Emmeline is Persephone book number 123, reissued by Persephone in 2017, it’s an American historical novel first published in 1980, by the author of Looking for Mr Goodbar. I haven’t read that earlier novel, which according to Lucy Ellmann in her afterword to this edition is not nearly so well written as Emmeline, calling it a sub-porn peep show. Yet it is that novel which made the author’s name. This novel Ellmann claims – and I absolutely agree – is a howl against the patriarchy. It is also, devastatingly, largely a true story, based on the life of Emeline Bachelder Gurney.
Immediately compelling, Emmeline spans a period of about sixty years, though the majority of the story takes place in the 1840s and 50s. The reader’s anger for Emmeline builds gradually, Judith Rossner reveals the injustices and cruelties that existed for women and girls in a society that punished and judged those who had fallen foul of men’s selfish seductions. Emmeline is punished throughout her life for the crime of another, she hadn’t understood what danger she might be in, and later in life she makes a mistake that no one could possibly have foreseen. The unforgiving nature of the people close to her and the wider community is heart-breaking. It is an unforgettable story.
In 1839, Emmeline Mosher left her home in Fayette, Maine to go and work in the cotton mills of Lowell, Massachusetts – she was thirteen years old. Driven away from the only home she has known by her aunt and uncle on their way home after a visit. It was common in these days for girls of poor families to be sent out to work, they sent money home and became the saviours of their families. Life was difficult for the Mosher family; Emmeline was the eldest of nine children, and there was practically nothing to eat. As her aunt leaves her in Lowell, Emmeline is young, vulnerable, lonely and frightened, she also has the misfortune to be noticeably pretty.
As soon as Emmeline arrives in Lowell, she is housed in one of the many boarding houses that exist for the mill girls to live in. Emmeline’s boarding house is run by Mrs Bass. Everything is new and strange, and Emmeline has little knowledge of the world.
“She was virtually ill with loneliness and cold and could eat very little at each meal. Mrs Bass asked if she was troubled, but she denied it. She had noticed that to be one of Mrs Bass’s favourites was to incur a certain amount of teasing from the other girls, and she wanted desperately to please them.”
The work in the mills is exhausting, the hours are terribly long and the atmosphere of the weaving room choking, though it is remarkable what these girls quickly get used to. Emmeline fails to make any real friends among the other girls in the boarding house – though at first Mrs Bass makes something of a favourite of her. When Mrs Bass warns Emmeline about Mr Maguire the manager of the weaving room where she is placed – Emmeline has no idea what the danger might be – the reader of course knows instantly and knows to fear for Emmeline.
“‘Listen to me Emmeline…’ she uttered the name in the way in which only one other person had ever pronounced it.
‘You must keep away from Mr Maguire. He’s dangerous.’
‘Dangerous? She was awake now. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘You must take my word for it,’ she said ‘He hurts girls like you. A girl was turned off the corporation on his account. A girl who looked … The first time I saw you I thought of her.’
‘What must I do?’ Emmeline asked, frightened in spite of herself.”
However, Emmeline is alone, she misses her mother and home fiercely she has no friends to confide in and no understanding at all of what a certain kind of man might want with her. Mr Maguire is kind to her, takes an interest in her – brings her a shawl from his wife as the weather gets colder, gets his wife to invite her for Christmas day tea – today, of course we would call it grooming, its insidious.
“He smiled. ‘Now I have you in a cage. And whenever I want you, I’ll take you out, and when I’ve done with you, I’ll set you back in.”
It’s an age old story – and it’s Mrs Bass who realises what has happened to Emmeline – and now she is anything but sympathetic. Emmeline’s a child of course, but not viewed as such by anyone. It’s arranged for Emmeline to take refuge with her aunt – the rest of her family aren’t to know about ‘her shame’. Money is extracted from Mr Maguire so that Emmeline can continue to send it back to her family. Her aunt arranges everything, Emmeline is powerless.
Her experiences in Lowell set the course of the rest of her life. When she finally does return to Fayette, she is hiding a secret – one she is desperate to share with her beloved mother but finds she can’t. Had Emmeline told her mother what had happened perhaps things would have been different – perhaps not. Emmeline is relieved to be home – and is happy, staying home quietly, looking after her parents, watching her siblings grow up, get married and begin to have children. Yet the biggest tragedy and greatest test is still to come – Emmeline will in time become a victim of the judgement of those around her, punished and ostracised for the abuse done to her.
I don’t want to give away any more spoilers in this review. Emmeline is a wonderful novel – just don’t expect a happy ending. Rossner recreates the suffocating world of the cotton mills and the spiteful, gossipy boarding houses filled with adolescent girls brilliantly. It is both Emmeline the lonely, vulnerable girl and Emmeline the older woman, alone and ostracised that I will remember for a long time.
This sounds a really tough read but I’ve no doubt it was so many girls’ experience. I’m sure its a novel that really gets under your skin, the injustice is outrageous.
I think sadly it was the experience of many girls in America and here too. The injustices are just terrible.
Gosh, heartbreaking stuff. As tough as it it might be, sometimes it’s important for us to hear about these stories as a reminder of the dangers of this kind of society and the damage it can inflict on young lives…
I think it does help us to remember these kinds of stories, but yes heartbreaking stuff.
This sounds a very powerful read and important still today (sigh). I don’t think I’ve got this on my wishlist but will add it. Can’t wait to get to my Persephones in August as I couldn’t manage this reading week due to commitments to review books.
I really enjoyed this despite the subject matter, and I think that you will too. I’m looking forward to reading more Persephone over the summer.
When I first started reading this Elizabeth Gaskell came to mind, although of course she comes at women’s experience in the mills from a very different angle. Sadly, I’m sure there were many Emmelines on both sides of the Atlantic.
Yes the story is reminiscent of the stories Gaskell told. I am sure there were far too many Emmelines.
Great review of what is clearly an important read and definitely one for the TBR.
Thank you, I hope you enjoy it too.
It does sound a bit like Elizabeth Gaskell, and quite memorable if sad.
It’s certainly sad, but testament to Judith Rossner, I never found it overwhelmingly depressing which it could have been.
Glad to hear more about a Persephone that isn’t often mentioned! It does feel odd for a Persephone to be from 1980, though.
I know what you mean, I always expect them to be earlier. I think Still Missing is also from around the same period.
Sounds quite heartbreaking, Ali – and one to make your blood boil a bit. Like Simon, I do find it odd that a book that feels relatively recent (to me anyway!) is a Persephone, but I suppose it isn’t the only one!
I seem to remember at least one other Persephone book from around this same period. I think it was Still Missing, which is an unusual book for Persephone to publish but is very good.
This sounds a powerful and harrowing read. I shall watch out for it.
I hope you enjoy it should you come across a copy.
This sounds heartbreaking – and definitely timely reissue by Persephone.
I’m so glad I read it, Persephone really do select some excellent books for reissue, we are so lucky to have them.
Hahah I’ve read that “sub porn peep show” twice. I’m not sure what drew me to it in the beginning, as I was in my late teens and twenties when I was reading her – but I was reading it along with Marilyn French and Constance Beresford Howe at the time – writers who aren’t necessarily read very often anymore today either. They seemed to be all about pushing the boundaries and insisting that the experiences of women, who were traditionally overlooked, were centre stage, at least in a book. But perhaps there was a peep-show side to it that I’ve forgotten!
From the little I know of that other book, I can imagine it being a book that draws teenage girls to it.