Sunday, December 18, 2011

The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott

Set in 1912 and starting off in Cherbourg, France, this book is about one particular girl and her desire to quit being a servant and start being a seamstress. She decides to run away from her horrible job, and packs the few belongings she has in a canvas sack and then heads out to the dock where she has heard that a huge ship is supposed to be sailing to New York. The name of the ship? The Titanic.

So the story unfolds, and we follow our young gal Tess through all of her adventures. The first thing we notice is that she has some kind of nerve, practically sassing the woman who is literally her only chance of getting on the ship. I liked her immediately.

The Titanic was an amazing ship, and Alcott describes it incredibly well, and it is quite lovely to be seen through the eyes of Tess. You practically feel like you are there, and then of course when the ship sinks you are thankful you are not. It was horrifying, and you will learn things, and think about things that you had not thought about before. This book really opened my eyes.

This book is well written and quite historic. A lot of the testimony in the book came from transcripts of the U.S. Senate hearings. Some of the passengers Alcott included were people that were actually on the ship. I found it fascinating and had trouble putting it down.

For anyone who enjoys historical novels, romance novels or just a well-written novel that will transport you to another time, this is the book for you.

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