55. SLAMMERKIN

Emma Donoghue 2000

A unique book with a very unlikely protagonist in Mary Saunders who becomes a prostitute in 18th century London because she coveted a red ribbon. She wears and becomes a Slammerkin, a loose dress for a loose woman. This historical fiction shows the consequences of this chosen path, the many chances she had to change this path, and the fitting ending as a consequence of this path.

"There was once a cobbler called Saunders who died for eleven days. At least, that was how his daughter remembered it."(opening lines)

"Eleven years later Mary Sauders was back on her knees, herself in gaol. Like father, like daughter."(2)

"The ribbon had been bright scarlet when Mary Saunders first laid eyes on It, back in London. 1760: she was thirteen years old."(7)

"Other girls seemed unburdened by ambition; most folks seemed content with their lot. Ambition was an itch in Mary's shoe, a maggot in her guts. Even when she read a book, her eyes skimmed and galloped over the lines, eager to reach the end."(19)

'A troubled shared is a trouble halved. Maybe she'd been bred up for this very purpose, to stand as a buffer between Susan Digot and her fate.'Like mother, like daughter."(23)

"Doll Higgins was always saying brutal things as if they were jokes. But for all her talk about every girl for herself, she did let Mary stay in her room for a fortnight, sharing her mattress, and brought her the occasional plate of bread and Yarmouth herrings, and the odd basin of icy water with a rag to clean herself as best as she could."(37)

"'Slammerkin. A loose dress for a loose woman. Ever noticed the words for us all sound drunk?" Doll put on an intoxicated slur.'Slovenly, slatternly sluts and slipshod, sleezy slammerkins that we are!'"(47)

"Because of course this was the only trade. Her eyes had been forced open. The fact was, there was nothing else a fourteen-year-old girl could do that would earn a fraction of what Mary was making, now she was hardened enough to stand up to the cullies and set her price."(55)

"Let it be a lesson to you, dear heart, never to pay poundage to any idle pimp or bawd. Every girl for herself, remember? Here's the first rule: Never give up your liberty."(70)

"Remember, sweetheart, you should go without a week of dinners sooner than pawn your last good gown. That was rule two: Clothes make the woman."(70)

"Clothes are the greatest lie every told."(71)

"As the bodied had to stay up for an hour, now was the time for the bringing out of the picnics. Doll produced a sweetbread pie, and Mary ate her half with a good enough appetite, though she kept glancing over her shoulder at where the Metyards hung, over the stained sawdust."(76)

"The Magdalen Hospital was an imposing block of stone. Hours after the line of petitioners had formed, it still stretched along two sides of the building. There had to be forty girls here..."(85)

"The Matron's eyes darkened with concern as she addressed them before breakfast:'This is your great opportunity to shed the past and start afresh.'Otherwise the rules were simple: No drink, lie-a-beds, swearing, gaming, quarreling, or indecency. No one is kept here against her will."(92)

"Thread seem to obey Mary; cloth lay down obediently at her touch. She couldn't imagine what the other girls found so difficult, or how they were so waylaid by snags and knots."(94)

"There was nothing to tell Mary how long Doll had been here, waiting with this ironical curve to her lips. Had she been hungry? Feverish? Too drunk to remember to go home at the end of the night? Too cold to feel how cold she was, or too old to fight it off any more? Had she not a friend in the world to come looking?"(115)

"Lying still in bed, she spared a thought for Daffy. Was he asleep, or lying awake cursing her? How her life might have changed all at once with the slip of a syllable, a simple yes. To be a wife and a mother in a small country town was the life millions led and other millions prayed for. What gave Mary the right to resent the dull round of domestic duties, to demand a life of silks and gold? What was the tapeworm in her stomach that always made her hunger for more?"(281)

'She thought of her body: the rubbery dampness of it. How it served her. How it wearied her."(283)

"As Mary climbed into bed, Abi held onto the hem of the blanket. She heard a faint clink: a chain, or a necklace, or a coin on another coin? Then the soft scraping of a bag being shoved back under the bed, and Mary lay down flat again."(293)
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First Harvest edition 2002
386 pages
Book owned
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Personal Note: I have had this book for a long time, and never started it, but Books are a Garden gave it an A and she was right. Thanks Rachel.