The Corset

by Laura Purcell

First published 2018

Amazon

4.2(19,452)

In the 1840s, wealthy Dorothea Truelove visits women in Oakgate Prison as part of her charitable work and becomes fascinated by Ruth Butterham, a teenage seamstress awaiting trial for murder. Ruth claims that the anger and suffering she pours into her stitches can pass into the garments she makes, bringing illness or death to the people who wear them. Dorothea, interested in phrenology and the new language of scientific explanation, is determined to discover whether Ruth is deluded, manipulative or telling the truth.

Ruth's account carries the novel through poverty, exhausting needlework, exploitation and violence, while Dorothea's privileged investigation exposes the gulf between Victorian classes. Their stories gradually converge into a gothic mystery about punishment and credibility: who is believed, who is confined, and how easily social prejudice can be disguised as moral or scientific judgement.