Lady's Maid by Margaret Forster

Lady's Maid by Margaret Forster with A Reader's Guide and an excerpt from Keeping the World Away Young and timid but full of sturdy good sense and awakening sophistication, Lily Wilson arrives in London in 1844, becoming a lady’s maid to the fragile, housebound Elizabeth Barrett. Lily is quickly drawn to her mistress’ s gaiety and sharp intelligence, the power of her poetry, and her deep emotional need. It is a strange intimacy that will last sixteen years. It is Lily who smuggles Miss Barrett out of the gloomy Wimpole Street house, witnesses her secret wedding to Robert Browning in an empty church, and flees with them to threadbare lodgings and the heat, light, and colors of Italy. As housekeeper, nursemaid, companion, and confidante, Lily is with Elizabeth in every crisis–birth, bereavement, travel, literary triumph. As her devotion turns almost to obsession, Lily forgets her own fleeting loneliness. But when Lily’s own affairs take a dramatic turn, she comes to expect the loyalty from Elizabeth that she herself has always given. Paperback. Used-good condition - library discard, upper right corner of back cover missing. All pages intact. Smoke-free. 50% of the profits from this sale will be donated to a local Friends of the Library. Historical History British Irish Britain Ireland Literature Literary Fiction Biography Biographical Memoir BKNK