Sheri Holman skillfully uses her considerable talent to expose the ugly face of grinding poverty. A cholera epidemic is spreading rapidly in 18th Century England, the first of many such plagues. Preying primarily on the poor, the authorities are unable to isolate the cause. A central and most poignant character is Gustine, a potter's apprentice by day and a "Dress Lodger" by night.
A Dress Lodger is a young woman hired by a slum landlord, chosen from his boarding house patrons, to wear a dress purchased by him second-hand. Her job is to make nightly rounds selling her favors as a woman of quality, albeit a prostitute. The concept in itself is dehumanizing, but for Gustine, this costume allows her to pretend to be untouched by the men who roughly use her body. Unwedded, Gustine works two jobs, day and night, in order to provide for her baby, born with his tiny heart almost exposed on his chest. Everything she does is for the care of this helpless infant; he is all she loves in the world. An aged woman assigned by the landlord to watch over the dress, doggedly follows Gustine's every evening, walking the streets like her shadow.
During one evening's excursion, Gustine happens upon a doctor, Henry Chiver, searching for corpses for his anatomy students to dissect, in effect a grave robber. But Gustine believes that Chiver is pure of heart, perhaps the very man to save her baby; when Doctor Chiver demands full possession of Gustine's child, something she is unwilling to concede.
Holman wields her plotlines masterfully toward inevitable resolution, the shocking choices made by the desperate characters, victims of poverty and their own human nature. This is never a pretty story, rather quite a difficult read, but the author challenges the reader for courage enough to face reality as fearlessly as she presents her truth. Luan Gaines.
