Product Description

Sunderland during the cholera epidemic of 1832 is bitterly divided between the rich, who believe they have nothing to fear from a disease which afflicts mainly the poor, and the disenfranchised, who fear cholera is part of a plot to exterminate them. Through the streets of the city walks Gustine, a prostitute, followed by the Eye, an old woman paid by her pimp to keep Gustine under constant surveillance. Gustine has joined forces with a surgeon forced out of Edinburgh in the wake of the Burke & Hare body-snatching scandal. Henry operates an Anatomy School but has no bodies with which to teach; Gustine, moving among the week and dying, comes across bodies all the time. He believes she can help him advance medical science, and she believes if he becomes a better doctor, he can save the life of her critically ill baby.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #923486 in Books
• Published on: 2001-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Dress Lodger, a prostitute's passion for her vulnerable baby and the disgraced doctor who might save him, is engrossing historical fiction. As with all the best fictional history, Sheri Holman's atmospheric, miasmic tale of cholera-struck Sunderland in 1831 is based on fact. "Grave: A place where the dead are laid to await the coming of the medical student": this epigraph casts the novel's thematic lodestone, steering the reader into a deathly plot pursued through streets emanating the sounds, insufferable smells, humour, adversities and disease of an early 19th-century industrial town.

Gustine--the dress lodger--is a potter's assistant by day, sex worker by night. Her overbearing pimp and landlord has her permanently shadowed by the indefatigable, mysterious old woman known only as Eye to guard his investment in the startling blue dress in which she rents herself, explaining that: "dress lodging works on this basic principle: a cheap whore is given a fancy dress as a higher class of prostitute, the higher the station of the clientèle; the higher the station, the higher the price." Gustine's dress beckons a high-class punter pursued by a dubious fallen past in the figure of Dr Henry Chiver, an ambitious young surgeon who has fled Edinburgh to escape the professional scandal attending on his implication in the convictions of infamous pioneer anatomists Burke and Hare for murder and graverobbing. The heart is the favourite organ, "the singular fascination of his life", for Henry Chiver, desperate to re-establish his tarnished reputation through medical discovery. For this, and his paying students restless for induction into the arts of the scalpel, Chiver requires dead bodies for dissection, to the horror of his naïve, philanthropic fiancée Audrey Place. But it is 1831: the Anatomy Act has yet to pass through parliament to enable medics to legally obtain the corpses so critical to their accurate practice, and a suspicious public is terrifying itself with stories of murderous "burkers".

Streetsmart Gustine, "a rented self", hostile pragmatist trapped in unrelenting poverty, is all heart for her nameless little son who wears--literally--his heart on the outside, a rare case of ectopia cordis; just the kind of anatomical anomaly whose study would make the name of the aspirant but stigmatised Henry. Amid the gathering momentum of cholera epidemic, the two strike up a fatal pact: life for Gustine's son in exchange for a fresh supply of dead bodies for Chiver's scientific dissection. With mordant Dickensian wit and Elizabeth Gaskell's deft touch for gutsy outcast women seizing control of their destiny, Holman carves out a richly imaginative adventure as incisive and gruesomely fascinating as a 19th-century operating theatre. --Rachel Holmes

Charles Frazier
'Sheri Holman vividly and convincingly conjures a fully-textured fictive past peopled with strange and true characters'

Review
'Sheri Holman vividly and convincingly conjures a fully-textured fictive past peopled with strange and true characters' - Charles Frazier

'A Southern Gothic imagination applied to graveyard horrors in the anatomy schools of nineteenth century England in the grip of the worst cholera epidemic in history. Sheri Holman writes with extraordinary assurance and style' - Miranda Seymour

'Quite Dickensian, in the best sense . . . the vigour of the style - tremendous, confident pace (I always like a novel where one know the writer is tightly in charge of the reins) is matched by a knowledge of the period and its concerns which seems to come from within. By half way I was quite enthralled . . . This is one of those historical novels which as a passionate, angry feel to it, making it more than entertainment (though it is certainly entertaining.) It bothers to get right not just the detail of clothes/food/place but the tempo of the times - that is a very difficult thing to pull off' - Margaret Forster

'I found it a riveting read, thoroughly enjoyable. From the first page I felt confident that I was in the hands of a real writer with an individual voice - literate, witty, intelligent, thoughtful - I still don't understand how she grew up in " rural Virginia" and wrote this book' - Kate Atkinson

'As with all the best fictional history, Sheri Holman's atmospheric, miasmic tale of cholera-struck Sunderland in 1831 is based on fact . . . With mordant Dickensian wit and Elizabeth Gaskell's deft touch for gutsy outcast women seizing control of their destiny, Holman carves out a richly imaginative adventure as incisive and gruesomely fascinating as a 19th-century operating theatre' Amazon UK

'Lurid and fascinating second novel . . . An atmospheric tale that may have readers gasping for air. Another stunner from a gifted and versatile new master of historical fiction' Kirkus Reviews

'A page-turning scenario of body-snatching and broken promises . . . The novel's period detail is as terrifying as any more fanciful flights. Holman is a confident writer with a high-voltage imagination' Independent

'An entertainingly atmospheric yet careful historical account. It shows a confidence and sophistication expected from a more mature, experienced writer, with a real feel for detail . . . Genuinely entertaining, too - Holman knows when to shine light in the right places, so that in spite of the brutality and the dirt, the inner lives of the characters get a chance to breathe' Glasgow Herald

'Impressive and crackling authenticity . . . The smells, sounds and hideous sights of the time and place are convincingly reproduced with confidence and literary poise' - The Times

'A true Gothic nightmare tale' Cosmopolitan

'A book which blurs the edges between fact and fiction, seamlessly blending historical figures with fictional characters and creating some controversy in the process . . . An absorbing and thought-provoking novel. You will find its almost palpable images, evoked with extraordinary clarity by the writer, stay with you long after you have finished it' Time Out

'Scrawny and tough, only 15, Gustine is the heartrending protagonist of Holman's brilliantly stark portrayal of 19th-century urban life, class warfare, cruel medicine and encroaching pestilence in the English city of Sunderland. With remarkable breadth and depth, the narrative vividly portrays the human suffering spawned by the early Industrial Revolution . . . .Holman delivers a wealth of morbid, authentic detail . . . [her] style is risky and direct, treating scenes . . . With unflinching emotional precision. This dazzlingly researched epic is an uncommon read' Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

'One of the most imaginative and beautifully written books of recent months is Sheri Holman's wonderfully evocative story The Dress Lodger. . . atmospheric and sometimes chilling yarn' Ms London

'Holman's febrile characters and clammy prose cast a ghoulish spell' The Times

'Sheri Holman vividly and convincingly conjures a fully-textured fictive past peopled with strange and true characters' (Charles Frazier )

'I found it a riveting read, thoroughly enjoyable. From the first page I felt confident that I was in the hands of a real writer with an individual voice - literate, witty, intelligent, thoughtful' (Kate Atkinson )

'A page-turning scenario of body-snatching and broken promises . . . The novel's period detail is as terrifying as any more fanciful flights. Holman is a confident writer with a high-voltage imagination' (Independent )

'Impressive and crackling authenticity . . . The smells, sounds and hideous sights of the time and place are convincingly reproduced with confidence and literary poise' (The Times )

‘Sheri Holman’s prose, tart, racy and sombre, will sing in your soul a long while’ (Frank McCourt )

'It shows a confidence and sophistication expected from a more mature, experienced writer, with a real feel for detail' (The Herald - Glasgow )

'Atmospheric and sometimes chilling yarn' (MS London )

'A writer with high voltage imagination'

'A remarkable literary achievement... Her historical detail is breathtaking ' (Sunderland Echo )

Customer Reviews

Gruesome but fascinating
Not a jolly topic at all but this book about 19th Century grave robbers is fascinating to say the least. It's not riveting but quite distubring in places. It's difficult to say it's 'enjoyable' but I found the characters well-rounded and the plot convincing. I don't if it is historically accurate or not but a wonderful tale of a doctor and dress lodger is developed in the cholera stricken Sunderland during 1831.

Although I'm from the north east it was not a Sunderland I was ever likely to know however it was fun to read about places I actually knew. This aside, the story is gripping. Be prepared to put it down regularly for a cup of coffee as it is actually difficult in places but on the whole a worth while experience.

DON'T BOTHER
DREADFUL BOOK, GHASTLY FROM THE START. HAD TO READ THIS FOR MY BOOKCLUB BUT I COULDN'T FORCE MYSELF BEYOND PAGE 40 - TOO MANY OTHER BRILLANT BOOKS OUT THERE.

An atmospheric novel, gruesome in places but spellbinding
I bought this book because I am from Sunderland! I'm very glad I did. Of course the Sunderland I know bears no resemblance to the Sunderland featured here. It's a dark tale, full of death and disease but please don't be put off. Sheri Holman creates characters that spring to life and yes, they may be (mostly) unpleasant but I found myself really feeling for them and I certainly wanted to know what fate had in store for them.
If you want to read something different that will challenge your mind and your senses, try this!