The Governess
“The art of life is to believe … Believe in the power of God, in His better judgment, to trust Him that each person was accorded a life for a reason” – so says Jane Adams’ merchant father often to her while she’s growing up in rural 19th-century England. When he dies, Jane is forced to seek employment and finds a position as governess for the children of the wealthy Cavendish family, presided over by imperious Lady Cavendish and her wastrel nephew, whose children Jane is now enlisted to instruct in Noorilhuda’s long, detailed, and frequently absorbing novel, The Governess.
Jane is a remarkable, well-drawn character, a woman who has known pain and hardship in her life and refused to let it curdle her. A great deal of the pleasure of this sedately-paced novel comes from watching her slowly and subtly change the lives of everyone connected with the Cavendish family.
The novel itself has slight style and format questions (the cover is blurry and the author’s penchant for triple-exclamation points should have been curbed by a strict editor), but the story in these pages is a very satisfying – and ultimately uplifting – one that will win over all but the most skeptical readers.
