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Young and timid but full of sturdy good sense and awakening sophistication, Lily Wilson arrives in London in 1844, becoming a lady’s maid to the fragile, housebound Elizabeth Barrett. Lily is quickly drawn to her mistress’ s gaiety and sharp intelligence, the power of her poetry, and her deep emotional need. It is a strange intimacy that will last sixteen years.
It is Lily who smuggles Miss Barrett out of the gloomy Wimpole Street house, witnesses her secret wedding to Robert Browning in an empty church, and flees with them to threadbare lodgings and the heat, light, and colors of Italy. As housekeeper, nursemaid, companion, and confidante, Lily is with Elizabeth in every crisis–birth, bereavement, travel, literary triumph. As her devotion turns almost to obsession, Lily forgets her own fleeting loneliness. But when Lily’s own affairs take a dramatic turn, she comes to expect the loyalty from Elizabeth that she herself has always given.
Praise for Lady's Maid
“[A] wonderful novel . . . fully imagined and persuasive fiction.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Absorbing . . . heartbreaking . . . grips the reader's imagination on every page . . . [Margaret] Forster paints a vivid picture of class, station, hypocrisy and survival in Victorian society.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Extremely readable . . . The author's sense of the nineteenth century seems innate.”—The New Yorker
“Highly recommended . . . an engrossing novel of the colorful Browning ménage.”—Library Journal
“Delightful . . . entertaining.”—Vogue
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
August 22, 2012 -
Formats
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780307823021
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780307823021
- File size: 2241 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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February 4, 1991
British novelist Forster (Georgy Girl ), whose biographies include Elizabeth Barrett Browning , lures the reader into the attic of the famous house on Wimpole Street, where Barrett's maid, Elizabeth Wilson, composes copious letters to her mother in the North Country. Her correspondence, the fulcrum of the novel, describes her daily experiences, her impressions of the large household and, especially, her sickly but charismatic mistress. Wilson's devotion is such that she forsakes her homeland, her family, a suitor and even her own reputation in order to aid Miss Elizabeth and her suitor Mr. Browning when they elope to Europe. At this point, the novel falters; Forster is not quite capable of juggling the glamorous settings, Wilson's frustrations (the Brownings, though generous in their affection, cannot see Wilson as other than a servant), her difficult marriage and family life. Wilson's ambivalence about Miss Elizabeth, whom she loves and resents, is the most interesting aspect of the novel, but despite otherwise sensitive handling, it is almost glibly resolved in the conclusion. On the whole, however, this is top-drawer historical fiction, akin to the TV series Upstairs, Downstairs in its appeal and its overtures toward discussions of class. 50,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo. -
April 27, 1992
Elizabeth Wilson, maid to Elizabeth Barrett, witnesses with ambivalence her sickly but charismatic mistress's affair with Robert Browning. This example of top-drawer historical fiction was a BOMC main selection in cloth.
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