The House of Hope (The House of Help for Friendless Girls, 1)
The word ‘hope’ has a double significance in this novel of 19th-century Sheffield. The House of Hope is a refuge which takes in friendless girls in trouble. There they are nursed back to health, trained, and prepared to return to the world of work. Hope is also the alias adopted by one of the main characters when she is dumped, obviously bloodstained and secretly pregnant, on the steps of the house. She pretends she has lost all memory of her past, even her name. With the help of the matron, Hetty, with her young sister, Amelia, Hope begins to recover and even flourish in her new surroundings. The plot gives an unexpected twist to the conventional fate of the Victorian fallen woman.
There are more surprises. Hetty has a mysterious past, and Amelia looks as if she might get into serious trouble. A substantial cast with walk-on parts add depth, Yorkshire accents and occasional dialect words to the story, which is written in the kind of language that would delight the author’s English teacher’s heart – structured sentences and a wide vocabulary that doesn’t send you scurrying for the dictionary.
The House of Hope is a comfortable book to read; the plot is realistic, and the main characters are consistent. There are surprises, but no ghoulish shocks. A character has been raped and Victorian childbirth was notoriously gory, but these events are handled smoothly, not in protracted detail. We are not down and dirty with Dickens in the workhouse. The winter is cold, but no-one starves or freezes to death. In fact, the benefactors get cream with their scones for afternoon tea. A nice bedtime read.
