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Summary: A Fascinating But Confusing Story.
Review: This book has a great premise and interesting,well-drawn main charactors although the secondary ones were a bit too sketchy. Also is the so-called "Student Of Life" charactor supposed to be Charles Dickens? (Since the author is so obviously influenced by the author,just wondering..) The main problem with this book is that it's over-written. This is an extremely interesting plot to begin with,but the author is obviously so in love with the English language that it bogs the story down. Also the spotty British spellings were distracting,but that could be the fault of the editor. It is very different,and a good historical account of 19th century industrial England.So if you are'nt too squeamish I do recommmend it. P.S. I have no critcism of the book's cover art,it's great and perfectly captures the mood of the story.
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Summary: Best Historical Novel of 1999
Review: "The Dress Lodger" is an astonishingly accurate portrait of 19th century working-class England. Were Dickens alive today, he would be proud to have written it.In the Autumn 2000 issue of "The Hudson Review," my fiction chronicle covers the best (and a few of the worst) novels of 1999. Holman's rates as the best, in my opinion. Now reading her comments here on Amazon (I never read anyone else's review before I write my own, so I had not seen these), I see that she did indeed know of Henry Mayhew's contemporary study of the London poor when she wrote her novel--I thought I recognized a character in the book who was young & foolish Mayhew himself. Holman, at any rate, has done a brilliant job of bringing the ills of the century to light in the medium most likely to inform the masses: a rippingly good novel. Anyway, I recommend the book here on Amazon because few general readers may see the critical raves in The Hudson Review and this is a book you should not miss. I'm amazed that more people have not already signed on to review it. More power to Holman!
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Summary: What a way to make a living!
Review: I am always looking for books that will take me away to places I can't imagine; to meet people living lives as different from the familiar as possible. I want to go "into" a book -- leave my place and go to their place. The Dress Lodger will take you to a time and place full of people whose lives are amazingly strange. The difficulties of daily life, the conditions under which lives were spent are drawn by the author with a fine hand. The characters become real and you care deeply about them. I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A tragi-comedy
Review: It's referred to as "Dickensian" but, viewed from our perspective at the dawn of the 21st century, the conditions of the day are even more chilling. By the end, however, there is light at the end of the tunnel--like a Stephen King novel gone horribly right!
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing
Review: Frequently when I read a historical novel, I feel like I am not getting a true sense of the period. This was definitely not the case in The Dress Lodger. Although I did not identify closely with any of the characters, I was engrossed by the book and enjoyed reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Morbid and engrossing
Review: Once I started this book I was unable to put it down...what held my attention was a sense of enjoyment in the author's descriptive prose and skill in creating the atmosphere of 19th century England -- these were both very good. However, the darkness of the novel, though essential considering the themes involved, become more and more oppressive as the book goes on. Overall, a very good read, but expect to finish in a gloomy mood.
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Summary: Powerful, but not for the faint of heart
Review: This is an unflinching view of a poverty-beset and cholera-plagued time in industrial England. As graphic as it is, it definitely is not for the faint of heart. But for those who are willing to explore--even painfully deep--this book presents a courser time in "Western History" unflichingly graphic. I find the use of person in the narrtive interesting -- who are we, you, I? Others reviewing this work dislike the mix as morose, distasteful, etc; I see it as a seasoned view of poor industrial revolutionary life.
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Summary: Great Historical Fiction -- Dickensian in scope and style
Review: Usually I don't like historical fiction, but this was a fascinating read. It was a real page turner, and although graphic and distasteful at times, it reveals much about a time and place largely foreign to us. It reminds me much of the best of Dickens in that it introduces a character only to reveal later the relationships that that character shares with the others. The plot twists are intriguing and keep the reader interested. I think the narrative manner was also fascinating in that it mirrored Dickens almost perfectly except that when revealed at the end why the author chose that manner of telling the story, it became even more meaningful. But like all good fiction this was not mired down in only the past, but gave us insight into our own times. The themes of mysterious and largely unrecognized disease and the the war between rich and poor reverberate still today. All in all a fascinating book, well worth the time.
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Summary: A witch with words
Review: Holman's style is acrobatic, creative, and oceanic. (Only the fattest of Webster's had entries for "tabid" and "squim," and at the mention of the latter blushed with embarrassment.) But she (or rather the reader) pays a price for her unique style -- sometimes it empedes fluency and even calls for rereading sentences, esp. when using pronouns left to guessing the references. Whatever happened to simple and direct speech? Holman reminds me of a newly graduated participant of a writers workshop where a premium is placed on "being different." I am talking about her style only, because she's got a superb story whose merit doesn't need the slightly affected trick of addressing the reader in the midst of the narrative. It introduces an unnecessary, extraneous element. But for the large part this is a fascinating story of 1831 England and the visitation of the cholera -- morbid, but realistic, and told with boldness.
Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC
Review: Most books even the most excellent dont keep my attention long enough but the Dress Lodger was the exception. I could not put the book down it was excellent. It was morbid, depressing and gave you a great desription of the time. I grew attached to all the characters and their quirks and flaws. I mean how can you not love a book set during the chloera morbus epidemic about a 15 year prostitute her child with with a strange medical oddity and a the dreadful eye who follows her. You also get a great understanding of how people viewed doctors and how doctors had to steal dead bodies in order to study them and help their patients.
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