“Fascinating . . . The reader is treated to a revealing account of the passionate romance between Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning through the eyes of an intimate observer.”—Booklist Young and timid but full of sturdy good sense and awakening sophistication, Lily Wilson arrives in London in 1844, becoming a lady’s maid to the fragile, housebound Elizabeth Barrett. Lily is quickly drawn … is quickly drawn to her mistress’ s gaiety and sharp intelligence, the power of her poetry, and her deep emotional need. It is a strange intimacy that will last sixteen years.
It is Lily who smuggles Miss Barrett out of the gloomy Wimpole Street house, witnesses her secret wedding to Robert Browning in an empty church, and flees with them to threadbare lodgings and the heat, light, and colors of Italy. As housekeeper, nursemaid, companion, and confidante, Lily is with Elizabeth in every crisis–birth, bereavement, travel, literary triumph. As her devotion turns almost to obsession, Lily forgets her own fleeting loneliness. But when Lily’s own affairs take a dramatic turn, she comes to expect the loyalty from Elizabeth that she herself has always given.
Praise for Lady’s Maid
“[A] wonderful novel . . . fully imagined and persuasive fiction.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Absorbing . . . heartbreaking . . . grips the reader’s imagination on every page . . . [Margaret] Forster paints a vivid picture of class, station, hypocrisy and survival in Victorian society.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Extremely readable . . . The author’s sense of the nineteenth century seems innate.”—The New Yorker
“Highly recommended . . . an engrossing novel of the colorful Browning ménage.”—Library Journal
“Delightful . . . entertaining.”—Vogue
more
Very informative book about the life of EBB and her ladies maid,Wilson. Enjoyed reading about her life.
Good, but depressing circumstances throughout.
l loved all the characters some was sad some was kind all blended together to make a good read when I had to stop reading I could not wait to start again..
Very interesting book – author is a little too wordy some times, but that is part of the interest in story. Would recommend it.
Slow reading
Too slow moving. I gave up at around 30% read
Interesting viewpoint of life w/Elizabeth Barrett, and her time period. Informative view of the rich, the servant class and the changes coming between the classes.
The best kind of historical fiction – characters firmly based on real people and with excellently-researched period detail including mores, manners, and everyday living. As soon as I finished it, I had to find out what happened to all the “real people” in it after the period the book covers.