Perhaps the best thing about the DOLL FACTORY by Elizabeth MacNeal is the setting, 1850 Victorian England. It has that Jack the Ripper environment where nobody seems to be in charge of keeping the city, or at least this part of the city clean. Also poor abandoned children who live anyway they can are referred to as urchins.
The title refers to a shop owned by a woman her two employees refer to as Mrs. Satan. Iris and Rose are twins. Iris has a mild hunchback, but Rose who was once a beauty, has smallpox scars that have disfigured her. Iris has no idea how beautiful she is. She's a prisoner here in this doll shop with no future that she can see. It's her job to pain the dolls; her sister adds ornamentals to the tiny doll dresses brought to them by one of the street urchins.
This is where we meet my favorite character, street urchin, Albie. He apparently sews the little doll dresses himself. He love Iris because she gives him more money than the dresses are worth. He has a couple of sidelines; he sells “curiosities” to any shop owner, Silas. One is conjoined puppies that Silas will skin, stuff and disarticulate, showing the skeletal remains of one of the dogs. He will submit the results to one of the first world fairs that is currently being built in London. Three of his curiosities are accepted. Albie also steals small items from well off women. Iris catches him stealing a rather nice scarf. But he won't steal the really valuable stuff like suitcases he could snatch at the train station. He has a code. He also has a sister who's a prostitute. Albie only his one tooth and he'd like to buy dentures, but he'll never be able to save four pounds to buy them. When he does luck out, he thinks of his prostitute sister first and tries to rescue her from her unfortunate profession.
Iris also lucks out. She's chosen as a model by Louis Frost a rising young painter who's willing to pay her a shilling an hour to sit for him. She also wants to be a painter herself and only takes his offer when he promises to teach her. Modeling is only a touch above prostitute and her parents abandon her. Ruth also feels abandoned and won't answer Iris's letters.
Now for the plot. It's about Silas and his habit of kidnapping and sometimes murdering young women who have rejected him. He's so crazy he blocks out the murders. Then he meets Iris and he's immediately obsessed with her; he watches her all the time, at the expense of his occupation. He knows she's fallen in love with Louis and is jealous. Then there's a tiff between Louis and Iris and she runs away. Silas has been planning for months on how he'll take her, despite Albie's efforts to warn her.
Albie is trying to save her when MacNeal takes the easy way out and makes Iris situation even more deplorable. She keeps adding to the suspense. Will Iris escape Silas's basement? Sometimes he pouts and doesn't feed her. He even forgets the possibility that a beauty like Iris might have to use the bathroom. So then then the story becomes about determination and the will to survive. It is modernistic in that Iris must save herself. Twice others come looking for her or one of the other missing girls, but Silas is able to talk his way out of it, avoiding a search which would have revealed Iris in the basement. So how does she do it. It will keep you turning pages and leave you wanting an epilogue when the story comes to a screeching halt.
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Reviews with images
Part compelling historical fiction / part dark gothic thriller.
Twins, the Whittle sisters are twenty-one years old and working in a doll factory when we first meet them. They are in the employ of a drug-addled despot named Mrs. Salter. They work grueling hours and live in a damp basement room under the shop. Rose sews the wardrobes of the dolls, while Iris paints the delicate features of their faces. The sisters were beautiful but are both flawed. Rose carries the horrible physical scars of smallpox, while our protagonist, Iris, has a deformed collar bone.It is that deformity that causes Silas to become obsessed with her. Silas Reed is a taxidermist and covets any physical deformity or manifestation that would make his ‘art’ unique. Silas, already mad, has been driven even more insane by his abject loneliness and his unrequited love for Iris Whittle.It is the year of the Great Exhibition in London. The ‘Crystal Palace’ has been built especially to house and display over one hundred thousand exhibits from many fields of study.In a poor area of London, lives the diminutive, toothless, pickpocket Albie. Remember, this story is set during the time of Charles Dickens, so the reader immediately thinks to compare him to Oliver Twist. Albie lives in a squalid room beneath a brothel with his sister, a prostitute. At only seven years of age, he has seen it all. When his sister ‘entertains’ customers on the bed, Albie lies under the bed and holds her hand. Heartbreaking stuff!Our protagonist, Iris Whittle, longs to be free. Free of the drudgery of working in the doll factory, free of the tyrannical Mrs. Salter, free of her twin sister who has been bitter towards her ever since she contracted small pox. Rose is jealous of Iris’s beauty. She is also envious of Iris’s artistic talent.It is young Albie who introduces the artist Louis Frost to the lovely Iris. When she is tempted by him to come and work as his muse, his model, she leaves her sister Rose – and her reputation – behind her. In exchange, Louis will teach her how to paint…Louis is a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.Iris has exchanged her reputation, her sister’s regard, and any kind of relationship with her parents – for her freedom.Freedom to paint. Freedom to love…MY THOUGHTSThe more I read historical fiction, the more I’m convinced that the phrase “the good ol’ days” is a misnomer. This novel is set in the mid nineteenth century and back then, for the average person, times were far from good.Another thing I appreciate about historical fiction is that I always learn something from it, no matter how much fictional license an author takes, there are always elements of truth within. Some books, like this debut by Elizabeth Macneal, is well researched with loads of factual information thinly disguised. The character of Iris Whittle was inspired by the true life female artist of the time, Lizzie Siddall.This brilliant cast of characters were all well wrought. The tragic Whittle sisters, the evil Mrs. Salter, the twisted, lonely, Silas, the artist Louis Frost, even the pet wombat Guinivere, all were easily imagined by the reader. The character that most stole my heart was the impish pickpocket, Albie.The historical time period has been described vividly. The social mores of the time, the squalor of the poor areas of London, the majesty of the Great Exhibition, the colours of the oil paintings, are all brought to fruition by the author’s excellent description.The cover of this novel is a work of art in and of itself. Under the bell jar are renditions of so many of the plot’s contents. Iris herself, Silas’s stuffed mice, butterflies, and even the Crystal Palace itself!This is a fiction debut that is sure to enchant lovers of historical fiction. In addition, the reader gets an intense and very dark story of obsession. With a sinister and gothic atmosphere, this novel is highly recommended!4.5 stars rounded up
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Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2019
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Top reviews from other countries
anna j allan
Great story, well written!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 29, 2024Reader1996
Art, obsession, madness!
Reviewed in India on July 4, 2021
Reader1996
Reviewed in India on July 4, 2021
Being a lover of art and painting myself, I totally devoured all the artistic references and descriptions (please check out as many pre raphaelite paintings as you can). What also helped was the feministic arc of our protagonist Iris, whose passion for art transcended everything else in her life. Who dared to be an ambitious woman in the 1850s. Who dared to dream, who dared to demand her share of respectability. Who dared to speak her mind. I loved her collarbone and Oh My God, I loved her hair!
Silas was a sick b*****d, no doubt. Didn't feel an ounce of pity for him. He was one of the worst villains in the history of villainy.
And last but not least, Ms. Elizabeth Macneal doesn't fail to bring out the REAL face of abduction and imprisonment. Of how horrifying it is, how dehumanizing. Of how helpless you can feel and how you're your only hope.
Except for the ending which felt a little stretched, the entire book was a rollercoaster ride and a delicious experience.
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Lindsay Bonnez
The best debut I ever read so far, waw.
Reviewed in Germany on July 31, 2020
Snapdragon
The grime and glory of 1850’s London
Reviewed in Australia on May 20, 2019
