description: In Sunderland, England, a city quarantined by the cholera epidemic of 1831, a defiant, fifteen-year-old beauty in an elegant blue dress makes her way between shadow and lamplight. A potter's assistant by day and dress lodger by night, Gustine sells herself for necessity in a rented gown, scrimping to feed and protect her only her fragile baby boy. She holds a glimmer of hope after meeting Dr. Henry Chiver, a prisoner of his own dark past. But in a world where suspicion of medicine runs rampant like a fever, these two lost souls will become irrevocably linked, as each crosses lines between rich and destitute, decorum and abandon, damnation and salvation. By turns tender and horrifying, The Dress Lodger is a captivating historical thriller charged with a distinctly modern voice....
language: English
title: The Dress Lodger
titlecomplete: The Dress Lodger
characters: Gustine, Dr. Henry Chiver
genres: Fiction, Historical, Medicine, Mystery, British Literature, Adult, Novels, 19th Century, Historical Fiction, Victorian
ratings_count: 7814
places: Sunderland, England
awards: awardedAt: 978336000000
name: Library of Virginia Literary Award
category: Fiction
publisher: London: Sceptre/Hodder and Stoughton, 1999.