"Mary Saunders, a lower-class London schoolgirl, was born into rough cloth but hungered for lace and the trappings of a higher station than her family would ever know. In 18th-century England, Mary's shrewd instincts will get her only so far, and she despairs of the plans made for her to carve out a trade as a seamstress or a maid. Unwilling to bend to such a destiny, Mary strikes out on a painful, fateful journey all her own. Inspired by the obscure historical figure Mary Saunders, Slammerkin is a provocative, graphic tale and a rich feast of an historical novel. Author Emma Donoghue probes the gap between a young girl's quest for freedom and a better life and the shackles that society imposes on her. "Never give up your liberty."This book is anti-erotica, depressing, but amazingly written. One of the best books I’ve read in a long while, one that stays with you. As dreadful as some of the characters are, they are all engaging. Even the main character of the story isn't inherently likable. But rather coarse, broken and vain, but still something makes you wish her a better life maybe purely out of human compassion. There is a beautiful array of female characters, who all show different aspects of being a woman in 18th-century society.
It's about a girl who is forced into prostitution by a heartless world (London in the eighteenth century) and who progresses in the course of the book from an innocent to the most depraved of humanity. This book is just a slow ebbing of Mary’s innocence. You think she lost it entirely when her mother threw her out of the house, but she kept finding new ways to build up hope and then destroy it. Simultaneously naïve and worldly, really.
The story wends its way from beginning to end and is interesting and readable, but it is a crabbed view of humanity, without any hope of redemption or joy. I enjoyed reading it once but its not one of those books I will seek out again.
Age Rating I would say strongly 15+. Trust me on this.
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