The Daring Ladies of Lowell: A Novel Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00I2QEICU | Format: EPUB
The Daring Ladies of Lowell: A Novel Description
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Dressmaker comes a moving historical novel about a bold young woman drawn to the looms of Lowell, Massachusetts - and to the one man with whom she has no business falling in love.
Eager to escape life on her family?s farm, Alice Barrow moves to Lowell in 1832 and throws herself into the hard work demanded of "the mill girls." In spite of the long hours, she discovers a vibrant new life and a true friend - a saucy, strong-willed girl name Lovey Cornell.
But conditions at the factory become increasingly dangerous, and Alice finds the courage to represent the workers and their grievances. Although mill owner, Hiram Fiske, pays no heed, Alice attracts the attention of his eldest son, the handsome and reserved Samuel Fiske. Their mutual attraction is intense, tempting Alice to dream of a different future for herself.
This dream is shattered when Lovey is found strangled to death. A sensational trial follows, bringing all the unrest that?s brewing to the surface. Alice finds herself torn between her commitment to the girls in the mill and her blossoming relationship with Samuel. Based on the actual murder of a mill girl and the subsequent trial in 1833, The Daring Ladies of Lowell brilliantly captures a transitional moment in America?s history while also exploring the complex nature of love, loyalty, and the enduring power of friendship.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 10 hours and 39 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Random House Audio
- Audible.com Release Date: February 25, 2014
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00I2QEICU
The basic plotline of this historical novel is nothing at all new. Essentially, it's a historical romance: young woman meets intriguing young man, they are drawn together but problems threaten to divide them. Will love triumph?
What made this more than a banal historical romance was the context. The story takes place in the early 1830s, the setting is Lowell, Mass., where the power of the rushing rivers has been harnessed to drive some of America's first major industrial ventures: textile mills. Suddenly, for farm girls like Alice Barrow, there is a horizon beyond the the family farm: a chance to earn their own money and achieve a measure of independence. But it comes at a cost: this is long before the era of the 8-hour workday, industrial accidents are all too frequent, and the mill girls are all too vulnerable. Including, it may be, to murder.
It's the violent death of Alice's best friend, Lovey, that threatens to derail her already problematic friendship with Samuel Fiske, the son of the owner of the mill where she works. The problems that Alice must work through are predictable enough; the plot itself is rather skeletal and feels rushed. But none of that detracted much from my enjoyment of the book. Clearly, judging from this and her prior book, Kate Alcott has an ability to venture into very, very well-trodden ground and still produce a novel that feels fresh, partly due to her straightforward, unflowery style and in part due to the characters through whose eyes the reader witnesses the events. In both of these novels, the main characters are straight out of central casting: young women from the lower classes, with talents and aspirations.
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