Margaret Forster's wonderful biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning is well-known, but The Lady's Maid is an inseparable adjunct to it. Wilson, Elizabeth's maid, went with her to Italy. Forster gives an in-depth character study of both women and their complicated relationship with one another, describes and contrasts life above and below stairs in Victorian times and, uniquely, offers an analysis of the expatriate state. An incomparable book.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 16 December 2002 ) |
