“A powerful, authentic voice for a generation of women whose struggles were erased from history—a heart-smashing debut that completely satisfies.”—Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and SweetA young woman finds the most powerful love of her life when she gives birth at an institution for unwed mothers in 1883 Philadelphia. She is told she must give up … Philadelphia. She is told she must give up her daughter to avoid lifelong poverty and shame. But she chooses to keep her.
Pregnant, left behind by her lover, and banished from her Quaker home and teaching position, Lilli de Jong enters a home for wronged women to deliver her child. She is stunned at how much her infant needs her and at how quickly their bond overtakes her heart. Mothers in her position face disabling prejudice, which is why most give up their newborns. But Lilli can’t accept such an outcome. Instead, she braves moral condemnation and financial ruin in a quest to keep herself and her baby alive.
Confiding their story to her diary as it unfolds, Lilli takes readers from an impoverished charity to a wealthy family’s home to the streets of a burgeoning American city. Drawing on rich history, Lilli de Jong is both an intimate portrait of loves lost and found and a testament to the work of mothers. “So little is permissible for a woman,” writes Lilli, “yet on her back every human climbs to adulthood.”
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One of the best books I’ve read in years. Couldn’t put it down! This authors debut. Can’t wait to see what else she writes.
This is a different cover than the one I read. Don’t go by the cover. This book must have been recommended to me and I’m glad I read it. An amazing historical fiction of a young unmarried mother and the trials she went through.
We take for granted the safe hospitals and childbirth procedures now in place, it wasn’t always so.
Don’t miss this one was a slow read because it was so detailed for me anyway.
Popular 19thC French historian Jules Michelet believed that a nation’s history should not focus on its institutions and leaders but on its people, especially the poor, the dispossessed, the oppressed, what he called les silences de l’histoire. In Lilli de Jong, a novel set in 19thC Philadelphia, Janet Benton gives one of those silent histories—the poor wet nurses serving the infants of the wealthy—a determined, anguished, heartrending voice that reveals as much about 19thC urban America as it does about her titular character.
This novel is a must read for anyone who was moved by The Handmaid’s Tale. While Atwood’s novel takes its readers to a dystopian future and fictionalizes an authoritarian patriarchal society that harshly subjugates women, Benton’s novel is a stark reminder that a mere three or four generations ago, our ancestors lived in that world. Unlike Atwood’s Offred, Benton’s Lilli has no Mayday resistance network to give her hope. Her plight is that of an unmarried mother who is stigmatized as immoral by a society that holds blameless the complicit men. A particularly devastating theme running through the book is that these women are frequently victims of abuse at the hands and attitudes of other women as well.
Lilli’s Dickensian travails through the historically accurate mean streets of 1880’s Philadelphia rend both the heart and the head. Lilli’s faith and will to survive are tested at every turn. Were the book purely a work of speculative fiction, it might be possible to read it from a comfortable distance and flip the page to find out what happens next. But knowing that the neighborhoods, the privation, the prejudice, the almshouse/hospital where 85-100% of foundlings died, the resource-starved Haven for wronged women and their infants…knowing they were all real boggles the mind. Despite Lilli’s preternatural ability to praise the rare, small kindnesses she encounters during her odyssey, her diary is a powerful and poetic testament to human kind’s inhumanity and the ease with which we are capable of vilifying and victimizing even a mother’s inextinguishable love for her child.
Not light reading. Well written and sad .
This novel reveals the disproportionate bias and hypocrisy of the time toward women. The duality of religion is graphically portrayed.
Heartbreaking with unpredictable twists. Well written & realistic for the Quaker culture.
A believable and surprisingly relatable story about women’s reality over a hundred years ago. I cared about Lilli and felt as if I were walking by her side as she suffered the well-intentioned yet cruel judgments of her contemporaries. I highly recommend this book.
Thoroughly enjoyed reading about a culture that is unfamiliar
The main character was well developed and believable. This book is worth reading though a little predictable.
Fascinating story!
Historical fiction
Lilli De Jong is living in Philadelphia with a conservative community of Quakers in 1883. She is in love with Johan who is leaving to look for work in Pittsburgh and once established will send for her. They both would like to marry. A mishap occurs and Lilli finds out that she is pregnant after Johan leaves town. She is in a difficult situation because she has not heard from Johan during her pregnancy.
The options are bleak for an unwed mother should she decide to keep her baby. She is left with three options surrounding the birth of her child. Put the baby up for adoption and go back to her former life. Keep her baby and live a life filled with hardships and negative social stigma. Search for her fiance and pursue marriage while finding a means to support herself and her child. Lilli decides to leave home to have her baby at a haven for unwed mothers. She will delay her decision until the baby is born.
This novel is a wonderful story about love and the intense bond that a mother instantaneously feels for her child. This book made me appreciate how society has changed for women and how much easier our lives are today. This is a beautiful debut novel by Janet Benton and one of my favorite reads of the year.
This is a meticulously researched book (be sure to read the Author’s note) that grabs you by the heart and doesn’t let you go. Lilli is a character that will stay with you for a long time. Beautifully written. Can’t wait for Janet Benton’s next book!
This book should be in the hands of every teenager. A lesson to be learned.
Lilli de Jong is a touching story of a lonely, unwed mother in the late 1800’s, and the lengths she will go to in order to provide for and protect her child. In the face of unrelentingly cruel circumstances, a theme of great love resounds throughout this novel, leaving the reader hoping for a happily ever after. This is a hauntingly beautiful story that is full of heart.
Kudos to Janet Benton , Author of “Lilli de Jong” for writing such a captivating, emotional, intriguing and compassionate novel. The Genres for this novel are Historical Fiction and Fiction. The timeline for this story is around 1883, and the location is mostly Philadelphia. I appreciate the historical research and the resources that the author has used to create this novel. The author discusses that during this time in history, one of the worst crimes that a woman can do, is to conceive a child out-of-wedlock. Often these young women were forced to leave their homes and disowned by their families, and were outcasts. They were encouraged to give up their babies. The survival of these “bastards’” as the children were called was very slim.
The author describes her characters as complex and complicated. There is a difference shown between wealth and poverty. Lilli de Jong , a Quaker who grew up in Germantown believes that her lover will marry her. She winds up pregnant, and abandoned. In 1883 a single, unwed mother to be had very few choices. Lilli does find an institution for unwed mothers, and lives and works there. Like most of the young women there, it is expected that Lilli will give up her baby. These women feel shame , guilt and are frightened.
Lilli notices that after the women give birth, they often have to nurse more than one child. Their babies are taken away, and their prospects are very slim. When Lilli gives birth, she finds herself in love with her little girl, and can’t give her away. In order to survive, Lilly has to find work. She works for a wealthy family nursing their little boy, and cleaning their home. While Lilli works, she has to find someone to nurse and take care of her baby. Often these wet-nurses would feed several babies in terrible conditions.
I love that the author discusses that women have to work hard to survive, despite prejudice and being ostracized from their homes and community. These women have no rights, are discriminated against, and yet to survive they have to be brave, relentless, and courageous. This time period shows no regard or equality for women. I highly recommend this novel to readers who appreciate Historical Fiction.
A bit depressing at times, but still a good easy read.
Thought I would like a book about the Quakers in Philadelphia, but it was too hard to read. There were too many “thee’s and thou’s” for my taste.