Slammerkin (9780156007474) Emma Donoghue |PaperBackSwap.com

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Slammerkin
Author: Emma Donoghue

Book Information

Publisher: Harvest Books
Book Type: Paperback

Rating:

165

ISBN-13: 9780156007474 - ISBN-10: 0156007479
Publication Date: 5/1/2002
Pages: 408

Book Reviews

Other Versions of this Book: Hardcover

Book Description:

Born to rough cloth in working-class London in 1748, Mary Saunders hungers for linen and lace. Her lust for a shiny red ribbon leads her to a life of prostitution at a young age, where she encounters a freedom unknown to virtuous young women. But a dangerous misstep sends her fleeing to Monmouth and the refuge of the middle-class household of Mrs. Jones, to become the seamstress her mother always expected her to be and to live the ordinary life of an ordinary girl. Although Mary becomes a close confidante of Mrs. Jones, her desire for a better life leads her back to prostitution. She remains true only to the three rules she learned on the streets of London: Never give up your liberty; Clothes make the woman; Clothes are the greatest lie ever told. In the end, it is clothes, their splendor and their deception, that lead Mary to disaster.
Emma Donoghue's daring, sensually charged prose casts a new sheen on the squalor and glamour of eighteenth-century England. Accurate, masterfully written, and infused with themes that still bedevil us today, Slammerkin is historical fiction for all readers.

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TagsHistorical Fiction, Prostitution in London 1748, England, Prostitution

Genres:

Literature & Fiction >> Genre Fiction >> Historical

Top Member Book Reviews

Naiche A. (Naiche) wrote on 4/11/2007...

7 member(s) found this review helpful.

Very cool book about a poor girl in Victorian England who discovers that she can assert some level of finacial and emotional independence by becoming a prostitute. Her drive to avoid being someone else's chattel leads her to a number of drastic, and often unwise, decisions. Good portrayal of the severely limited number of options given to women historically. Also interesting because it refuses to romanticise the protagonist - you cheer her on her paths to freedom, but despise her willingness to abuse others to get the things she wants (and you pity her short-sightedness). Despite the cover picture, not a bodice-ripper by any means.

Beverly D. (Brezybev) wrote on 4/16/2007...

6 member(s) found this review helpful.

This book is terrific! If you're interested in the 1700s England/Wales, how young girls made money then (including prostitution), and class issues, this is the book for you. I loved the writing style. Donaghue wrote from the main character's point of view until the very end of the book when she switches to the POV of other characters also. It worked very well to give a larger picture of the story. I loved this book!

Beverly C. (bevychap) wrote on 7/15/2007...

5 member(s) found this review helpful.

I picked up this book because I enjoyed The Crimson Petal and the White (Michael Faber) so much. This was very much in the same vein, a historical character study of a prostitute, but heavier on the character study and lighter on the romance feminist triumph. Mary was one of those characters that you know you should hate, but end up loving and siding with as the book develops.

Overall, not a great, but a reasonably good novel on the life of a prostitute in the mid 18th century. Worth reading.

Julie W. wrote on 7/3/2007...

5 member(s) found this review helpful.

What a disapointment. The book started out so good, dark and mysterious...but then became endlessly dull in the middle and the ending was anti-climatic and predictable.

When I read this I was unaware that it was a fictionalized acount of a real person, but even knowing that did not help this book at all. I was amazingly unimpressed.

Vikki C. (Vikki) wrote on 11/4/2006...

5 member(s) found this review helpful.

Watching Mary try to rise above her period-enforced station, taking shortcuts to satisfy her longings, is much like watching a slow motion train wreck. You know she ends up in the gaol as the story starts that way and watching her impetuosity telegraphs how she gets there.