Scan barcode
A review by danaisreading
The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies by Alison Goodman
4.0
The cover of this book is a bit of a symbol for the story - a pleasant wrapper hiding the darkness within. Most Regency novels paint a positive picture of the time, but this one isn't afraid at all to show a bit what life could be like for some people in that time.
Fraternal twins Lady Julia and Lady Augusta for the most part have a comfortable life, even if they are both 42 and firmly "on the shelf." Julia had been engaged, but her fiancé died in an accident a couple of years before the opening of the novel, while Gus had never gotten that far. As a result, they are considered spinsters and they have a fair amount of time on their hands. This leads them to do what they can to resolve the unfair treatment of women who don't have the means to escape their lot in life.
The novel is made up of three separate "cases", but with one common theme - rescuing women left in appalling conditions. The first is a noble woman locked in her bedroom because she couldn't have children, and so her husband leaves her to die so he can remarry and find someone to give him his all-important heir. The second is about rescuing a 14-year-old girl who was kidnapped from an orphanage and sold into a brothel. And the third deals with liberating another noble woman from a madhouse, who was locked up by a brother simply because she is a lesbian.
The three cases themselves are satisfactorily resolved and complete. This could be forgiven as a mini collection of short stories. What ties these all together into a single cohesive novel are the characters themselves. And there is a bit of a cliffhanger at the end of the novel, but that has to do with solving a 20 year old mystery involving one of the characters.
Goodman writes well, and I liked the main characters. They are probably more forward thinking than others of that time, but I can't say it was too anachronistic or jarring. I think that has more to do with the theme of the book, and the reader's desire to see the women they assist given their (relative) freedom from their captivity.
Because the book is so overwhelmingly dark, it's hard to say I enjoyed reading it. It's not something that many people could read all at once, however engaging Julia and Gus are. But I do look forward to the next novel in this series.
Fraternal twins Lady Julia and Lady Augusta for the most part have a comfortable life, even if they are both 42 and firmly "on the shelf." Julia had been engaged, but her fiancé died in an accident a couple of years before the opening of the novel, while Gus had never gotten that far. As a result, they are considered spinsters and they have a fair amount of time on their hands. This leads them to do what they can to resolve the unfair treatment of women who don't have the means to escape their lot in life.
The novel is made up of three separate "cases", but with one common theme - rescuing women left in appalling conditions. The first is a noble woman locked in her bedroom because she couldn't have children, and so her husband leaves her to die so he can remarry and find someone to give him his all-important heir. The second is about rescuing a 14-year-old girl who was kidnapped from an orphanage and sold into a brothel. And the third deals with liberating another noble woman from a madhouse, who was locked up by a brother simply because she is a lesbian.
The three cases themselves are satisfactorily resolved and complete. This could be forgiven as a mini collection of short stories. What ties these all together into a single cohesive novel are the characters themselves. And there is a bit of a cliffhanger at the end of the novel, but that has to do with solving a 20 year old mystery involving one of the characters.
Goodman writes well, and I liked the main characters. They are probably more forward thinking than others of that time, but I can't say it was too anachronistic or jarring. I think that has more to do with the theme of the book, and the reader's desire to see the women they assist given their (relative) freedom from their captivity.
Because the book is so overwhelmingly dark, it's hard to say I enjoyed reading it. It's not something that many people could read all at once, however engaging Julia and Gus are. But I do look forward to the next novel in this series.