Review
Another big winner from one of my favorite contemporary authors, Sarah Waters, and therefore highly recommended for fans of her other work (namely Fingersmith and Tipping the Velvet). It's similar to those novels in that it takes place in Victorian era England and features a female protagonist and her spiritual/sexual awakening, but it is a wholly different sort of story.
Margaret Prior is an upper middle class woman grieving the recent death of her father. He was a scholar and indulged her intellect and interest in scholarly pursuits. And so when he died so did her hopes of living a life of her choosing. Now she lives with her repressive mother and soon-to-be married younger sister. There's also the inconvenient fact that her brother has married her former lover.
In order to put all of this behind her Margaret has decided to volunteer as a 'lady visitor' at Millbank prison. A 'lady visitor' in those days would visit and converse with the prisoners and hopefully be a positive influence on their wayward lives. The descriptions of female prison life in this era alone made this a worthy and fascinating read. But proper Margaret surprises even herself when she becomes fixated on one particular prisoner named Selina Dawes - a psychic medium imprisoned for a spiritualist session gone very wrong.
The story is a mystery, a character study and even a love story of sorts. I will say that while all of Waters novels possess a sense of sadness and subterfuge, this one is the bleakest of them all. I never tire of reading about this time period and marvelling at how it's both so alien and so similar to our current times. Very highly recommended!
Margaret Prior is an upper middle class woman grieving the recent death of her father. He was a scholar and indulged her intellect and interest in scholarly pursuits. And so when he died so did her hopes of living a life of her choosing. Now she lives with her repressive mother and soon-to-be married younger sister. There's also the inconvenient fact that her brother has married her former lover.
In order to put all of this behind her Margaret has decided to volunteer as a 'lady visitor' at Millbank prison. A 'lady visitor' in those days would visit and converse with the prisoners and hopefully be a positive influence on their wayward lives. The descriptions of female prison life in this era alone made this a worthy and fascinating read. But proper Margaret surprises even herself when she becomes fixated on one particular prisoner named Selina Dawes - a psychic medium imprisoned for a spiritualist session gone very wrong.
The story is a mystery, a character study and even a love story of sorts. I will say that while all of Waters novels possess a sense of sadness and subterfuge, this one is the bleakest of them all. I never tire of reading about this time period and marvelling at how it's both so alien and so similar to our current times. Very highly recommended!
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