- Hardcover: 400 pages
- Publisher: Manilla Press (6 Feb. 2020)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1838770062
- ISBN-13: 978-1838770068
Synopsis
London, 1754. Six years after leaving her illegitimate daughter Clara at London’s Foundling Hospital, Bess Bright returns to reclaim the child she has never known. Dreading the worst, that Clara has died in care, she is astonished when she is told she has already claimed her. Her life is turned upside down as she tries to find out who has taken her little girl – and why.
Less than a mile from Bess’s lodgings in the city, in a quiet, gloomy townhouse on the edge of London, a young widow has not left the house in a decade. When her close friend – an ambitious young doctor at the Foundling Hospital – persuades her to hire a nursemaid for her daughter, she is hesitant to welcome someone new into her home and her life. But her past is threatening to catch up with her and tear her carefully constructed world apart.
Review
The Foundling is the much anticipated second book from Stacey Hall, author of last years bestseller The Familiars. Like the first book, this book has two very strong female lead characters, and again the idea of motherhood is prevalent. That is where the similarities end though. Set in mid eighteenth century Georgian England, Bessie Blight finds herself pregnant, the father dead, so has no choice but to take her baby daughter, Clara, to The Foundling Hospital. Over six years later , Bessie saves the money required to pay for her daughter’s care and take her back, only to find she is no longer there. And so starts the mystery of what happened to Bessie’s daughter, and brings Bessie in to the world of Alexandra, locked away in her town house with her daughter Charlotte. Full of historical detail and wonderful characters, this is an intriguing and thought provoking read.
There are many contrasts in this book, between, social situations, family etc, and none so apparent as the two main characters, Bessie and Alexandra. Bessie lost her mother young, and lives with her father and brother in two rooms on Ludgate Hill. It is cold, and dark with no home comforts to speak off, but is home to Bessie, a place that has happy memories of her mother ingrained, in the walls. In contrast Alexandra is a rich widow and lives in a town house in Bloomsbury, with her daughter and servants. Where Bessie has freedom, Alexandra is trapped in her home, frightened of going outside, Bessie wants her daughter, loves her although she doesn’t have her, whereas Alexandra has no maternal feeling, but has money for luxuries. These circumstances open questions of what motherhood means, and is it better to have love, freedom but be poor, or have all the luxuries money can buy, but no maternal love and not being allowed outside.
Stacey Halls writes with such insight and understanding to the social history of the eighteenth century. The Foundling Hospital was a place of hope for mothers who could not keep their baby for any reason, a place they knew their baby would be cared for, and, if at a later date they are in better circumstances they can reclaim their child. But it is never that simple, and the idea of it being a lottery, where the mother and baby’s fate are in the hands of a coloured ball seems dreadful and cruel; not all babies could be taken in, so some were sent away leaving the mothers with a difficult decision. Not only did these mothers face this uncertainty, it was enacted in front of the rich beneficiaries, like a social spectacle; the poor being exploited by the rich. Stacey Hall’s brings the stench, and dirt of London to life, the poor tenements with children running barefoot and wild, the multi cultural society all trying to make a living, and the bustle of the markets. I loved this attention to detail, it brought the book even more alive for me.
The Foundling is an insightful, accomplished and intriguing read. Stacey Halls captures the eighteenth century beautifully in her writing and also in her characters. This story, of two very different women, in very different circumstances went to my heart, divided by class but united by a young child their story is engaging, riveting and wholly captivating. This has the perfect mix of historical fact and fiction, and is another stunning read, I can’t wait to see what she writes next.
I would like to thank Manilla Press and Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers for inviting me to be part of the blog tour, in return for an honest review.
