. When her close friend—an ambitious doctor at the Foundling Hospital—persuades her to hire a nursemaid for her young daughter, she is hesitant to welcome someone new into her home and her life. But her past is threatening to catch up with her—and will soon tear her carefully constructed world apart.
Set against the vibrant backdrop of Georgian London, The Lost Orphan explores families and secrets, class and power, and how the pull of motherhood cuts across them all.
336 pages, Paperback
First published February 3, 2020
1256 people are currently reading
38464 people want to read
About the author
Stacey Halls
9 books2,363 followersStacey Halls grew up in Rossendale, Lancashire, as the daughter of market traders. She has always been fascinated by the Pendle witches. She studied journalism at the University of Central Lancashire and moved to London aged 21. She was media editor at The Bookseller and books editor at Stylist.co.uk, and has also written for Psychologies, the Independent and Fabulous magazine, where she now works as Deputy Chief Sub Editor. The Familiars is her first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,023 reviews
April 19, 2020
Several years ago I watched a documentary on London's Foundling Hospital. It was interesting to learn about the procedures applied to poor mothers who had to leave their babies behind. Most of them were able or willing to pick their children up after some time, and there were regulations how to do get your child back. This Hospital is in the background of the plot and all information is precise and well-researched.
The second novel by Ms Halls tells a story of a very young woman who in 1754 gets pregnant and is forced to part with her daughter the day after she is born. Bess Bright knows she will have to collect money for several years to reunite with Clara, and this hope gives her the strength to work and be patient.
I found this novel ever more captivating than Ms Halls' debut. I enjoyed the story behind two women who want to be mothers but only one of them has this special bond that cannot be created by financial security only. There is a mystery around one of the main protagonists which reminded me a little of another classic which I love.
The novel is a grand HF that will deliver to any reader seeking good story with solid historical information.
The second novel by Ms Halls tells a story of a very young woman who in 1754 gets pregnant and is forced to part with her daughter the day after she is born. Bess Bright knows she will have to collect money for several years to reunite with Clara, and this hope gives her the strength to work and be patient.
I found this novel ever more captivating than Ms Halls' debut. I enjoyed the story behind two women who want to be mothers but only one of them has this special bond that cannot be created by financial security only. There is a mystery around one of the main protagonists which reminded me a little of another classic which I love.
The novel is a grand HF that will deliver to any reader seeking good story with solid historical information.
October 17, 2023
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The Storygraph and The Book Review Crew Blog
I have had this on my TBR for almost four years and am kicking myself for taking so long to read it. I loved this book so much. It grabbed me right away and didn't let me go until the last page was turned and even then I was still thinking about it. I don't know what it is about historical fiction that focuses on mothers and babies that gets to me.
This was such a sad story on all accounts. Bess has to give her baby up to the Foundling Home because she can't afford to support her. She plans on getting her back when her situation changes. When that time comes, six years later, she's surprised to find someone has already claimed her, using Bess' name and it happened the day after Bess left her there. Talk about heartbreak.
This story shows how the different classes viewed each other and how the poorer of those were judged so harshly. I especially loved the inner thoughts of our two female leads and how they judged each other. I found that they really only thought of themselves and not what was best for the child until they realized that it was only hurting their daughter.
This was such an ominous book, at first and talk about characters...eighteenth-century London played a big role in this book and was a character in and of itself. I could smell the rot, feel the mist and see the darkness; its dark gritty streets played their own role. I can't say enough about this one except it deserves All. The. Stars.
I received this as a gift from the UK as The Foundling, in North America it is titled The Lost Orphan. The UK cover is so much nicer and I love it, it follows the theme of all of Halls's books.
The Storygraph and The Book Review Crew Blog
I have had this on my TBR for almost four years and am kicking myself for taking so long to read it. I loved this book so much. It grabbed me right away and didn't let me go until the last page was turned and even then I was still thinking about it. I don't know what it is about historical fiction that focuses on mothers and babies that gets to me.
This was such a sad story on all accounts. Bess has to give her baby up to the Foundling Home because she can't afford to support her. She plans on getting her back when her situation changes. When that time comes, six years later, she's surprised to find someone has already claimed her, using Bess' name and it happened the day after Bess left her there. Talk about heartbreak.
This story shows how the different classes viewed each other and how the poorer of those were judged so harshly. I especially loved the inner thoughts of our two female leads and how they judged each other. I found that they really only thought of themselves and not what was best for the child until they realized that it was only hurting their daughter.
This was such an ominous book, at first and talk about characters...eighteenth-century London played a big role in this book and was a character in and of itself. I could smell the rot, feel the mist and see the darkness; its dark gritty streets played their own role. I can't say enough about this one except it deserves All. The. Stars.
I received this as a gift from the UK as The Foundling, in North America it is titled The Lost Orphan. The UK cover is so much nicer and I love it, it follows the theme of all of Halls's books.
May 29, 2022
“These feminine vessels we inhabited: why did nobody expect them to contain unfeminine feelings? Why could we, too, not be furious and scornful and entirely altered by grief? Why must we accept the cards we had been dealt?“
A young woman destitute, a society unforgiving and judgemental towards unmarried mothers, and a hospital accepting young babies in a scandalous game of lottery is what provides the basis of this remarkable story. A story inspired by real events, a hospital that existed, and a practice that was reprehensible for prying on the misfortunes of young vulnerable women.
Touching, shocking, gripping, and atmospheric.
The Plot
The story is about two women from very different backgrounds whose lives become entwined because of one little girl. Clara who is renamed Charlotte when she is taken away from the hospital meant to protect her but into the hands of a woman who wanted a child and had the means to care for her but did not know how to love her properly.
Bess is forced to give up her baby at birth and into the protection of 'The Foundling'. However, despite the promise of keeping the child until the mother was better placed to care for her, Bess is informed her child was collected the day after she put her into the care six years earlier. And so, the heart-breaking search begins.
Review and Comments
Love Stacey Halls, love the period setting, love the premise of the story but it didn’t stand out from other more powerful stories with a similar troupe. And I was hoping it would and was expecting it to be a favourite.
The main reason was it felt a little bit one dimensional. Child taken at birth, mother goes in search of her daughter years later, but there were no other layers or twists to the story. Hence the 4 stars.
However, the single storyline is excellent, the period setting is superb and the theme heart-breaking. As many of these stories do, this one was also eye opening as more disgraceful practices are exposed of the treatment of the vulnerable and poor in society.
A token and a number is given in exchange for a baby, many of whom were near death and did not make it through their first year. The healthy ones often made it into the homes of the rich against the mothers wishes who were branded 'insane', when they dared come to collect the child and reverse the swap.
The scene setting was fabulous, the characterisation excellent and the theme spine tingling, heart-breaking, and unforgiving.
A young woman destitute, a society unforgiving and judgemental towards unmarried mothers, and a hospital accepting young babies in a scandalous game of lottery is what provides the basis of this remarkable story. A story inspired by real events, a hospital that existed, and a practice that was reprehensible for prying on the misfortunes of young vulnerable women.
Touching, shocking, gripping, and atmospheric.
The Plot
The story is about two women from very different backgrounds whose lives become entwined because of one little girl. Clara who is renamed Charlotte when she is taken away from the hospital meant to protect her but into the hands of a woman who wanted a child and had the means to care for her but did not know how to love her properly.
Bess is forced to give up her baby at birth and into the protection of 'The Foundling'. However, despite the promise of keeping the child until the mother was better placed to care for her, Bess is informed her child was collected the day after she put her into the care six years earlier. And so, the heart-breaking search begins.
Review and Comments
Love Stacey Halls, love the period setting, love the premise of the story but it didn’t stand out from other more powerful stories with a similar troupe. And I was hoping it would and was expecting it to be a favourite.
The main reason was it felt a little bit one dimensional. Child taken at birth, mother goes in search of her daughter years later, but there were no other layers or twists to the story. Hence the 4 stars.
However, the single storyline is excellent, the period setting is superb and the theme heart-breaking. As many of these stories do, this one was also eye opening as more disgraceful practices are exposed of the treatment of the vulnerable and poor in society.
A token and a number is given in exchange for a baby, many of whom were near death and did not make it through their first year. The healthy ones often made it into the homes of the rich against the mothers wishes who were branded 'insane', when they dared come to collect the child and reverse the swap.
The scene setting was fabulous, the characterisation excellent and the theme spine tingling, heart-breaking, and unforgiving.
April 8, 2020
What an intriguing story and a book I enjoyed immensely. The story gripped me from the first chapter and I loved the characters and the setting of the novel. Suspenseful, intriguing and beautifully written and And I was facinated by the foundling hospital and London of the 1750s.
The Foundling is set against the vibrant backdrop of Georgian London, and explores families, secrets, class, equality, power and the meaning of motherhood. Two women bound by a child and a secret that will change everything.
First of I love the presentation of Stacy Hall’s novels, I purchased this one in Hardback and the Jacket and inside cover is beautifully illustrated and so pretty.
I loved the atmosphere of the novel and got totally lost in the story. Wonderful sense of time and place and a captivating plot. I really enjoy historical fiction and couldn’t wait to read more on the Foundling Hospital when I finished the novel.
The story does have it’s moments where a couple of the situations and happenings were just a bit too convenient and perhaps a little contrived, but for me it didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment of the book. In fact on finishing, I picked up this author’s first novel The Familiars
and really hope I get as much enjoyment from this one as I did from The Foundling
I think readers who enjoy novels such as The Silent Companions
or
The Thirteenth Tale might enjoy The foundling as well.
Another lovely hard copy for my real life bookshelf and a book that I remember a long time from now.
The Foundling is set against the vibrant backdrop of Georgian London, and explores families, secrets, class, equality, power and the meaning of motherhood. Two women bound by a child and a secret that will change everything.
First of I love the presentation of Stacy Hall’s novels, I purchased this one in Hardback and the Jacket and inside cover is beautifully illustrated and so pretty.
I loved the atmosphere of the novel and got totally lost in the story. Wonderful sense of time and place and a captivating plot. I really enjoy historical fiction and couldn’t wait to read more on the Foundling Hospital when I finished the novel.
The story does have it’s moments where a couple of the situations and happenings were just a bit too convenient and perhaps a little contrived, but for me it didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment of the book. In fact on finishing, I picked up this author’s first novel The Familiars
and really hope I get as much enjoyment from this one as I did from The FoundlingI think readers who enjoy novels such as The Silent Companions
or
The Thirteenth Tale might enjoy The foundling as well.Another lovely hard copy for my real life bookshelf and a book that I remember a long time from now.
April 22, 2020
3.5 stars.
An easy and entertaining historical fiction read.
This novel started off with a bang! I was fully invested and wholly engrossed from the start. London, 1748: Bess is a young woman whose family barely makes enough to survive. She registers her newborn baby at the London Foundling Hospital on the day of her birth since she knows, as a teenage single unwed mother, she cannot possibly provide for her. Bess has every intention of coming back for her baby once she gets enough money saved and can create a more stable life. Six years later when Bess returns to the hospital to pick up her daughter, she is shocked and devastated by what she discovers.
This book is split into four parts. If I could rate individual parts of the novel, Part 1 would get 5+ stars! It consumed me and had me feeling extreme sympathies for Bess and her situation. The atmosphere was thick and the tension was high. I loved it.
As the novel progressed, it lost steam. I enjoyed the story, but that strong connection I felt at the start faded (which is always disappointing). After Part 1, I felt as though as I was emotionally removed from the characters and simply reading an entertaining story. One of the main characters introduced in Part 2 distracted me from connecting with the storyline.
I enjoyed learning about this time in history. I did not know much about these types of hospitals. I found that storyline aspect very interesting and informative. I enjoyed the authors writing, although I think the pace of the book could have been quicker after Part 1 finished. The characters were unique and charming and I couldn’t help but root for Bess from start to finish.
Overall, an informative and interesting read that I would recommended to historical fiction fans who want a lighter, entertaining story, rather than a richly detailed intense plot.
Thank you to NetGalley for my review copy!
An easy and entertaining historical fiction read.
This novel started off with a bang! I was fully invested and wholly engrossed from the start. London, 1748: Bess is a young woman whose family barely makes enough to survive. She registers her newborn baby at the London Foundling Hospital on the day of her birth since she knows, as a teenage single unwed mother, she cannot possibly provide for her. Bess has every intention of coming back for her baby once she gets enough money saved and can create a more stable life. Six years later when Bess returns to the hospital to pick up her daughter, she is shocked and devastated by what she discovers.
This book is split into four parts. If I could rate individual parts of the novel, Part 1 would get 5+ stars! It consumed me and had me feeling extreme sympathies for Bess and her situation. The atmosphere was thick and the tension was high. I loved it.
As the novel progressed, it lost steam. I enjoyed the story, but that strong connection I felt at the start faded (which is always disappointing). After Part 1, I felt as though as I was emotionally removed from the characters and simply reading an entertaining story. One of the main characters introduced in Part 2 distracted me from connecting with the storyline.
I enjoyed learning about this time in history. I did not know much about these types of hospitals. I found that storyline aspect very interesting and informative. I enjoyed the authors writing, although I think the pace of the book could have been quicker after Part 1 finished. The characters were unique and charming and I couldn’t help but root for Bess from start to finish.
Overall, an informative and interesting read that I would recommended to historical fiction fans who want a lighter, entertaining story, rather than a richly detailed intense plot.
Thank you to NetGalley for my review copy!
April 28, 2020
EXCERPT: All the babies were wrapped like presents ready to be given. Some of them were dressed finely - though their mothers were not - in tiny embroidered sleeves and thick shawls, for winter had arrived, and the night was biting. I'd bound Clara in an old blanket that had waited years to be darned, and now never would be. We stood clustered around the pillared entrance, thirty or so of us, like moths beneath the torches burning in their brackets, our hearts beating like papery wings. I hadn't known that a hospital for abandoned babies would be a palace, with a hundred glowing windows and a turning place for carriages. Two long and splendid buildings were pinned on either side of a courtyard that was connected in the middle by a chapel. At the north end of the west wing the door stood open, throwing light onto the stone. The gate felt a long way behind. Some of us would leave with our arms empty; some would carry our children home again.
ABOUT THIS BOOK: London, 1754. Six years after leaving her newborn, Clara, at London’s Foundling Hospital, young Bess Bright returns to reclaim the illegitimate daughter she has never really known. Dreading the worst—that Clara has died in care—the last thing she expects to hear is that her daughter has already been reclaimed. Her life is turned upside down as she tries to find out who has taken her little girl—and why.
Less than a mile from Bess’s lodgings in a quiet town house, a wealthy widow barely ventures outside. When her close friend—an ambitious doctor at the Foundling Hospital—persuades her to hire a nursemaid for her young daughter, she is hesitant to welcome someone new into her home and her life. But her past is threatening to catch up with her—and will soon tear her carefully constructed world apart.
MY THOUGHTS: Don't expect this to be a deep and gritty read, because it's not. It is a light read, but it is also touching.
The Foundling Hospital, established in the 1740s in London, was the first to take babies at risk of being abandoned. They admitted only a certain number and the places were drawn by lottery. I don't know if it is true that tickets were sold for the privilege of watching the lottery take place, but it does seem to have the ring of truth to it. I can quite imagine the wealthy standing about drinking and eating while watching desperate and distraught young women hoping, yet dreading, that their child would be one of the lucky ones who won a place. It is reminiscent of those who used to picnic in front of the guillotine.
I had always imagined such institutions to be quite grim, little more than workhouses that starved and ill treated the children, but there is none of that here. That's not to say that poverty is not addressed. It is, in detail. Whole families living in two rooms, and sometimes more than one family. The hunger, the cold, the dirt, the smells, the stark contrasts between the easy lifestyle of the rich and the harsh lives of the poor are all chronicled.
This story of a child pulled between two women, is narrated by the two women involved. Bess, who falls pregnant to a man who then dies, and Alexandra, widow of Bess's baby's father. Bess is a fighter, determined to get her child back. I felt sorry for Bess, but was not totally convinced that she was doing the right thing. Alexandra is an odd woman, she strokes and talks to the portraits of her dead parents, yet finds it impossible to touch her daughter. She is reclusive and forces her daughter to live the same restrictive life. She has no contact with anyone other than her mother, the servants and the family doctor. Clara/Charlotte is an intelligent child. At the age of six she can read and write, and speaks French.
While there is nothing predictable about this beautifully written story, I found the rapid change in Alexandra's character towards the end of the book a little unbelievable. However, I enjoyed this enough to have earmarked Stacey Hall's previous book, The Familiars, to read.
❤😢😊❤
#TheLostOrphan #NetGalley
The Lost Orphan has also been published as The Foundling.
THE AUTHOR: Stacey Halls grew up in Rossendale, Lancashire, as the daughter of market traders. She has always been fascinated by the Pendle witches. She studied journalism at the University of Central Lancashire and moved to London aged 21. She was media editor at The Bookseller and books editor at Stylist.co.uk, and has also written for Psychologies, the Independent and Fabulous magazine, where she now works as Deputy Chief Sub Editor.
DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Mira via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Lost Orphan by Stacey Halls for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com
This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
ABOUT THIS BOOK: London, 1754. Six years after leaving her newborn, Clara, at London’s Foundling Hospital, young Bess Bright returns to reclaim the illegitimate daughter she has never really known. Dreading the worst—that Clara has died in care—the last thing she expects to hear is that her daughter has already been reclaimed. Her life is turned upside down as she tries to find out who has taken her little girl—and why.
Less than a mile from Bess’s lodgings in a quiet town house, a wealthy widow barely ventures outside. When her close friend—an ambitious doctor at the Foundling Hospital—persuades her to hire a nursemaid for her young daughter, she is hesitant to welcome someone new into her home and her life. But her past is threatening to catch up with her—and will soon tear her carefully constructed world apart.
MY THOUGHTS: Don't expect this to be a deep and gritty read, because it's not. It is a light read, but it is also touching.
The Foundling Hospital, established in the 1740s in London, was the first to take babies at risk of being abandoned. They admitted only a certain number and the places were drawn by lottery. I don't know if it is true that tickets were sold for the privilege of watching the lottery take place, but it does seem to have the ring of truth to it. I can quite imagine the wealthy standing about drinking and eating while watching desperate and distraught young women hoping, yet dreading, that their child would be one of the lucky ones who won a place. It is reminiscent of those who used to picnic in front of the guillotine.
I had always imagined such institutions to be quite grim, little more than workhouses that starved and ill treated the children, but there is none of that here. That's not to say that poverty is not addressed. It is, in detail. Whole families living in two rooms, and sometimes more than one family. The hunger, the cold, the dirt, the smells, the stark contrasts between the easy lifestyle of the rich and the harsh lives of the poor are all chronicled.
This story of a child pulled between two women, is narrated by the two women involved. Bess, who falls pregnant to a man who then dies, and Alexandra, widow of Bess's baby's father. Bess is a fighter, determined to get her child back. I felt sorry for Bess, but was not totally convinced that she was doing the right thing. Alexandra is an odd woman, she strokes and talks to the portraits of her dead parents, yet finds it impossible to touch her daughter. She is reclusive and forces her daughter to live the same restrictive life. She has no contact with anyone other than her mother, the servants and the family doctor. Clara/Charlotte is an intelligent child. At the age of six she can read and write, and speaks French.
While there is nothing predictable about this beautifully written story, I found the rapid change in Alexandra's character towards the end of the book a little unbelievable. However, I enjoyed this enough to have earmarked Stacey Hall's previous book, The Familiars, to read.
❤😢😊❤
#TheLostOrphan #NetGalley
The Lost Orphan has also been published as The Foundling.
THE AUTHOR: Stacey Halls grew up in Rossendale, Lancashire, as the daughter of market traders. She has always been fascinated by the Pendle witches. She studied journalism at the University of Central Lancashire and moved to London aged 21. She was media editor at The Bookseller and books editor at Stylist.co.uk, and has also written for Psychologies, the Independent and Fabulous magazine, where she now works as Deputy Chief Sub Editor.
DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Mira via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Lost Orphan by Stacey Halls for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com
This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
January 25, 2020
Engaging but disappointingly straightforward historical fiction novel of one child torn between two women.
Stacey Halls second historical fiction novel is set against the backdrop of London in the Georgian era and is essentially a pretty straightforward story of two women in a tug of war over one illegitimate child left at the Foundling Hospital. Narrated in the first-person by the two women at the centre of the storm, a world apart in terms of wealth, class and respectability, The Foundling is an easily readable novel that highlights the inequality that was rife in the period. Opening in 1747, shrimp seller Bess Bright has not even been a mother for a full day before she takes her newborn, Clara, to the Foundling Hospital in London, aware that she can offer the child no future beyond two squalid rooms and a life working on Billingsgate market. Fully intending to reclaim her child one day in the years ahead, Bess leaves a whalebone token given to her by the babies father, a man she met just twice and has refused to name to her family. Fast-forward to six years later and armed with all her worldly savings Bess goes to claims the child she left behind only to be dealt the staggering blow that she has already been taken. Indeed someone presenting as the child's mother and claiming to be Bess Bright removed her daughter just the very next day after she was left at the hospital. Chancing upon a sighting of a child she has reason to believe is her own, Bess determines to bring her daughter home by hook or by crook.
The filth and danger of Ludgate Hill sits in stark contrast to well-heeled Bloomsbury across town and uptight widow, Alexandra Callard, whose fear of losing loved ones keeps her and her six-year-old child, Charlotte, confined inside a home that is to all intents a prison. Self-contained and still dealing with an upbringing that has left her emotionally stunted, Alexandra is persuaded by her husband’s great friend, a doctor at the Foundling Hospital, to hire a nursemaid. No prizes for guessing who gets the job and the explosive collision that ensues with both women having their own claim on Charlotte, with the man that brought them together, kind-hearted and honourable Doctor Elliot Mead, caught in the crossfire.
I was dismayed that there wasn’t really much of a mystery contained within the pages of The Foundling and Bess finding her daughter and obtaining a position as nursemaid entailed no great search or effort at all. In this sense the story was totally lacking in intrigue and from that point onwards the outcome was eminently predictable. Convenient coincides abound, from Bess’s sighting of Alexandra Callard and Charlotte on her only visit to the Foundling Chapel during a Sunday service, right through to the fortuitous circumstances that meant Charlotte was brought home to Alexandra seven months after she was widowed.
Characterisation is patchy and I struggled to connect with Bess beyond her innate desire to raise her own child, finishing the novel feeling that I knew little more about her as an individual than on outset. Alexandra is well-drawn and her traumatic background and mental health issues make her a compelling character to explore but again I struggled to get a sense of her motivation and desire for keeping a child that she expressed little warmth or affection towards. Standoffish and capricious throughout, I ended the novel without having any clear sense of what she actually felt towards Charlotte and why she felt she had a claim on her.
There is little meaningful examination of what the future holds for a child raised in the life that Bess can offer and rather short-sightedly her character expresses no qualms about taking a child from a charmed life of privilege and comfort to the hard labour and iniquities of life in the working classes. Doctor Mead is the third main player in the story and is essentially an unofficial arbiter acting as an impartial sounding board, rather reminiscent of King Solomon in the bible! The supporting cast are colourful but very stereotypical from Alexandra’s flamboyant and decadent sister, Ambrosia, to Bess’s ne’er-do-well sot of a brother, Ned, and impish link-boy, Lyle.
The denouement is abrupt and not entirely realistic to my mind. I can understand Stacey
Halls preference for a feel good and simplistic tying up of a story but given that the novel was intended as an exploration of the meaning of motherhood it feels like a missed opportunity. The plot is a familiar one that I feel has been done to death over the years, albeit in different eras with every story posing the exact same question of what it means to be a mother. Apart from the Georgian setting and the inspiration of the Foundling Hospital for abandoned babies there is little original about the book and aside from a few choice bits of slang the story fails to deliver on period atmosphere.
Slight and unsubstantial, but easily readable and moderately entertaining.
With thanks to Readers First who provided me with a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.
Stacey Halls second historical fiction novel is set against the backdrop of London in the Georgian era and is essentially a pretty straightforward story of two women in a tug of war over one illegitimate child left at the Foundling Hospital. Narrated in the first-person by the two women at the centre of the storm, a world apart in terms of wealth, class and respectability, The Foundling is an easily readable novel that highlights the inequality that was rife in the period. Opening in 1747, shrimp seller Bess Bright has not even been a mother for a full day before she takes her newborn, Clara, to the Foundling Hospital in London, aware that she can offer the child no future beyond two squalid rooms and a life working on Billingsgate market. Fully intending to reclaim her child one day in the years ahead, Bess leaves a whalebone token given to her by the babies father, a man she met just twice and has refused to name to her family. Fast-forward to six years later and armed with all her worldly savings Bess goes to claims the child she left behind only to be dealt the staggering blow that she has already been taken. Indeed someone presenting as the child's mother and claiming to be Bess Bright removed her daughter just the very next day after she was left at the hospital. Chancing upon a sighting of a child she has reason to believe is her own, Bess determines to bring her daughter home by hook or by crook.
The filth and danger of Ludgate Hill sits in stark contrast to well-heeled Bloomsbury across town and uptight widow, Alexandra Callard, whose fear of losing loved ones keeps her and her six-year-old child, Charlotte, confined inside a home that is to all intents a prison. Self-contained and still dealing with an upbringing that has left her emotionally stunted, Alexandra is persuaded by her husband’s great friend, a doctor at the Foundling Hospital, to hire a nursemaid. No prizes for guessing who gets the job and the explosive collision that ensues with both women having their own claim on Charlotte, with the man that brought them together, kind-hearted and honourable Doctor Elliot Mead, caught in the crossfire.
I was dismayed that there wasn’t really much of a mystery contained within the pages of The Foundling and Bess finding her daughter and obtaining a position as nursemaid entailed no great search or effort at all. In this sense the story was totally lacking in intrigue and from that point onwards the outcome was eminently predictable. Convenient coincides abound, from Bess’s sighting of Alexandra Callard and Charlotte on her only visit to the Foundling Chapel during a Sunday service, right through to the fortuitous circumstances that meant Charlotte was brought home to Alexandra seven months after she was widowed.
Characterisation is patchy and I struggled to connect with Bess beyond her innate desire to raise her own child, finishing the novel feeling that I knew little more about her as an individual than on outset. Alexandra is well-drawn and her traumatic background and mental health issues make her a compelling character to explore but again I struggled to get a sense of her motivation and desire for keeping a child that she expressed little warmth or affection towards. Standoffish and capricious throughout, I ended the novel without having any clear sense of what she actually felt towards Charlotte and why she felt she had a claim on her.
There is little meaningful examination of what the future holds for a child raised in the life that Bess can offer and rather short-sightedly her character expresses no qualms about taking a child from a charmed life of privilege and comfort to the hard labour and iniquities of life in the working classes. Doctor Mead is the third main player in the story and is essentially an unofficial arbiter acting as an impartial sounding board, rather reminiscent of King Solomon in the bible! The supporting cast are colourful but very stereotypical from Alexandra’s flamboyant and decadent sister, Ambrosia, to Bess’s ne’er-do-well sot of a brother, Ned, and impish link-boy, Lyle.
The denouement is abrupt and not entirely realistic to my mind. I can understand Stacey
Halls preference for a feel good and simplistic tying up of a story but given that the novel was intended as an exploration of the meaning of motherhood it feels like a missed opportunity. The plot is a familiar one that I feel has been done to death over the years, albeit in different eras with every story posing the exact same question of what it means to be a mother. Apart from the Georgian setting and the inspiration of the Foundling Hospital for abandoned babies there is little original about the book and aside from a few choice bits of slang the story fails to deliver on period atmosphere.
Slight and unsubstantial, but easily readable and moderately entertaining.
With thanks to Readers First who provided me with a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.
January 13, 2022
An historical novel, oozing in atmosphere with descriptions so vivid you can almost smell, touch, taste and feel - and be thankful you are living in the 21st century and not 18th century London. I chose to read/listen to this book because Imogen Church was one of the narrators, and a glance at some of my GR Friends' reviews convinced me that this was a book I would love. Church sucked me into the story immediately.
We meet our MC, Bess, as she and her father are standing in line at the Foundling Home, Bess praying that they would accept her baby of less than one day old. Once or twice a year, the Foundling Home conducted a ceremony to fill empty places in their children's home. The Home accepted only healthy babies under six months old, and dozens of indigent mothers lined up with their babies in the hope of securing a place in the Foundling Home where their child could expect to be fed and cared for in their absence - or trained to be able to work for their livelihood when they were old enough to leave (be turned out). Some mothers hoped to return at a later date when they were financially able to provide for their child. If the child survived, a mother would be expected to pay for the child's care per annum and prove her ability to care for the child, if, later, she chose to ask for the its return. A number was given to the transaction and a token could be left with the file so that the child could be later identified. Rich patrons and spectators are invited to attend and watch the spectacle.
Bess never stopped thinking of her daughter, and when she finally scraped together two Pounds with the intent to retrieve her daughter six years later, she was in for an unwelcome surprise. I won't divulge more, although the publisher's blurb might have already done so. Suffice it to say that a mystery and fraud were perpetrated, and the author caused me some serious heart palpitations and nail biting before the novel ending.
Much of the book was realistic and believable, as were the actions taken by each of the characters.
I had to switch to ebook for parts of the book because I wanted to move forward a bit faster, due to a serious lack of free time these days.
We meet our MC, Bess, as she and her father are standing in line at the Foundling Home, Bess praying that they would accept her baby of less than one day old. Once or twice a year, the Foundling Home conducted a ceremony to fill empty places in their children's home. The Home accepted only healthy babies under six months old, and dozens of indigent mothers lined up with their babies in the hope of securing a place in the Foundling Home where their child could expect to be fed and cared for in their absence - or trained to be able to work for their livelihood when they were old enough to leave (be turned out). Some mothers hoped to return at a later date when they were financially able to provide for their child. If the child survived, a mother would be expected to pay for the child's care per annum and prove her ability to care for the child, if, later, she chose to ask for the its return. A number was given to the transaction and a token could be left with the file so that the child could be later identified. Rich patrons and spectators are invited to attend and watch the spectacle.
Bess never stopped thinking of her daughter, and when she finally scraped together two Pounds with the intent to retrieve her daughter six years later, she was in for an unwelcome surprise. I won't divulge more, although the publisher's blurb might have already done so. Suffice it to say that a mystery and fraud were perpetrated, and the author caused me some serious heart palpitations and nail biting before the novel ending.
Much of the book was realistic and believable, as were the actions taken by each of the characters.
I had to switch to ebook for parts of the book because I wanted to move forward a bit faster, due to a serious lack of free time these days.
May 29, 2020
The plot is frankly preposterous, and some of the characters utterly unbelievable. The premise sounds great but there’s very little character development except what’s smushed in during the last few pages in order to tie up the loose ends. The ending is Disney Movie Convenient. The “revelations” about the characters are predictable. The treatment of each character is so superficial. This feels like a good proposal was squandered by a naive author who rushed through the writing of it, robbing it of the tension and atmosphere the blurb promised.
May 14, 2020
Lately I've been sucked into a number of historical fiction books about orphans, homes for unwanted children and/or "compromised" young women, and for the most part, have loved them all - until this one. This book was lean on history and heavy on drama. I also found it odd that it was published in the UK as The Foundling, but as The Lost Orphan here in the US, which is a rather dull and somewhat misleading title.
It did start off on a good note, and I really enjoyed Part I - Bess's story. Bess is a poor shrimp seller in London in the 1750's, who becomes pregnant after a few chances encounters with a merchant, Daniel Callard, who dies shortly thereafter. She gives up her infant daughter to London's Foundling Hospital, but saves her money for six years and then returns to the hospital to reclaim her daughter - only to find out that her daughter was reclaimed the day she was brought to the hospital - by someone posing as Bess. Bess is determined to find who took her daughter and impersonated her, and in her quest, she meets Elliott Meade, a doctor at the Foundling Hospital, whose grandfather was an original founder. Dr. Meade takes Bess to church with him one Sunday so that she can meet his grandfather and ask him questions about her daughter, and lo and behold, Bess spots a little girl in the congregation that she swears looks similar to what she believes her baby would look like as a six year old.
Then Part II begins - Alexandra's story. This is where the book completely dropped off for me. It is in Part II that the mystery is easily solved, and an odd chain of events leads Bess to become a nursemaid for the young girl she met at church. From that point on, I struggled to even finish the book - I would pick it up, read a few pages, and then find something else to distract me. Both protagonists, Bess and Alexandra, made so many odd choices that really drove the plot in an unappealing direction that borderlined on ludicrous.
Even with several more "parts," the book just never came close to redeeming itself. It seemed to drag on and on with no real focus, and then boom, the ending came, and it was so entirely unbelievable (especially in regard to the complete 360-degree personality change that one of the protagonists underwent), that it actually made me mad that I stuck with it. I notice mostly 4 and 5-star reviews for this one, so I think I am somewhat in the minority here, but for me, only Part I saved it from being a 2-star review.
It did start off on a good note, and I really enjoyed Part I - Bess's story. Bess is a poor shrimp seller in London in the 1750's, who becomes pregnant after a few chances encounters with a merchant, Daniel Callard, who dies shortly thereafter. She gives up her infant daughter to London's Foundling Hospital, but saves her money for six years and then returns to the hospital to reclaim her daughter - only to find out that her daughter was reclaimed the day she was brought to the hospital - by someone posing as Bess. Bess is determined to find who took her daughter and impersonated her, and in her quest, she meets Elliott Meade, a doctor at the Foundling Hospital, whose grandfather was an original founder. Dr. Meade takes Bess to church with him one Sunday so that she can meet his grandfather and ask him questions about her daughter, and lo and behold, Bess spots a little girl in the congregation that she swears looks similar to what she believes her baby would look like as a six year old.
Then Part II begins - Alexandra's story. This is where the book completely dropped off for me. It is in Part II that the mystery is easily solved, and an odd chain of events leads Bess to become a nursemaid for the young girl she met at church. From that point on, I struggled to even finish the book - I would pick it up, read a few pages, and then find something else to distract me. Both protagonists, Bess and Alexandra, made so many odd choices that really drove the plot in an unappealing direction that borderlined on ludicrous.
Even with several more "parts," the book just never came close to redeeming itself. It seemed to drag on and on with no real focus, and then boom, the ending came, and it was so entirely unbelievable (especially in regard to the complete 360-degree personality change that one of the protagonists underwent), that it actually made me mad that I stuck with it. I notice mostly 4 and 5-star reviews for this one, so I think I am somewhat in the minority here, but for me, only Part I saved it from being a 2-star review.
March 19, 2020
This was perfect! I read and liked Stacey Hall’s first book : The Familiars, but this was a much smoother read, more accomplished. I’m so excited to see a new talent on the hf scene and can’t wait to see what she writes next.
February 5, 2020
Visit the locations in the novel
That cover! Pure art! And I am happy to say, so is the story.
From the opening page, the story about Bess and her baby girl Clara, the writing, swept me wholeheartedly into another world. This world was a cruel one – London 1754, and a woman who has conceived a child out of wedlock is forced to give her up at the Foundling Hospital. Women go here in their droves, and pick a token from a bag. If it’s one colour, they get in and their baby is taken in ( health checks pending), another means they are on the waiting list until the babies are declared healthy. The third group are turned away. Here we see the poorest women, the most unfortunate babies and the chasm between rich and poor. When Bess prepared to pick up her child again after 6 years, I was excited for her. However she goes, only to find that a woman calling herself Bess went to the hospital the very next day and took the child! Oh the pain and the anguish I felt for Bess then!
London is evoked in its dank and dangerous glory. It reeks of inequality and poverty. Contrast part one which is firmly set in the area of Ludgate Hill to part two, where we meet the Bloomsbury wealth and the mysterious widow who refuses to leave her home. She reluctantly employs a nursemaid and you just know there are secrets and pain in that house. They seep through the plush wallpaper slowly but surely and into the streets where the carriage smash them up on the cobbles with the permanents of Bess’ story. What a depiction of two women’s stories and the London of that time.
Both characters were very very strongly drawn and emotionally crafted. I was invested heavily in both of them throughout. So many times I wanted to see and talk to these women myself and try and find out what was in their minds, but Stacey dripped that information slowly but surely at the right time. Gothic, glorious writing wrapped it all up in a smooth black bow.
And the real excitement I got from this book? I’d heard of The Foundling Hospital and the museum that still stands today. It’s clear that the author wanted to research and explore this in fiction and she’s craft a really, interesting and emotional real. It felt personal, raw and very vivid and Bess’ search for her child was particularly eventful
Masterful and a real reading treat.
August 25, 2021
Back in 2010/2011, author Stacey Halls attended an exhibition of tokens and artifacts of an 18th century London foundling hospital. I had the pleasure of viewing that same exhibit in 2014 when it was showing in Williamsburg, VA. The orphans' parents were given the opportunity to leave some sort of token at the hospital for their child. It would provide the connection between parent and child should there be a possibility of reuniting. This emotional and informative exhibit was entitled, "Threads of Feeling".
From that moving experience, Ms. Halls spun an impelling tale wherein an unwed mother brings her hours-old child to the Foundling Hospital with the hope that they will accept the child. The mother has every expectation that at some point in the future she will be able to reclaim the child when her own situation is more stable. For the child, she entrusts her half of a pendant to the child's new caregivers - the token she herself received from the child's father as an expression of his affection for her. After 6 years, the mother believes she is in a position to reclaim her child. Unfortunately, someone pretending to be her had claimed the child shortly after the child's arrival at the hospital.
This book features two strong female protagonists - one maternal and the other icy but wealthy. The interplay between these two woman is richly portrayed. Their character development is strong as is that of the child. The mise en scene was equally rich in its portrayal as it draws on all of the readers senses. I personally was moved by the story and thought it to be well told.
I am uncertain why this books appears under two differing titles. The North American edition is entitled, "The Lost Orphan" and its British counterpart is entitled, "The Foundling". Regardless, the coverart is beautifully rendered for each book and draws the potential reader into its pages.
I am grateful to mira publishing for having provided a free uncorrected proof of this book through Goodreads First Reads. Their generosity, however, has not influenced this review - the words of which are mine alone.
From that moving experience, Ms. Halls spun an impelling tale wherein an unwed mother brings her hours-old child to the Foundling Hospital with the hope that they will accept the child. The mother has every expectation that at some point in the future she will be able to reclaim the child when her own situation is more stable. For the child, she entrusts her half of a pendant to the child's new caregivers - the token she herself received from the child's father as an expression of his affection for her. After 6 years, the mother believes she is in a position to reclaim her child. Unfortunately, someone pretending to be her had claimed the child shortly after the child's arrival at the hospital.
This book features two strong female protagonists - one maternal and the other icy but wealthy. The interplay between these two woman is richly portrayed. Their character development is strong as is that of the child. The mise en scene was equally rich in its portrayal as it draws on all of the readers senses. I personally was moved by the story and thought it to be well told.
I am uncertain why this books appears under two differing titles. The North American edition is entitled, "The Lost Orphan" and its British counterpart is entitled, "The Foundling". Regardless, the coverart is beautifully rendered for each book and draws the potential reader into its pages.
I am grateful to mira publishing for having provided a free uncorrected proof of this book through Goodreads First Reads. Their generosity, however, has not influenced this review - the words of which are mine alone.
April 9, 2020
Having to leave your newborn at a Foundling until you could afford to keep the child seemed to be the norm in the 1700's for poor families.
Going back to get your child after you saved half a year's wages to pay for the child’s keep for six years and find out someone else had claimed to be you and taken your child was more unbearable than leaving your child the first time.
Bess was devastated when she found out someone had taken her daughter. When she questioned the governors of the Foundling, they had no answer, but her second try at finding something out had her introduced to a doctor who was going to try to help her.
Meeting with the doctor at a Sunday service allowed Bess to see a small child who she knew was her daughter. Seeing the child's mother was a shock - Bess knew who she was, and knew that this woman's daughter was surely her own daughter.
The following day, Doctor Mead proposed something extraordinary and unheard of to the child's wealthy mother, Alexandra. Because she kept everything locked up, secretive, and never went outside the house except for Sunday services, Alexandra wasn't sure of the doctor's suggestion to hire a nursemaid.
We follow Bess and Alexandra as Bess serves in her household and is loved by Charlotte more than Charlotte loves Alexandra.
Women's fiction fans and those who enjoy learning of the life styles of the wealthy and their privileges as well as the poor at that time should enjoy this book.
Life in this era was perfectly described by Ms. Halls along with her pull-you-in writing.
THE LOST ORPHAN has mystery, historical fiction, a main character with agoraphobic problems that stem from an incident in her childhood, secrets, and to what lengths a mother's love takes her. 5/5
This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Going back to get your child after you saved half a year's wages to pay for the child’s keep for six years and find out someone else had claimed to be you and taken your child was more unbearable than leaving your child the first time.
Bess was devastated when she found out someone had taken her daughter. When she questioned the governors of the Foundling, they had no answer, but her second try at finding something out had her introduced to a doctor who was going to try to help her.
Meeting with the doctor at a Sunday service allowed Bess to see a small child who she knew was her daughter. Seeing the child's mother was a shock - Bess knew who she was, and knew that this woman's daughter was surely her own daughter.
The following day, Doctor Mead proposed something extraordinary and unheard of to the child's wealthy mother, Alexandra. Because she kept everything locked up, secretive, and never went outside the house except for Sunday services, Alexandra wasn't sure of the doctor's suggestion to hire a nursemaid.
We follow Bess and Alexandra as Bess serves in her household and is loved by Charlotte more than Charlotte loves Alexandra.
Women's fiction fans and those who enjoy learning of the life styles of the wealthy and their privileges as well as the poor at that time should enjoy this book.
Life in this era was perfectly described by Ms. Halls along with her pull-you-in writing.
THE LOST ORPHAN has mystery, historical fiction, a main character with agoraphobic problems that stem from an incident in her childhood, secrets, and to what lengths a mother's love takes her. 5/5
This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
May 14, 2020
A very satisfying read, so glad I found my way to this book! It took me immediately into the mid-18th century, with very few, if any anachronisms. In fact, I don't think I ever was jarringly brought back to the present in this book; I really saw and heard and smelled Georgian London at every step. Even though I was mildly unconvinced by the ending, "The Lost Orphan," as my copy is titled, delivered as a historical fiction "page-turner" and as an entree into some truly fascinating historical details, most especially about the eponymous Foundling Hospital.
May 2, 2020
This is a powerful tale that is harrowingly authentic to the times. It is feminist in the sense that the pair of female narrators are strong, independent women who determine their own fates outside of male influence. They are impeccably rendered with rich emotional depth. I love it when an author manages to write an unlikeable female protagonist who still manages to be relatable. Stacey Halls executed that brilliantly with the troubled character of Alexandra, though the character of Bess, determined, pragmatic, and compassionate, is equally noteworthy. Georgian London, in all its cruelty, is a character unto itself. Atmospheric and poignant, this novel of class divide and motherhood is an ode to women’s devotion to their children.
February 5, 2020
What an engrossing and atmospheric read! I actually read this in one day, which is very unusual for me, especially on a work day. But it was very difficult to put down and the pages flew through the fingers. There is a plot device which I'm not entirely sure about but otherwise I think this is a gorgeous and enchanting read that pulls at the heart strings, sometimes for unexpected reasons. My favourite character turned out to be not the one I expected. Another excellent book from Stacey Halls. Review to follow shortly on For Winter Nights.
January 21, 2020
Excellent atmospheric historical novel about a mother's search for her child.
Full review to follow for the tour.
Full review to follow for the tour.
June 4, 2023
I found it endlessly surprising how history would repeat itself, despite a person doing everything in their power to make it otherwise.
London, 1754
Six years after leaving her illegitimate daughter, Clara, at London's Foundling Hospital, Bess Bright returns to reclaim the child she has never known. Dreading the worst - that Clara has died in care - the last thing she expects to hear is that her daughter has already been reclaimed - by her. Her life is turned upside down as she tries to find out who has taken her little girl - and why?
Living less than a mile away from Bess, a young widow has not left her house in a decade. When her close friend - an ambitious young doctor at the Foundling Hospital - persuades her to hire a nursemaid for her daughter, she is hesitant to welcome someone new into her home and her life. But her past is threatening to catch up with her and tear her carefully constructed world apart.
Set against the vibrant backdrop of Georgian London, The Foundling explores families, secrets, class, love, and the meaning of motherhood.
London, 1754
Six years after leaving her illegitimate daughter, Clara, at London's Foundling Hospital, Bess Bright returns to reclaim the child she has never known. Dreading the worst - that Clara has died in care - the last thing she expects to hear is that her daughter has already been reclaimed - by her. Her life is turned upside down as she tries to find out who has taken her little girl - and why?
Living less than a mile away from Bess, a young widow has not left her house in a decade. When her close friend - an ambitious young doctor at the Foundling Hospital - persuades her to hire a nursemaid for her daughter, she is hesitant to welcome someone new into her home and her life. But her past is threatening to catch up with her and tear her carefully constructed world apart.
Set against the vibrant backdrop of Georgian London, The Foundling explores families, secrets, class, love, and the meaning of motherhood.
February 15, 2025
“The landscape of my life had been rubbed away and painted over anew, and I was only beginning to grow used to it.”
I enjoyed Halls’s first novel The Familiars and was less impressed by Mrs England. This is the second novel and is again a historical novel. The concept is based around the Foundling Hospital system. Bess has an illegitimate baby by a married middle class man. She can’t afford to keep it and so takes it to the Foundling Hospital where the child will be raised an orphan. For a fee Bess can claim the child back at a later date. She saves her money and six years later goes back to claim the child, Clara. She discovers the child was claimed the day after she left her there, allegedly by herself.
So it starts. Clara (now Charlotte) is actually living with a woman called Alexandra, whose late husband was actually Clara’s father. Alexandra is agoraphobic and very rarely goes out. Bess accidently finds this out and ends up as nursemaid to Clara. Don’t overthink this, it doesn’t really bear examination!! Bess plots to spirit Clara away to live with her. So is set up an ending which was so completely unbelievable that I had to reread some of it to check I hadn’t fallen asleep and was dreaming. There are two narrative voices, the two women involved.
It all feels like the London of Mary Poppins, lacking only a chimneysweep or two. There were way too many coincidences and don’t even get me started on plot holes. I also wasn’t convinced by the treatment of the agoraphobia. The ending was what really did it; reminiscent of Dickens at his most sentimental. That’s all very well but it was such a contrast to what came before and felt out of place.
I enjoyed Halls’s first novel The Familiars and was less impressed by Mrs England. This is the second novel and is again a historical novel. The concept is based around the Foundling Hospital system. Bess has an illegitimate baby by a married middle class man. She can’t afford to keep it and so takes it to the Foundling Hospital where the child will be raised an orphan. For a fee Bess can claim the child back at a later date. She saves her money and six years later goes back to claim the child, Clara. She discovers the child was claimed the day after she left her there, allegedly by herself.
So it starts. Clara (now Charlotte) is actually living with a woman called Alexandra, whose late husband was actually Clara’s father. Alexandra is agoraphobic and very rarely goes out. Bess accidently finds this out and ends up as nursemaid to Clara. Don’t overthink this, it doesn’t really bear examination!! Bess plots to spirit Clara away to live with her. So is set up an ending which was so completely unbelievable that I had to reread some of it to check I hadn’t fallen asleep and was dreaming. There are two narrative voices, the two women involved.
It all feels like the London of Mary Poppins, lacking only a chimneysweep or two. There were way too many coincidences and don’t even get me started on plot holes. I also wasn’t convinced by the treatment of the agoraphobia. The ending was what really did it; reminiscent of Dickens at his most sentimental. That’s all very well but it was such a contrast to what came before and felt out of place.
September 23, 2020
This is an excellently and beautifully written novel. It's atmospheric and evocative of the period when it takes place. The characters have depth and complexity and their lives touched me and educated me. I was glued to my chair reading this, with feelings of dread, despair, and hope running through me as I worked my way through the 287 pages of thought-provoking story. Sounds like this is a 5-star book, doesn't it? It is, except that it let me down at the very end and that brought my rating down to 4.
This book was released in the U.K. in February of this year with the title THE FOUNDLING. I actually prefer that title to THE LOST ORPHAN, the one given this April 2020 U.S. release. I guess it was thought that we Yanks would not know what a foundling is, so the powers that be who name books were keeping it simple for us? Whatever the case and whatever its name, this sophomore effort by Stacey Halls (after her debut work THE FAMILIARS) is definitely worth the read.
The author brings the Georgian period to life in all its grimy, dirty ugliness for the poor and its sumptuous life for the rich, in the same way that Dickens gave us his complete picture of Victorian times. Dickens' novels were contemporary fiction when published and he used his own early life and his insightful powers of observation to expose socioeconomic disparities of the 1800s. Halls exposes these same disparities of the 1700s but obviously writing historical fiction using great research and an excellent imagination.
This story is narrated by two women: (1) Bess Bright, a young, lower-class boiled shrimp vendor living in the slums with her father Abe and useless brother Ned, and (2) Alexandra Callard, a youngish rich widow living a pampered but extremely limited life.
I found Bess to be an admirable character, hard-working, full of hope and a great attitude, living a difficult life with honor and responsibility. In 1747 she gave birth to an illegitimate daughter and, unable to care for her, delivered her that same day to the Foundling Hospital, hoping some day to save up enough money to reclaim her child. Six years later, in early 1754, Bess goes to do just that, only to find that someone pretending to be her had taken her baby away just one day after Bess had left her at the orphanage. It becomes Bess's mission in life to track down her daughter and reclaim her.
And then there's rich widow Alexandra Callard, living a privileged life in an upscale area of London. Alexandra is an extremely complicated character who was hard for me to understand and like at first, but, as the story progressed, the mystery of why she was the way she was became more clear. See, in spite of having everything she could possibly want, money, a beautiful home, a lovely young daughter, servants to take care of everything, she is a bit of a mess. She's afraid of life. She's cold and withdrawn emotionally, not even showing affection to her own daughter. She does not leave the house except for Sunday worship and does not allow her 6-year-old daughter Charlotte to leave either or to have any friends. She is obsessed with safety and with keeping her home locked up tight.
Bess and Alexandra's lives become entwined when Bess is hired as nursemaid to Charlotte, this through the intervention of Dr. Mead, a director at the Foundling Home where Bess had left her baby years ago and, coincidentally, Alexandra's only friend. It's pretty obvious early on the true connection these two have but there are a few puzzling how's and why's that will be revealed. But, more to the point, this is a great story about social injustice, about motherhood, about love and connection. About what makes for a good mother. What is more important: love and affection in a life of dire poverty, or a life of luxury without that affection?
The point about motherhood and the bond of mother and child would have been better presented with all things being equal, IMO. A mother's love (or at least kindness) in both economic situations. As presented in this story, the result is skewed to a great extent. One other problem I had with this plot is the ending, which is too pat, too tidy, with a too-abrupt personality change for one of the main characters.
Yet the grit, grime, poverty, atmosphere and socioeconomic levels of life in Georgian England are excellently represented here. In addition, the writing is superior and the characters, main and secondary, developed with real depth. This came close to being a 5-star book for me.
This book was released in the U.K. in February of this year with the title THE FOUNDLING. I actually prefer that title to THE LOST ORPHAN, the one given this April 2020 U.S. release. I guess it was thought that we Yanks would not know what a foundling is, so the powers that be who name books were keeping it simple for us? Whatever the case and whatever its name, this sophomore effort by Stacey Halls (after her debut work THE FAMILIARS) is definitely worth the read.
The author brings the Georgian period to life in all its grimy, dirty ugliness for the poor and its sumptuous life for the rich, in the same way that Dickens gave us his complete picture of Victorian times. Dickens' novels were contemporary fiction when published and he used his own early life and his insightful powers of observation to expose socioeconomic disparities of the 1800s. Halls exposes these same disparities of the 1700s but obviously writing historical fiction using great research and an excellent imagination.
This story is narrated by two women: (1) Bess Bright, a young, lower-class boiled shrimp vendor living in the slums with her father Abe and useless brother Ned, and (2) Alexandra Callard, a youngish rich widow living a pampered but extremely limited life.
I found Bess to be an admirable character, hard-working, full of hope and a great attitude, living a difficult life with honor and responsibility. In 1747 she gave birth to an illegitimate daughter and, unable to care for her, delivered her that same day to the Foundling Hospital, hoping some day to save up enough money to reclaim her child. Six years later, in early 1754, Bess goes to do just that, only to find that someone pretending to be her had taken her baby away just one day after Bess had left her at the orphanage. It becomes Bess's mission in life to track down her daughter and reclaim her.
And then there's rich widow Alexandra Callard, living a privileged life in an upscale area of London. Alexandra is an extremely complicated character who was hard for me to understand and like at first, but, as the story progressed, the mystery of why she was the way she was became more clear. See, in spite of having everything she could possibly want, money, a beautiful home, a lovely young daughter, servants to take care of everything, she is a bit of a mess. She's afraid of life. She's cold and withdrawn emotionally, not even showing affection to her own daughter. She does not leave the house except for Sunday worship and does not allow her 6-year-old daughter Charlotte to leave either or to have any friends. She is obsessed with safety and with keeping her home locked up tight.
Bess and Alexandra's lives become entwined when Bess is hired as nursemaid to Charlotte, this through the intervention of Dr. Mead, a director at the Foundling Home where Bess had left her baby years ago and, coincidentally, Alexandra's only friend. It's pretty obvious early on the true connection these two have but there are a few puzzling how's and why's that will be revealed. But, more to the point, this is a great story about social injustice, about motherhood, about love and connection. About what makes for a good mother. What is more important: love and affection in a life of dire poverty, or a life of luxury without that affection?
The point about motherhood and the bond of mother and child would have been better presented with all things being equal, IMO. A mother's love (or at least kindness) in both economic situations. As presented in this story, the result is skewed to a great extent. One other problem I had with this plot is the ending, which is too pat, too tidy, with a too-abrupt personality change for one of the main characters.
Yet the grit, grime, poverty, atmosphere and socioeconomic levels of life in Georgian England are excellently represented here. In addition, the writing is superior and the characters, main and secondary, developed with real depth. This came close to being a 5-star book for me.
August 18, 2023
This is a book I’ve wanted to get to for the longest time. I’ve a special edition of this along with the other books this author has written. For those that know, you know! Netgalley and publishers book are read first.
I saw this come up on my borrowbox audio so reserved it.
What a read!
What a book!
Talk about impact. Intrigue. Sorrow, hope and reality, very authentic of its time period and I was listening to this at every opportunity that I could.
Mystery, suspense and suspicion is all within its pages, and I couldn’t help but put myself in place of the main character.
A truly good read with lots more inside that will blow your mind.
Besides, what a cover!
I can’t wait to read another of her books on my shelf.
The Familiars next? Going to look for it on audio.
I saw this come up on my borrowbox audio so reserved it.
What a read!
What a book!
Talk about impact. Intrigue. Sorrow, hope and reality, very authentic of its time period and I was listening to this at every opportunity that I could.
Mystery, suspense and suspicion is all within its pages, and I couldn’t help but put myself in place of the main character.
A truly good read with lots more inside that will blow your mind.
Besides, what a cover!
I can’t wait to read another of her books on my shelf.
The Familiars next? Going to look for it on audio.
June 7, 2021
Tolle Geschichte, die an einigen Stellen zu konstruiert wirkt. Das Ende war für meinen Geschmack recht konstruiert und kam dann doch sehr schnell. Für mich auch etwas zu sehr in Richtung Happy End geschrieben.
Dennoch empfehlenswert, hat mich gut unterhalten.
Dennoch empfehlenswert, hat mich gut unterhalten.
January 25, 2020
“The Foundling” is written by Sunday Times bestselling author Stacey Halls and is her second novel, after the success of “The Familiars” last year.
Once again this book is attractively presented with a gorgeous cover and is guaranteed to be a beautiful addition to any bookshelf.
Set in London 1754, this historical drama novel focuses on The Foundling Hospital where mothers took their young babies to hopefully be looked after, until they could return and buy them back. The opening pages really broke my heart and as a mother myself I could truly feel the torment of the young women, waiting to see if their baby would be lucky enough to be accepted. The resulting event after one such unlucky woman was so sad.
Although I didn’t quite get the 18th century feeling, more the 19th, I did find the setting very atmospheric. Billingsgate came alive with the shouts of merchants shouting their varied fish and seafood offerings. I could smell and visualise the muddy pathways that seemed prevalent in every turn of the area, with the traps, carriages and horses that travelled on them.
There was a lot of coincidence that benefited the plot but this didn’t distract me from the enjoyment of the story and I thought the author covered mental health issues like agoraphobia, PTSD and paranoia along with grief exceedingly well. Just showing that these issues did exist many many years ago, even if they weren’t diagnosed correctly.
I fell in love with this book instantly and really enjoyed, I’d be happy to recommend Stacey Halls and her books and I hope to read more by her again in the future.
4 stars
Once again this book is attractively presented with a gorgeous cover and is guaranteed to be a beautiful addition to any bookshelf.
Set in London 1754, this historical drama novel focuses on The Foundling Hospital where mothers took their young babies to hopefully be looked after, until they could return and buy them back. The opening pages really broke my heart and as a mother myself I could truly feel the torment of the young women, waiting to see if their baby would be lucky enough to be accepted. The resulting event after one such unlucky woman was so sad.
Although I didn’t quite get the 18th century feeling, more the 19th, I did find the setting very atmospheric. Billingsgate came alive with the shouts of merchants shouting their varied fish and seafood offerings. I could smell and visualise the muddy pathways that seemed prevalent in every turn of the area, with the traps, carriages and horses that travelled on them.
There was a lot of coincidence that benefited the plot but this didn’t distract me from the enjoyment of the story and I thought the author covered mental health issues like agoraphobia, PTSD and paranoia along with grief exceedingly well. Just showing that these issues did exist many many years ago, even if they weren’t diagnosed correctly.
I fell in love with this book instantly and really enjoyed, I’d be happy to recommend Stacey Halls and her books and I hope to read more by her again in the future.
4 stars
November 22, 2023
>>Zwei Frauen...
Ein Kind...
Und ein Geheimnis, dass sie alle verbindet<<
„Die Verlorenen“ von Stacey Halls - London 1754: Die junge Bess Bright, die in bitterer Armut, im Schlamm und Dreck des Londoner Hafens aufgewachsen ist, findet sich von einem Moment zum anderen in einem Alptraum wieder. Vor sechs Jahren musste sie ihre gerade zur Welt gekommene Tochter Clara ins Waisenhaus geben, außerstande, sie zu ernähren. Jetzt, da sie Clara endlich zu sich holen kann, sagt man Bess, dass ihre Tochter schon längst abgeholt wurde. Aber von wem?
...um hinter dieses Geheimnis zu kommen, liegt ein langer Weg vor Bess. Sie muss nicht nur alte Wunden wieder aufreißen, sondern auch in eine Gesellschaft eintauchen und in vielen Schatten graben. Nicht zuletzt ist die Suche nach ihrer Tochter auch ein Weg der Selbstfindung und dem Überwinden all der Hürden der Zeit.
Mir hat dieses Buch wirklich gut gefallen, die Charaktere konnte ich auch auf tieferer Ebene spüren und mitfühlen. Die Geschichte nimmt innerhalb ihrer Entwicklung stetig an Anspannung zu und löst sich erst zum Ende wirklich auf. Doch obwohl wir all die Geheimnisse, all die Schatten erst nach und nach erfahren und entschlüsseln wird es hier absolut nicht langweilig. Für mein Empfinden nehmen die einzelnen Charaktere ganz viel Raum ein und wachsen (wenn auch manchmal in verschiedene Richtungen) innerhalb der Geschichte.
Fazit: Für mich persönlich ein wirklich tolles Buch, das ich sehr gern gelesen haben und indem mir Bess und Clara sehr ans Herz gewachsen sind 💖
Ein Kind...
Und ein Geheimnis, dass sie alle verbindet<<
„Die Verlorenen“ von Stacey Halls - London 1754: Die junge Bess Bright, die in bitterer Armut, im Schlamm und Dreck des Londoner Hafens aufgewachsen ist, findet sich von einem Moment zum anderen in einem Alptraum wieder. Vor sechs Jahren musste sie ihre gerade zur Welt gekommene Tochter Clara ins Waisenhaus geben, außerstande, sie zu ernähren. Jetzt, da sie Clara endlich zu sich holen kann, sagt man Bess, dass ihre Tochter schon längst abgeholt wurde. Aber von wem?
...um hinter dieses Geheimnis zu kommen, liegt ein langer Weg vor Bess. Sie muss nicht nur alte Wunden wieder aufreißen, sondern auch in eine Gesellschaft eintauchen und in vielen Schatten graben. Nicht zuletzt ist die Suche nach ihrer Tochter auch ein Weg der Selbstfindung und dem Überwinden all der Hürden der Zeit.
Mir hat dieses Buch wirklich gut gefallen, die Charaktere konnte ich auch auf tieferer Ebene spüren und mitfühlen. Die Geschichte nimmt innerhalb ihrer Entwicklung stetig an Anspannung zu und löst sich erst zum Ende wirklich auf. Doch obwohl wir all die Geheimnisse, all die Schatten erst nach und nach erfahren und entschlüsseln wird es hier absolut nicht langweilig. Für mein Empfinden nehmen die einzelnen Charaktere ganz viel Raum ein und wachsen (wenn auch manchmal in verschiedene Richtungen) innerhalb der Geschichte.
Fazit: Für mich persönlich ein wirklich tolles Buch, das ich sehr gern gelesen haben und indem mir Bess und Clara sehr ans Herz gewachsen sind 💖
April 9, 2020
Hard times forced unwed mother, Bess Blight to leave her newborn baby, Clara, at London’s Foundling Hospital. Six years of saving and she finally has enough to claim her daughter. However, when she arrives she is stunned to learn she has already been claimed by Bess herself.
Halls quickly pulled me into this tale and my heart bled for Bess. We also meet, Alexandra, a wealth, widowed recluse and her young daughter Charlotte.
Through a young doctor and member of the Foundling Hospital Bess is hired on as a nursemaid for the young daughter and the tale that unfolded quickly pulled me in.
Set in Georgian London, the author paints an accurate picture of life in 1700s London. From the social classes to the hardships facing young women the author smoothly tackles them while shedding light on addiction, poverty and anxiety.
Secondary characters from Bess’s siblings to Doctor Mead added to the tale. We also have elements of romance but these are secondary to the central theme of Bess and her daughter.
Betrayal, love, hardship and the unwavering love of a mother are central themes. We have elements of mystery, suspense and a few unexpected twists as our tale unfolds.
I admit I worried about the conclusion but the author left me content and wrapped things up in an uplifting bow for readers. This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Reviewer
Halls quickly pulled me into this tale and my heart bled for Bess. We also meet, Alexandra, a wealth, widowed recluse and her young daughter Charlotte.
Through a young doctor and member of the Foundling Hospital Bess is hired on as a nursemaid for the young daughter and the tale that unfolded quickly pulled me in.
Set in Georgian London, the author paints an accurate picture of life in 1700s London. From the social classes to the hardships facing young women the author smoothly tackles them while shedding light on addiction, poverty and anxiety.
Secondary characters from Bess’s siblings to Doctor Mead added to the tale. We also have elements of romance but these are secondary to the central theme of Bess and her daughter.
Betrayal, love, hardship and the unwavering love of a mother are central themes. We have elements of mystery, suspense and a few unexpected twists as our tale unfolds.
I admit I worried about the conclusion but the author left me content and wrapped things up in an uplifting bow for readers. This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Reviewer
October 11, 2020
This is a beautifully written hauntingly heartbreaking story.
1747: Unwed mother Bess, a shrimp seller from the docks of London, brings her new born child to the Foundling Hospital with every intention of coming back for her as soon as she feels she is able to properly care for the child.
Six years later Bess arrives to retrieve her child only to find that the child was taken away the very day after she had left her at the hospital by someone pretending to be Bess.
This is a tragedy but also a mystery. Who could have taken her child?
To say anything further would be too much of a spoiler.
I was not especially pleased with the ending, but getting there was certainly worth 5-stars.
1747: Unwed mother Bess, a shrimp seller from the docks of London, brings her new born child to the Foundling Hospital with every intention of coming back for her as soon as she feels she is able to properly care for the child.
Six years later Bess arrives to retrieve her child only to find that the child was taken away the very day after she had left her at the hospital by someone pretending to be Bess.
This is a tragedy but also a mystery. Who could have taken her child?
To say anything further would be too much of a spoiler.
I was not especially pleased with the ending, but getting there was certainly worth 5-stars.
January 9, 2024
Established in 1743 by Thomas Coram, the Foundling Hospital in London was intended to provide shelter, education and maintenance to deserted children, usually the children of poor families (including single women) who weren’t able to care for them. No questions were asked or information obtained from those that came to drop off the children (only babies under 12 months were taken in), but a token and identifying mark was kept as record in case the parent/s wished to reclaim the child at some later stage. The children were given basic facilities, healthcare and education so as to be able to earn their living later as adults. Today the site of the original hospital houses the Foundling Museum while the original charity has become the Thomas Coram Foundation for Children.
The Foundling Hospital in the mid-eighteenth century forms the background for novelist Stacey Halls’ second work of historical fiction, also titled The Foundling, which was published in 2020 and explores themes of motherhood, family relationships, class and class divides, among others.
Bess Bright is a young woman working as a shrimp girl, selling shrimp on the London streets while her father Abe sells the same in the fish markets raw. Her brother Ned who also lives with them works as a sweeper but has taken to drink which means he is always under the influence and out of money. Their mother has died years ago. Bess as the story opens is heading to the Foundling Hospital with a baby girl she just gave birth to, Clara to leave at the hospital. We soon learn that she intends to reclaim her when she is able to look after her and this moment arrives for her after some years by which point she has saved what seems to her a princely sum, to be paid into the hospital for the care given. Also with the help of her new friend Kezia, Bess has put together a wardrobe of clothes and some other things for little Clara, getting everything ready to welcome her. But when she goes to collect her, she is stunned to find that Clara is not at the facility, not dead as she feared, but already taken away, by someone claiming to be her! Shocked, Bess is determined to find out what happened to Clara.
Meanwhile in another part of the city and from a very different social segment is Alexandra, a woman older than Bess and a widow living comfortably in a fine London home, with her daughter and servants to attend them. As we witness her every day life though we find things are not quite ‘normal’ for she keeps confined to the house at all times, hardly ever going out and ever fearful of anyone coming in. At her friend and doctor’s suggestion Alexandra agrees to hire a nursemaid for her daughter but the entry of someone new into the household changes her life in ways she had not anticipated, causing her also to face the past and things that have shaped her life into what it’s become.
Against the background of time and class, we explore the personal stories of these women as they unfold and intersect with surprising outcomes.
The Foundling is an engaging read which while given context by the Foundling Hospital is essence the story of the two women whose stories we follow, their relationship with their children (Bess whose daughter has disappeared from the hospital and Alexandra who shares a difficult relationship with hers) and their family as well as the different shades and aspects of their lives in light of both personal stories and circumstances as also the class differences that define each.
As someone who wasn’t aware of the Foundling Hospital, I was glad to learn of it and see a picture of an institution that wasn’t the typical (think Jane Eyre) stark and cruel place, but one which seemed to look after its children well and make sure they were given the education to be able to earn their livings later. The building itself and surroundings were open and cheerful, again a contrast with the typical portrait of charitable institutions one forms of the period. There were, however, come cruel aspects in the lottery system that the organisation had to employ (a draw to see which children would be admitted and which not)—on the one side, not all in need being able to find the shelter their infants wouldn’t survive without (understandable), on the other and more heart-wrenching, the way the lottery system actually played out as almost an entertainment for patrons. As with Halls’ previous book, the period details are excellently done and I also liked the inclusion of real-life figures like Dr Richard Mead, doctor to among others Queen Anne and who also supported the hospital.
Both Bess and Alexandra are very different characters but each is interesting in their own right. I found my sympathies inclining towards one than the other, even though on learning the other’s story one does begin to understand why she might be the way she is. Bess is a hard worker who doesn’t dislike her station in life even if it requires hard work, means living in far from the best of circumstances even if they have a roof over their head and food to eat; she has a supportive father though her brother can be trouble, but having toiled over years to put together the money to fetch her daughter back only to find her gone can’t but shake her. Yet, she doesn’t allow this to shatter her dreams and sets out to find Clara, with strength and resolve. Alexandra on the other side has the best of everything, yet is in a prison of her own creation, justified perhaps by circumstances but something that can’t but take its toll. Ultimately it is both external occurrences and facing the past which play a role in changing this.
The story is structured with sections of the book shifting between Bess and Alexandra, the reader aware of links more than is clearly stated, and more than some characters in the book are, though even then some questions remain. Answers and a surprise or two do come one’s way as one reads.
There are tense moments where one is reading on to see how things play out and also a bit of drama, but I loved that the resolution was restrained and quiet, things for both women taking a turn we didn’t anticipate and yet more than satisfactory.
I enjoyed this as much as I did Halls’ debut The Familiars and am looking forward to reading Mrs England soon!
Review (with a few images) on my blog: https://potpourri2015.wordpress.com/2...
The Foundling Hospital in the mid-eighteenth century forms the background for novelist Stacey Halls’ second work of historical fiction, also titled The Foundling, which was published in 2020 and explores themes of motherhood, family relationships, class and class divides, among others.
Bess Bright is a young woman working as a shrimp girl, selling shrimp on the London streets while her father Abe sells the same in the fish markets raw. Her brother Ned who also lives with them works as a sweeper but has taken to drink which means he is always under the influence and out of money. Their mother has died years ago. Bess as the story opens is heading to the Foundling Hospital with a baby girl she just gave birth to, Clara to leave at the hospital. We soon learn that she intends to reclaim her when she is able to look after her and this moment arrives for her after some years by which point she has saved what seems to her a princely sum, to be paid into the hospital for the care given. Also with the help of her new friend Kezia, Bess has put together a wardrobe of clothes and some other things for little Clara, getting everything ready to welcome her. But when she goes to collect her, she is stunned to find that Clara is not at the facility, not dead as she feared, but already taken away, by someone claiming to be her! Shocked, Bess is determined to find out what happened to Clara.
Meanwhile in another part of the city and from a very different social segment is Alexandra, a woman older than Bess and a widow living comfortably in a fine London home, with her daughter and servants to attend them. As we witness her every day life though we find things are not quite ‘normal’ for she keeps confined to the house at all times, hardly ever going out and ever fearful of anyone coming in. At her friend and doctor’s suggestion Alexandra agrees to hire a nursemaid for her daughter but the entry of someone new into the household changes her life in ways she had not anticipated, causing her also to face the past and things that have shaped her life into what it’s become.
Against the background of time and class, we explore the personal stories of these women as they unfold and intersect with surprising outcomes.
The Foundling is an engaging read which while given context by the Foundling Hospital is essence the story of the two women whose stories we follow, their relationship with their children (Bess whose daughter has disappeared from the hospital and Alexandra who shares a difficult relationship with hers) and their family as well as the different shades and aspects of their lives in light of both personal stories and circumstances as also the class differences that define each.
As someone who wasn’t aware of the Foundling Hospital, I was glad to learn of it and see a picture of an institution that wasn’t the typical (think Jane Eyre) stark and cruel place, but one which seemed to look after its children well and make sure they were given the education to be able to earn their livings later. The building itself and surroundings were open and cheerful, again a contrast with the typical portrait of charitable institutions one forms of the period. There were, however, come cruel aspects in the lottery system that the organisation had to employ (a draw to see which children would be admitted and which not)—on the one side, not all in need being able to find the shelter their infants wouldn’t survive without (understandable), on the other and more heart-wrenching, the way the lottery system actually played out as almost an entertainment for patrons. As with Halls’ previous book, the period details are excellently done and I also liked the inclusion of real-life figures like Dr Richard Mead, doctor to among others Queen Anne and who also supported the hospital.
Both Bess and Alexandra are very different characters but each is interesting in their own right. I found my sympathies inclining towards one than the other, even though on learning the other’s story one does begin to understand why she might be the way she is. Bess is a hard worker who doesn’t dislike her station in life even if it requires hard work, means living in far from the best of circumstances even if they have a roof over their head and food to eat; she has a supportive father though her brother can be trouble, but having toiled over years to put together the money to fetch her daughter back only to find her gone can’t but shake her. Yet, she doesn’t allow this to shatter her dreams and sets out to find Clara, with strength and resolve. Alexandra on the other side has the best of everything, yet is in a prison of her own creation, justified perhaps by circumstances but something that can’t but take its toll. Ultimately it is both external occurrences and facing the past which play a role in changing this.
The story is structured with sections of the book shifting between Bess and Alexandra, the reader aware of links more than is clearly stated, and more than some characters in the book are, though even then some questions remain. Answers and a surprise or two do come one’s way as one reads.
There are tense moments where one is reading on to see how things play out and also a bit of drama, but I loved that the resolution was restrained and quiet, things for both women taking a turn we didn’t anticipate and yet more than satisfactory.
I enjoyed this as much as I did Halls’ debut The Familiars and am looking forward to reading Mrs England soon!
Review (with a few images) on my blog: https://potpourri2015.wordpress.com/2...
February 4, 2020
Stacey Halls just might be my favourite historical novelist now. You can’t really make that call after one book, but now I’ve read her second and it’s as equally good as what her first was, so she can officially rank as a favourite now. For those who have read The Familiars, expect something different with this one – and isn’t that one of the best examples of literary talent: the ability to write each book different, to not write to formula, or stick to what worked for you before. The Foundling, like The Familiars before it, is historical fiction, but that’s where the similarities end.
‘My own daughter was inside, her fingers closing around thin air. My heart was wrapped in paper. I had known her hours, and all my life. The midwife had handed her to me, slick and bloodied, only this morning, but the Earth had turned full circle, and things would never be the same.’
The Foundling is a story of two women living lives as far removed from each other as possible. It’s a rather feminist story, which I appreciated greatly, and very atmospheric. Within each woman’s perspective, the reader was invited to step into their lives, be it gilded or impecunious, and to experience what day to day living might have been like for an 18th century woman living in London. Connected by a man and a child, these two women overcome much to eventually work together towards a mutual solution to their problem. In this, the novel really shines, as it depicts each woman assuming agency over her own life.
‘These feminine vessels we inhabited: why did nobody expect them to contain unfeminine feelings? Why could we, too, not be furious and scornful and entirely altered by grief? Why must we accept the cards we had been dealt?’
Alexandra was a complex character, not at all like what she appeared to be on the surface. She comes across as emotionally unresponsive, but she is stitched together with trauma, and as more and more details are revealed as the novel progresses, it becomes impossible to take her at face value. Bess was less complex, but driven by a mother’s love and fury at her circumstances costing her the ability to fulfil that role, and in this, she was a formidable character with much about her to be admired.
The Foundling Hospital within the novel is based upon a real place that existed within that time, but this novel is driven more by its characters than by historical events. Stacey Halls knows her craft though, and she has such a talent at creating mood and atmosphere, at conveying emotion through gesture as well as words. She is certainly an author who has earned her place as an historical novelist of note. Just as I raved about The Familiars last year, I will quite happily rave about The Foundling this year.
Thanks is extended to Allen & Unwin for providing me with a copy of The Foundling for review.
‘My own daughter was inside, her fingers closing around thin air. My heart was wrapped in paper. I had known her hours, and all my life. The midwife had handed her to me, slick and bloodied, only this morning, but the Earth had turned full circle, and things would never be the same.’
The Foundling is a story of two women living lives as far removed from each other as possible. It’s a rather feminist story, which I appreciated greatly, and very atmospheric. Within each woman’s perspective, the reader was invited to step into their lives, be it gilded or impecunious, and to experience what day to day living might have been like for an 18th century woman living in London. Connected by a man and a child, these two women overcome much to eventually work together towards a mutual solution to their problem. In this, the novel really shines, as it depicts each woman assuming agency over her own life.
‘These feminine vessels we inhabited: why did nobody expect them to contain unfeminine feelings? Why could we, too, not be furious and scornful and entirely altered by grief? Why must we accept the cards we had been dealt?’
Alexandra was a complex character, not at all like what she appeared to be on the surface. She comes across as emotionally unresponsive, but she is stitched together with trauma, and as more and more details are revealed as the novel progresses, it becomes impossible to take her at face value. Bess was less complex, but driven by a mother’s love and fury at her circumstances costing her the ability to fulfil that role, and in this, she was a formidable character with much about her to be admired.
The Foundling Hospital within the novel is based upon a real place that existed within that time, but this novel is driven more by its characters than by historical events. Stacey Halls knows her craft though, and she has such a talent at creating mood and atmosphere, at conveying emotion through gesture as well as words. She is certainly an author who has earned her place as an historical novelist of note. Just as I raved about The Familiars last year, I will quite happily rave about The Foundling this year.
Thanks is extended to Allen & Unwin for providing me with a copy of The Foundling for review.
March 5, 2020
Set in London in 1754, Bess Bright makes the heartbreaking decision to leave her illegitimate newborn baby at the Foundling Hospital in London, promising herself that she will come back to claim her daughter as soon as she can. Years later, Bess returns only to find her daughter has already been claimed, by her. So begins the mystery of The Foundling by Stacey Halls.
Stacey Halls has done it again. The Familiars was set in 1612 around the Pendle witch trials and was an absorbing read about two women from different classes coming together to help one another. Somehow, Stacey Halls has managed to effortlessly set another tale about two women from different classes 150 years later in Georgian London without missing a beat. The Foundling has been written in such a unique storytelling style that from the first page I knew immediately I was in expert hands once again.
Here's an example of her writing from Page 119:
"With the excess of Christmas behind and spring a way off, it was a dull, dead period, a time of hibernation and renewal, in which to reintroduce good habits, turn mattresses and repair wigs."
In addition to being an engaging historical mystery, The Foundling by Stacey Halls is also an absolute delight to hold in the hand. With a stunning cover design with spot UV and metallic foiling on the front and back, the edition I have is the floppy kind with nice big font and delightful chapter markers to indicate the character's perspective about to unfold. I recall remarking on the beauty of The Familiars too and the design team have outdone themselves again here. I enjoyed seeing The Foundling on my bedside table and will be sad to shelve it along with my other 5 star reads where I won't be able to admire the cover on a daily basis.
There's been much praise for Stacey Halls, however I don't agree with Cosmopolitan that Halls is 'The new Hilary Mantel'. She is nothing like Mantel and I believe the comparison builds an inaccurate association in the minds of potential readers. If I had to characterise Stacey's writing, I'd say it was a meeting of the minds between Philippa Gregory and Diane Setterfield.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Foundling by Stacey Halls. It had all of the ingredients I love in an historical fiction novel and I highly recommend it.
* Copy courtesy of Allen & Unwin *
Stacey Halls has done it again. The Familiars was set in 1612 around the Pendle witch trials and was an absorbing read about two women from different classes coming together to help one another. Somehow, Stacey Halls has managed to effortlessly set another tale about two women from different classes 150 years later in Georgian London without missing a beat. The Foundling has been written in such a unique storytelling style that from the first page I knew immediately I was in expert hands once again.
Here's an example of her writing from Page 119:
"With the excess of Christmas behind and spring a way off, it was a dull, dead period, a time of hibernation and renewal, in which to reintroduce good habits, turn mattresses and repair wigs."
In addition to being an engaging historical mystery, The Foundling by Stacey Halls is also an absolute delight to hold in the hand. With a stunning cover design with spot UV and metallic foiling on the front and back, the edition I have is the floppy kind with nice big font and delightful chapter markers to indicate the character's perspective about to unfold. I recall remarking on the beauty of The Familiars too and the design team have outdone themselves again here. I enjoyed seeing The Foundling on my bedside table and will be sad to shelve it along with my other 5 star reads where I won't be able to admire the cover on a daily basis.
There's been much praise for Stacey Halls, however I don't agree with Cosmopolitan that Halls is 'The new Hilary Mantel'. She is nothing like Mantel and I believe the comparison builds an inaccurate association in the minds of potential readers. If I had to characterise Stacey's writing, I'd say it was a meeting of the minds between Philippa Gregory and Diane Setterfield.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Foundling by Stacey Halls. It had all of the ingredients I love in an historical fiction novel and I highly recommend it.
* Copy courtesy of Allen & Unwin *
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