The Dress Lodger

sheri holman wanda mccaddon

In sinister industrial England, fifteen-year-old Gustine is a "dress lodger," a prostitute who rents a beautiful blue dress from her landlord to attract a higher class of clientele. By day a potter's assistant, by night a courtesan of the streets, Gustine works to support her fragile only child, born with a remarkable anatomical defect. Surgeon Henry Chiver is a prisoner of his own past, implicated in a series of killings in Edinburgh in which beggars were murdered so that the corpses could be sold to medical schools. He has come to Sunderland to start a new life, but his anatomy school is chronically short of teaching cadavers. Doctor and dress lodger come together in the filthy, overgrown end of town where, during an epidemic of cholera, Gustine secures bodies for Henry--until his greed and his growing obsession with her child begin to threaten everything she has worked so hard to protect. The Dress Lodger, a cunning historical thriller charged with a distinctly modern voice, is the book that launched Sheri Holman into bestsellerdom.

Genres historical fictionfictionhistoricalbook clubbritish literature19th centurymysteryadultnovelsvictorian

0 pages, MP3 CD

First published January 1,1998

Literary awards

library of virginia literary award,

Places

sunderland england,

This edition

Format: 0 pages, MP3 CD
Published: August 1, 2000 by Blackstone Audiobooks
ISBN: 9780786196050
ASIN: 078619605X
Language: English

Characters More characters

Gustine

...
Dr. Henry Chiver

...

About the author

sheri holman

Sheri Holman graduated from The College of William and Mary in 1988, mastering in Theatre. From there, she became an assistant to a literary agent. In that time, she began to write her first novel, A Stolen Tongue. It was published in 1996. She then went on to write "The Dress Lodger," which was published in 1999. Sheri Holman also wrote "Sondok, Princess of the Moon and Stars," which was published in 2002; and "Mammoth Cheese," which published in 2003. Sheri Holman now lives in Brooklyn, New York with her family.