A pitch-black story about a girl born in the slums of 18th century London, cursed with the desire for more. Mary Saunders should be content with her lot in life, but fine fabrics and ribbons always tempt her. As she wends her way through life on the streets of St. Giles, her eternal desire leads her to darker and darker places. This book has stuck with me for twenty years since I first read it, and it absolutely holds up to the scrutiny of a second read. Not for the faint of heart.

 

Publisher description:

Born to rough cloth in Hogarth's London, but longing for silk, Mary Saunders's eye for a shiny red ribbon leads her to prostitution at a young age. A dangerous misstep sends her fleeing to Monmouth, and the position of household seamstress, the ordinary life of an ordinary girl with no expectations. But Mary has known freedom, and having never known love, it is freedom that motivates her. Mary asks herself if the prostitute who hires out her body is more or less free than the "honest woman" locked into marriage, or the servant who runs a household not her own? And is either as free as a man? Ultimately, Mary remains true only to the three rules she learned on the streets: Never give up your liberty. Clothes make the woman. Clothes are the greatest lie ever told.

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