This book has an elaborate and unlikely plot involving petty theft, pornography, and the madhouse. It is set in the Victorian era, and must have taken an absolute mountain of research, because it is extraordinarily rich in detail. The author really knows a lot about London life of the period, which is fun. There is plenty on dog-skin coats, and public hangings, and as a bonus a potty which has a huge eye painted on the inside, and writing that says: WASH ME OUT AND KEEP ME CLEAN/ AND I’LL NOT TELL OF WHAT I’VE SEEN. Gross!
Some of it was charming, as when a petty thief goes outside of London. She has never left the city before, and is completely underwhelmed by the countryside. She describes looking out of the windows of the stately home where she is staying and seeing only horrible scenes of ‘fields and trees’.
This same thief, who is quite sane, SPOILER ALERT is taken to the madhouse. This part was really horrifying. It was truly a prison you could not escape. It made me think a lot about Britney Spears, and Vivian Eliot, and Gertrude Beasley, and I’ll just say it again, thank god for feminism.