Slammerkin
- ISBN-10
- 0547443293
- ISBN-13
- 9780547443294
- Series
- Slammerkin
- Category
- Fiction
- Pages
- 352
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2002-05-01
- Publisher
- Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- Author
- Emma Donoghue
Description
Slammerkin: A loose gown; a loose woman. Born to rough cloth in Hogarth's London, but longing for silk, Mary Saunders's eye for a shiny red ribbon leads her to prostitution at a young age. A dangerous misstep sends her fleeing to Monmouth, and the position of household seamstress, the ordinary life of an ordinary girl with no expectations. But Mary has known freedom, and having never known love, it is freedom that motivates her. Mary asks herself if the prostitute who hires out her body is more or less free than the "honest woman" locked into marriage, or the servant who runs a household not her own? And is either as free as a man? Ultimately, Mary remains true only to the three rules she learned on the streets: Never give up your liberty. Clothes make the woman. Clothes are the greatest lie ever told.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Room
By Emma DonoghueRoom reaffirms our belief in humanity and the astounding resilience of the human spirit. This updated and revised edition was published to coincide with the Broadway premiere in Spring 2023.
-
Frog Music: A Novel
By Emma DonoghueArthur raps the floor with his crystaltopped cane. “Where's your sense of hospitality?” he scolds his friend. Jenny places the steak on the folded newspaper on the carpet. In the manner of a magician who's seen better days, ...
-
Life Mask: A Novel
By Emma DonoghueIn all the confusion he'd forgotten his cane. Could he have set it down in a dark corner of the stage after making his last exit? He ran up the steps and went in behind the flats. There was Eliza. She must have retreated from the crowd ...
-
The Sealed Letter
By Emma DonoghueHer novel Slammerkin was a Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and was named a notable book of the year by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and a host of other publications.She received a BA from University College Dublin ...
-
Slammerkin
By Emma DonoghueHaving grown up working class, her lust for lace and linen leads Mary Saunders to prostitute herself.
-
Touchy Subjects
By Emma DonoghueIt was a very cold look she gave him . Surely she couldn't think he meant it ? A touchy subject , clearly . ( Weren't they all , these days ? ) Padraic knew he should never make jokes when he was nervous .
-
Hood: A Novel
By Emma DonoghueThis book's real pleasures lie in its intimate insights, its accurate characters and its sharp, rich observations... the greatest achievement of Hood is how it captures the domesticity of erotic passion” – Boston Globe Penelope ...
-
The Pull of the Stars
By Emma DonoghueWith tireless tenderness and humanity, carers and mothers alike somehow do their impossible work. In The Pull of the Stars, Emma Donoghue tells an unforgettable and deeply moving story of love and loss.
-
Akin
By Emma DonoghueNoah went into his room and got them out for another look. That one of a poseur with a cane. (No, that wasn't fair; it had been as common for a stylish man to sport a cane in the 1940s as it was to wear sunglasses today.) ...
-
Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins
By Emma DonoghueIn these fairy tales, women young and old tell their own stories of love and hate, honor and revenge, passion and deception.