Lady's Maid [Paperback]

Margaret Forster (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 1992

"Absorbing...Heartbreaking...Forster paints a vivid picture of class, station, hypocrisy and survival in Victorian society....Grips the reader's imagination on every page."
-- SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
She was Elizabeth Barrett's lady's maid. But "Wilson" was more than that. She was a confidante, friend and conspirator in Elizabeth's forbidden romance with Robert Browning. Wilson stayed with Elizabeth for sixteen years, through every trial and crisis, and when Wilson's affairs took a dramatic turn she expected the same loyalty from Elizabeth....

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Elizabeth Wilson, maid to Elizabeth Barrett, witnesses with ambivalence her sickly but charismatic mistress's affair with Robert Browning. This example of top-drawer historical fiction was a BOMC main selection in cloth.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Until Wilson appeared, it seemed impossible to the agonizingly sensitive and delicate Elizabeth Barrett that anyone could replace the beloved Crow, who had deserted her mistress to marry a baker. As retiring as her new mistress and adept at ministering to the sick, the new maid soon establishes herself as the invalid poetess's defender and companion, even accompanying her in her elopement with Robert Browning. Thus begins an intense relationship that is to become the burden and support of each of their lives. Forster brilliantly explores the uneasy intimacy between mistress and servant, working-class girl and educated lady of leisure to produce a compelling character study and an engrossing novel of the colorful Browning menage. This London Times best seller is highly recommended. --Cynthia Johnson Whealler, Cary Memorial Lib., Lexington, Mass.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 558 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (April 28, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0449907155
• ISBN-13: 978-0449907153
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,554,290 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Completely engrossing, February 22, 2000

By 

Elizabeth K. (Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lady's Maid (Paperback)

I began reading the book (a library copy) while staying with a friend who had checked it out and only got as far as the first few chapters before I went home. I finally got my hands on my own copy and finished it in a matter of a couple of days. What a treasure!

Forster truly captures the feelings and struggles between the servant-class and the gentry of the era. Too often with books and movies of the period we only see the servants as floating background characters that announce guests, deliver tea-trays, and see to the horses. We forget that often these are humans with feelings and difficult lives.

We see Wilson torn from everything she holds dear in the course of the story. Each time she loses, she steels her resolve and is stronger, but more cynical over time. Yet her devotion to the Browning family never wavers. Elizabeth Barrett Browning holds Wilson in thrall; and for the most part the reverse is true as well.

A touching, sad tale.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly engaging novel of Victorian times, May 31, 2003

By 

A. Schultz "amschult" (Park Ridge, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lady's Maid (Paperback)

As an English teacher, I'm ashamed to admit that I knew very little about either Elizabeth Barrett or Robert Browning before picking up this book. The story of their maid, Lily Wilson, gives an interesting perspective on the private life of Elizabeth and Robert. And I admired that Forster depicted the two famous literary figures as she saw to be accurate, rather than glamorizing and glorifying them as there might be a temptation to do. The two poets are very human, often fussy, melodramatic, and given to self-aggrandizement. That made me all the more interested in the story of Lily and the difference in their lifestyle and hers, and of course their indifference to the way they treated her. It's been a while since I read something like Jane Austen, so it was refreshing and fascinating to dip back into a world with social codes so different from ours today. This book must have taken years to research, and Forster's depiction of Victorian life shows the evidence of that research.

There was a page-long afterword that explained which parts of the book were true, but I wanted more. I wish Margaret Forster had written more books like this! You won't be sorry you picked it up.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lady's Maid is a totally engrossing novel, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Lady's Maid (Paperback)

that pulls the reader into the very essence of Wilson's life as a "lady's maid to Miss Elizabeth Barrett Browning" during the 1860's. Although one wants to shake some sense into Wilson, one cannot help but to empathize with her depression over her separation from her child and her being "turned out" from her service. This is a wonderful novel that will encase the reader's complete attention from the first page until the last.