The Foundling is another slice of greatly written, historical fiction, and based around true events that have been shadowed within our past history, all set against a vivid Georgian era in London - a cruel period of time in our history books where women who have conceived a child out of wedlock are forced to give them up, and so this is the situation our lead character, Bess finds herself in - with baby Clara.
I'm really not a great fan of the historical fiction genre, unless it's a subject that interests me, where I want to learn more, therefore, knowing the Foundling Hospital was based on fact, meant that this story certainly peaked my interest and became a fascinating and shocking revelation of past times - I was transported into another world, and a terrifying one at that.
The Foundling Hospital looks after these womens' babies until they can be reclaimed so to speak. This is what Bess is determined to do, to get her life sorted out, and she does, yet when the date comes to reclaim baby Clara she finds that someone has already claimed her, and that person was Bess herself!
The Foundling is an upsetting, yet courageous story of a mothers quest to find and claim her daughter back; I rooted for Bess throughout as she never gave up the fight to find Clara! With a strong focus on motherhood throughout, this novel has two strong women narrators who are are at complete opposite ends of the social spectrum and have completely opposing views on motherhood, but eventually their lives are to overlap and I really enjoyed seeing this come about. There's a real gothic air for the times in this story which really helped me understand how difficult lives were in the georgian time.
The Foundling is a tale of the strength and determination of a mothers love; it's an insightful, compelling and at times greatly upsetting journey, but one that deserves to come out of the shadows and be told - and Stacey Halls has beautifully told.
I'm really not a great fan of the historical fiction genre, unless it's a subject that interests me, where I want to learn more, therefore, knowing the Foundling Hospital was based on fact, meant that this story certainly peaked my interest and became a fascinating and shocking revelation of past times - I was transported into another world, and a terrifying one at that.
The Foundling Hospital looks after these womens' babies until they can be reclaimed so to speak. This is what Bess is determined to do, to get her life sorted out, and she does, yet when the date comes to reclaim baby Clara she finds that someone has already claimed her, and that person was Bess herself!
The Foundling is an upsetting, yet courageous story of a mothers quest to find and claim her daughter back; I rooted for Bess throughout as she never gave up the fight to find Clara! With a strong focus on motherhood throughout, this novel has two strong women narrators who are are at complete opposite ends of the social spectrum and have completely opposing views on motherhood, but eventually their lives are to overlap and I really enjoyed seeing this come about. There's a real gothic air for the times in this story which really helped me understand how difficult lives were in the georgian time.
The Foundling is a tale of the strength and determination of a mothers love; it's an insightful, compelling and at times greatly upsetting journey, but one that deserves to come out of the shadows and be told - and Stacey Halls has beautifully told.