The Dress Lodger

by Sheri Holman

Book Overview

In a novel set in the filth and depravity of London's mean streets during the Industrial Revolution, a prostitute borrows a blue dress to attract a higher class of client and is shadowed through the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0871137534
• ISBN13: 9780871137531
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Pr
• Length: 291 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.3" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

A masterful, haunting narrative

The book has a rare, marvellous, even poetic style. It is extremely well crafted and constructed literature, and I can't wait for her next book.The author masterfully re-creates England of the early last century, from the extreme poverty to the classist attitudes of the poor--something most period-pieces forget--as well as the rich. We are caught in a world of whores, disease, grave-robbers, and ladies. The author does not judge or euphemize: she simply re-creates and recounts. As a result, every detail of the book takes on a glowing vividness.By far, the best aspect of the book is its narrative. One aspect that pleased me was the author's way of bringing us close to the characters and events and then distancing us at crucial moments, making the events seem hauntingly real. As such, the book has a sort of tension and a feeling of uneasiness that keept me reading anxiously, even in the happiest moments. It is in the book's masterful control of the plot, characters, and even of the reader--particularly in the second-to-last chapter--that you know that you are in the presence of someone who will become a great writer.The Lodger is divided into two halves. In the first, we learn essentially not to judge a book by its cover; in the second, we learn that you cannot change what you are. These themes exist programmatically as well - in the first, the plot lures you into false conceptions about itself and in the second, the plot plays with the idea of a "historical novel" by leading you into several possible outcomes. Thankfully, though the author is aware of narratological and generic aspects, she does not use them as cheap gimmics, nor does she give them full keel. The author seems to know as much about controlling the author as about controlling the plot.The one unpleasant aspect of the book is/are the narrators. Most of the work is written in a simple, third-person narrative, but there are occasional intrusions by first-person-plural narrators. These latter narrators exist in the past as well as in the present and detract from the period-authenticity of the book. These narrators feel free to mix contemporary and modern slang and use British together with American orthography (+neighbour+ and +jail+, respectively). Even when I understood their narratological function, I found they jerked me around too much. Then again, I am an editor and tend to be somewhat anal. There are also a few small things that were left unanswered, for example, did Dr. Clanny recognise Gustine as the body snatcher?On the whole, the book is excellent.

historical fiction at its best

Such a strange coincidence that the 2 books I bought at Border's included Ambrose Bierce...the quotation by him to begin "The Dress Lodger" and the title of the other..."Ambrose Bierce and the Queen of Spades." Caleb Carr's "The Alienist" got me intrigued with life during the 19th century. I have since looked for books that dealt with this period of time. I read a review of "The Dress Lodger" in the Detroit Free Press and knew that I would be fascinated by it. I was not disappointed. Gustine and Dr. Chiver led me on a historical jaunt through an England that was beset by cholorus morbus...the deadly cholora. Holman gripped me in the first chapter. Her way of telling this story seemed quite unique to me. While the book is quite morbid in its content, her characters are well drawn-out. I could empathize with Fos, Pink, and especially Gustine. I've passed this on to a friend and purchased Holman's first, looking forward to another great story. At 54 years old, I'm learning about the history that I didn't learn in school. I have purchased non-fiction books on Teddy Roosevelt, WWI (about the flu that killed millions of people that I never heard about), and now cholera. Maybe I can share with my students the facts that I wasn't aware of.

Not your usual "historical novel"

This is a terrific novel,and not only because it has a gripping plot (which it does); it has that rare quality which I can only, for lack of a better word, call world-creation. A great deal of historical fiction, however painstakingly researched, reminds one more than anything of *other* historical fiction. Holman's book doesn't: it gives you a sense of place, a sense of things happening -- with a kind of doomed intensity -- in that place, which seems completely original. I've done enough reading in the area to know that this book is very accurate about its historical "sources" (body snatching, the cholera epidemic in the area). But what I loved about the book was how little that mattered -- just how caught up I was in the world the writer created.I'm saying too much: this is a great read!

History and horror are a great mix

Welcome to Sunderland, England. It's 1831. Rats are everywhere. Frogs are invading from the filthy river. A cholera epidemic is killing the poor. It's a great time to be alive. OK, not really. But it is the setting Sheri Holman chose for her wonderful new novel, "The Dress Lodger," a historical thriller that isn't afraid to horrify. Think of it as Dickens with a touch of Stephen King. Cholera is killing the poor of Sunderland, a city placed under a economically crippling quarantine. Henry Chiver, a doctor whose reputation was almost destroyed by a grave-robbing scandal, struggles to understand the epidemic, but his work is stymied by the superstitious townspeople. The other principal character, Gustine, offers to help Chiver find the corpses needed for his medical research. Gustine is a factory worker by day, but, at night, slips on a blue dress and sells her body to rich men. She also is the mother of a remarkable baby born with an exposed heart. Gustine's relationship with Chiver is strained by the doctor's growing fascination with the baby. An ominous chorus narrates the story. The identity of the chorus is ultimately revealed, adding to the novel's haunting atmosphere. The book also teems with beautifully written sequences that are shocking, amusing and moving. A 6-year-old girl emulates her only positive role model: a ferret. A cruel, cyclopean hag melts at the sight of Gustine's baby. "The Dress Lodger" is about science and commerce, rich and poor, and the sacrifices made in the name of progress. Holman writes in a modern voice that make the issues examined in "The Dress Lodger" seem relevant today, which is exactly what they are.

Oh, This Woman Can Write!

Every now and then a book comes along and socks you in the jaw. The Dress Lodger is like that. The writing is like Dickens with an attitude. Holman is free from the fetters of Victorian propriety, thrusting us into the dismal life of a 15 year old prostitute named Gustine, complete with the quesy aspects of her evening's work. The title comes from the dress she rents from her landlord; with it, or rather following it is an old hag called the Eye, whose sole reason in life is to guard the dress. Gustine is the hero of this book,but other characters include a young doctor just recently escaped from charges of graverobbing, a child born with a remarkable birth defect, and a girl who wants to be a ferret.Interesting ? You bet. Holman can create characters worthy of Dickens or Hardy, but there's something of the vivisectionist in her, for she reveals all.