Belle Cora - Phillip Margulies

[most ardently]

I picked up this book coming out of a pretty big rut. I was reading books that did not grab my attention. I would try to get through them and of course it would take me forever because I wasn't crazy about them. I have a lot of trouble putting down a book in the middle and picking up another. I always feel unaccomplished when that happens.

Anyway, I thought this book was wonderful. I love period pieces with a twist. It captured me immediately. It's a long book. I don't remember the specific amount of pages but I had to hold it with two hands at all times. In the middle of the book I found myself wishing it would never end. That is so rare for me! To find a book that I wish would just go on and on and on. I miss that feeling.

The amazon description of Belle Cora is a little false. It says she goes from being a good woman to being a bad woman. She never becomes a bad woman. She adjusts her life according to her happenstance. She does some things that could be argued to be morally wrong, but for the time and the circumstances she makes the best out of her situations. The book is set in the 1800s. She is shipped off to her aunts home in the country after living in the bustle of NYC for the first 9 years of her life. Understandably, she does not adjust well and it begins the downfall. She eventually moves back to NYC and after failed attempts of surviving, she turns to prostitution. It takes you through the beginning to the seeming end. It is an interesting view into the past and the perspective of one of the most frowned upon professions.

Has anyone else read this book?