Emma Donoghue

Slammerkin

Slammerkin: A loose gown; a loose woman. Born to rough cloth in Hogarth's London, but longing for silk, Mary Saunders's eye for a shiny red ribbon leads her to prostitution at a young age. A dangerous misstep sends her fleeing to Monmouth, and the position of household seamstress, the ordinary life of an ordinary girl with no expectations. But Mary has known freedom, and having never known love, it is freedom that motivates her. Mary asks herself if the prostitute who hires out her body is more or less free than the "honest woman" locked into marriage, or the servant who runs a household not her own? And is either as free as a man? Ultimately, Mary remains true only to the three rules she learned on the streets: Never give up your liberty. Clothes make the woman. Clothes are the greatest lie ever told.

Mary Saunders was a young woman who just wanted the finer things in life, but it seemed that her time period didn't give her many options.

I personally loved this book. It was very accurate in depicting the tough decisions that women had for a life in the time period. Mary could have either married young or gone into a service or trade. She didn't have much choice, and a foolish decision led to her downfall. After being turned out, I think she survived as best she could for a girl of only fourteen. I feel like her decisions made sense given the fact that she was still young and foolish in many life matters, regardless of her expertise in others. I liked how we jumped between different character viewpoints, but wished that we had seen more of Dolly. It was actually ended in such a way that you can be OK walking away and not need to know more.

It's definitely a great book for someone who enjoyed Crimson Petal and the White and other similar novels.

Anna Pinto

Lindsay

Set in London and Monmouth in the late 1700s, this is an extraordinary novel about Mary Saunders, the young daughter of a poor seamstress. Mary hungers greedily for fine clothes and ribbons, as people of her class do for food and warmth. It's a hunger that lures her into prostitution at the age of thirteen. Mary is thrown out by her distraught mother when she gets pregnant and almost dies on the dangerous streets of London. Her saviour is Doll - a prostitute. Mary roams London freely with Doll, selling her body to all manner of 'cullies', dressed whorishly in colourful, gaudy dresses with a painted red smile. Faced with bad debts and threats upon her life she eventually flees to Monmouth, her mother's hometown, where she attempts to start a new life as a maid in Mrs Jones's house. But Mary soon discovers that she can't escape her past and just how dearly people like her pay for yearnings not fitting to their class in society...

Slammerkin

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