Slammerkin

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.