[2HG]⋙ PDF The Corset Laura Purcell author 9781408889619 Books

The Corset Laura Purcell author 9781408889619 Books

Download As PDF : The Corset Laura Purcell author 9781408889619 Books

The Corset Laura Purcell author 9781408889619 Books

My honest opinion as a reader. This book had a very interesting story. The idea, the plot twists were all very original. However, reading this book was like watching a 1000-page novel made into 2-hour movie. So many missing details. Example: Phrenology, what was it? It was just sort of being slapped onto the book without an interesting enough description. The reason why Dorothea was so passionate in the study of phrenology was just been mentioned briefly. Despite of her deep interest in it...the explanation was shallow.
This book was supposed to be scary. But due to lack of details...the grisly horror failed to raise any hair of mine. I had read Ms. Purcell's other book, Silent Companion, it had similar feeling to this book. Both felt rushed to me, like they could not wait to just end the story.


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The Corset Laura Purcell author 9781408889619 Books Reviews

I enjoyed this novel so much! I was truly fascinated by the setting and Ruby’s job as seamstress. Laura Purcell was able to transport me to another era with her detailed and atmospheric writing and although life then was indeed bleak and dreary for many, as I imagined it would be in that Jack The Ripper time-period, the writing and the characters were anything but that. I was hooked right from the start and the whole reading experience was positively amazing!

At first sight the two women in this novel couldn’t be more different from each other as they both had a vastly different upbringing and while one has a sad and tragic life and it resulted for 16-year old Ruby in awaiting trial, 25-year old Dora (Dorothea) is used to a much different lifestyle with a servant following her every move and at her beck and call. Dora doesn’t really ‘work’ but spends her time visiting women at the Oakgate prison so she can subject them to her phrenology hypotheses. She believes that if they change inside then the shape of their head, the areas responsible for their crimes, change too and this can be measured physically. It’s how she meets Ruby and she’s eager to subject her to her theories.

The title of the novel is so enormously apt for this book because it goes far and beyond the sewing of a corset in the novel... it is also a most fitting metaphor for the position of both women in society, whether rich or poor they both don’t have a lot of room to be free and live their life at their heart’s content. The corset itself is an important object though and Ruth’s talent for sewing takes a very unsettling and mysterious turn when she claims she can kill people through her stitches.

The Corset kept me addicted and although I liked how Dora’s entries were a welcome salvation from all the tragedy happening, I have to admit that I was slightly more drawn to Ruby’s account of events, it was quite an emotional and detailed story with one tragedy happening upon another, which made it virtually impossible not to grow fond of her. Why did she do it and most of all is she really responsible for murdering someone? As the story progressed and it moved in a certain direction I had a sense of a possible motive but the question still remained if she really had the power to inflict pain and death with her stitches or not. It was wondrous to find out if her vengeance on the people who weren’t kind to her was inflicted by herself or not. I’m really not a fan of anything supernatural or impossible happening but this uncertainty was very well-developed and it most definitely will keep every reader busy to find an answer to its true nature. I was soon hoping for some divine intervention so that Ruby could be free and finally live a good life because she really wasn't a murderer to me.

The novel didn’t lose its grip on me till the end with so many unforeseen events. It surprised me countless times with plenty of twists and turns and the ending was brilliant!
If after completing a book I have to think about what to rate it, it never gets five stars. The Corset left me with no hesitation. A full five stars for this brilliantly written gothic thriller that encompasses hate, love, fear, strength, crime and punishment.
It is the tale of two women, in many ways totally different from one another, and yet in many unseen ways, two sides of the same coin. Dorothea Truelove is a wealthy 25-year old single woman who sits on the committee of New Oakgate Prison. She visits the inmates in prison as she has a macabre fascination for phrenology and takes every opportunity to study skulls. Ruth Butterham is a 16-year-old talented seamstress on trial for murder. Each woman is a victim of her surroundings and upbringing and both are likeable for different reasons.
Ruth has suffered atrocities from an early age and mistakenly holds herself accountable for the destruction surrounding herself. The moment she is shown any kindness, she trusts fully and without hesitation only to discover too late the duplicitous nature of people. Dorothea is in love with a policeman of whom her father would never approve. Further, her father is engaged to a woman Dorothea despises and the death of Dorothea’s mother is suspicious. The story alternates between both characters throughout the book with Dorothea wanting to save Ruth but in a twist of irony, it is Ruth who saves Dorothea.
This deeply disturbing, sad and at times shocking story is exquisitely told and had me gripped from the first sentence. The seriousness of the situation is interspersed with touches of humour in the guise of Dorothea’s observations of peoples’ skulls. This is a fine example of an undercurrent that bubbles throughout the story of who can and can’t be trusted and explores the horror of poverty, the class system and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder manifested as survivor's guilt in the case of Ruth.
Things unstitch skilfully as the plot reaches its climax, with well-placed developments and pivotal moments that render this story heartbreaking and horrifying. The ending, unforeseen was a stroke of mastery and leaves the reader with a glimmer of hope that all is not lost, with a stitch in time, having saved who knows what!
I will without hesitation now buy this author’s first book, The Silent Companions.
Love the way Purcell writes! Very good book!
The Corset was a well-written book which I did enjoy. However I did find it somewhat long-winded and for this reason I only gave it three stars.
My honest opinion as a reader. This book had a very interesting story. The idea, the plot twists were all very original. However, reading this book was like watching a 1000-page novel made into 2-hour movie. So many missing details. Example Phrenology, what was it? It was just sort of being slapped onto the book without an interesting enough description. The reason why Dorothea was so passionate in the study of phrenology was just been mentioned briefly. Despite of her deep interest in it...the explanation was shallow.
This book was supposed to be scary. But due to lack of details...the grisly horror failed to raise any hair of mine. I had read Ms. Purcell's other book, Silent Companion, it had similar feeling to this book. Both felt rushed to me, like they could not wait to just end the story.