Customer Reviews

A Proper Education for Girls: A Novel

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This novel is a surprisingly clever rout of Victorian mores and pretensions, the hypocrisy of an era stripped bare as twin sisters, Lilian and Alice Talbot find themselves at the mercy of a science-obsessed father and his friend, the evil Dr. Cattermole. Talbot House filled with his "Collection", the sisters' father is an avid member of the Society for the Propagation of Useful and Interesting Knowledge, each room filled with artifacts and curiosities. After a scandalous incident, Lilian has been married to a missionary and dispatched to India, her name never to be spoken in the home again. Alice is devastated, left to care for her father's oddities as well as their deceased mother's fertile conservatory. Dabbling in photography, Alice is somewhat comforted to learn her father will soon have a new assistant, Mr. Blake.

In chapters that alternate between Alice's bleak existence at Talbot House to Lilian's adventures in India, the author excoriates the particular attitudes of Victorian England and the British occupation of India, the male hubris that dominates both societies and the restrictions females must endure, an enforced childishness that renders them helpless without a male's superior intelligence to guide their every move. While Alice submits to her father's demands, supported by the frivolous fluttering of five charming elderly aunts, Lilian thrives in India, ignoring her husband's voluble complaints. Even when Lilian is confronted with a face from the past, she barely breaks stride, shedding the shackles of society for freedom from restriction and a well-planned revenge. Alice is not so fortunate, the object of Cattermole's compulsion to wield his surgeon's scalpel. Alice's situation is dire, the young woman in great and irreversible danger.

With a vengeful eye and a sharp wit, diRollo mines the Victorian repression of womanhood in a subtly subversive novel, exposing the pomposity of men who disguise their carnal appetites in scientific research, their obsession with experimentation veiling a thirst for all things libidinous. Faced with only two options, institutionalization or marriage, Lilian and Alice are the heroines of the piece, charged with outwitting the males who dominate them and escaping the control of those who view women as objects. Crowded with sentiment, theory and bizarre curiosities, this is a novel to be savored, fools left sputtering in confusion as two sisters soar above the petty presumptions of their era. Luan Gaines/2009.

I am surprised more people have not yet discovered this delightful book about twin sisters in Victorian England. The pretty one has been married off to a missionary and sent to India after a scandal while the plain one is stuck at home, taking care of their tyrannical father's collection of oddities and entertaining his guests. While Alice has to assist Mr. Blake, the photographer who has come to catalog the Collection, all the while dodging the nefarious attentions of Dr. Cattermole, her father's friend, Lillian deals with colonial bigotry and the unwanted attentions of several unlikely suitors. The story follows their plucky fight to determine their own place in the respective worlds they've been forced to accept.

The strength of the book is really the way that the writer waves the stories together. Several cliff-hangers occur, and the narrative changes to the other sister, leaving the reader wanting to keep going, even if just to make sure that the girls are OK. But the changes are not melodramatic; the twists and turns are so much fun to navigate. In this way, a book that could have been heavy and oppressive is kept fun and fresh, a delight to read.

I also very much enjoyed the way that the writer used her supporting cast of characters. Some of the best moments in the book are a result of the aunts and grandmother--these women are fantastically "real", witty women.

Perhaps the true measure of a book can be, did you want it to end? Did you want more? I really do want to see how Lillian, Alice, Mr. Hunter, even the aunts' lives turned out. It's been a while since a book did that to me. I hope to see more from this fantastic author and highly recommend the book.

I cannot love this book more. It was such a treat to read. Twins Lilian and Alice live with their father Mr. Talbot who collects strange and rare objects. The twins themselves seem to be part of the collection! When Lilian is compromised by Mr. Hunter she is married off to a boring missionary who whisks her off to India leaving Alice with her aunts in Mr. Tablots strange world. Mr. Blake is hired as a photographer to catagorise every piece of the collection. Alice who has gone against the conventions of her time acts as his assistant. He is perplexed to find that he is attracted to her despite her obvious plainess, though Alice is unaware of his feelings. When she comes into possession of some 'racy' photographs that Mr. Blake brought with him she blackmails him into marrying her so that she can escape her father and rush off to India after her sister. To her surprise he is more than willing to agree.There are even rumours that she is a hermaphrodite! The malicious Dr. Cattermole enters the picture who claims he can 'cure' her conditon. Meanwhile Lilian is thriving in her new country while her husband does nothing but complain. She learns the language and even goes as far to wear sari's which scandalises the english population. Just as she thinks that she has settled into her life Mr. Hunter returns to her life and confesses than he made a huge mistake. Lilian is not having any of it but with revenge in mind she leads him on. The sisters ultimately struggle to be together and are strong heroines who go against convention. I absolutely love them! I was saddened when it ended.

Give this book a shot. It's unusual. I love it! It's hilarious.

Two girls left from a set of triplets in which one girl died young. They have become engaged in their father's collection which takes up every inch of the house. Their father does not let anyone leave this house without his permission. However, one sister, manages to escape after she disgraces herself and her father is forced to marry her off to a missionary who takes her to India. The other girl, Alice, however, is left behind. Her father sort of thinks of her as part of his collection after the nasty Dr. Cattermole points out that she is less than lady-like. Lillian (the girl in India) knows she needs to get Alice out of there, before something awful befalls her.

I enjoyed this book, even though it took me quite awhile to get through. The ideas seemed fresh and intriguing (twins, a bizarre collection, India, England, Sexism, new medical procedures, hermaphrodites, photography, uprisings). I really enjoyed that it switched back and forth between Alice and Lillian's point of views every few chapters. This definitely kept you reading because they would switch at the height of excitement. This book dealt largely with the sexism that was very present in England around the early days of petticoats and such. Elaine di Rollo did extensive reading and research when writing this book and it makes the book that much better as an insight into the (sometimes crazy) things that people believe and how they acted. I recommend this book to people who are looking for and interesting almost factual type of read. This book does contain exciting parts, action, adventures, little mysteries. I did not find it a fast read however, it was still quite enjoyable.