Hello readers!
I don't know about you, but the past couple of weeks have been crazy! I started a new job and started my junior (!) year of college, all in the same week. Boy has that been an adventure in itself. Before all the craziness ensued I did manage to read a new book that has quickly endeared itself to me. I will definitely be reading it again. So let me tell you why I enjoyed it so much.
First off, I will tell you that I am fascinated by stories about the Titanic. The only exception to this rule is the movie; I can't stand the movie, mainly because it is the first movie (after Marley and Me, which is another story in itself) to make me bawl my eyes out, not to mention put me in a sort of depressed mood for two weeks. True story. But any book I can get my hands on that tells of a passenger on the ill-fated voyage and their experiences before, during, and after. I'll even watch a documentary if I can find a good one. All that to say that it should come as no surprise when I say that this new book has made its way onto my favorites shelf.
The title is mainly what caught my eye: The Dressmaker. Now my favorite hobby other than reading is sewing. So that is the big reason why the picture of an early 20th century dress on a seashore caught my eye along with the title. I opened the cover and started reading the front flap, read that this book is centered around the sinking of the Titanic, and knew I had found my newest book. I guess you could say it was love at first sight ;-) Needless to say I started reading it there at the store, bought it, and finished it at home over the next few days.
This story is about a young girl named Tess who wants to do more than clean someone else's house and mend their clothes for little pay for the rest of her life. One day she makes up her mind to leave her employer. It's quite an amusing scene actually. She's trying to pick up her final pay and leave the house for good when her mistress intercepts her. Madame threatens that if Tess takes the envelope and goes through the front door without finishing her duties, her employment is terminated, which is exactly what she wants. They exchange a few lines of dialogue before Tess finally just walks out with only a few belongings in a small bag and her final pay. And so changes her life for good.
She had heard about a ship called Titanic that would be departing the next day for America. There were good jobs for seamstresses there, or so she heard, so she decided to find passage on the ship, however she could. Her plan was to find someone who would be willing to take her on as a maid, and thus pay for her passage. While searching the dock she spots a well-dressed woman with a fiery personality and learns this is the legendary Lady Duff-Gordon, a famous dress-maker at the end of her rein. To save you the amusing details, Tess manages to convince the high society lady to take her on as her maid and potentially an employee in her dress warehouse.
And now we are on the ship. And what a glorious ship it is, especially to Tess's eyes. While she is not given quarters with her new mistress, she is as happy as can be. She makes a few friends along the way, including a soon to be divorced millionaire and a young sailor named Jim. Both win her affections by appealing to what they see in her, the millionaire seeing a potential mistress and the sailor seeing a potential friend. And it is in the midst of her adventures on board with her mistress, the millionaire, and the sailor that tragedy strikes. We all know what happened next so I won't give you the details that brought tears to my eyes, just as in any story about this tragic night. So I will skip ahead in the story. The passengers who managed to find a seat in the lifeboats all made it to the Carpathia, yet not without any regrets or shock. One woman stayed at the railing the entire rest of the journey to New York, looking for her children.
Once in New York, our characters find themselves facing yet another sea, but this one full of flashing lights and shouting voices, reporters clamoring to get the best story from the survivors. It is not long before rumors begin to spread about Lady Duff Gordon that she intentionally left her large lifeboat only partially filled and would not return to rescue anyone else. To cut this long portion of the story short, all the crew members, including Jim, Titanic officials, and some willing survivors are called to testify about what happened that night. I won't tell you exactly what happened, you'll just have to read the book and find out ;-)
But to get to what I really wanted to talk about. I really liked reading about Tess' journey from a timid young servant girl with high dreams of becoming a seamstress, to an independent young woman who knows who she is and what she wants and isn't afraid to live a little. She eventually manages to get away from Lady Duff Gordon's employ, determined to make her own way. Now you might start to think that this is a feminist book, that I only want to talk about it because of that. That couldn't be further from the truth. (I will give my thoughts on feminism in my other blog later, but enough on that). I want to focus on her development. She thought the only life that she would be able to claim would be one of servitude to someone else with a stronger will than she; that she would spend the rest of her life living up to someone else's expectations for her life instead of her own. It wasn't until she met Jim and walked the streets of New York that she knew only she had the true power to set the course for her life. She became friends with a female reporter who also was coming to the realization that only she had the power to control her own life. Both women learned a lot from each other, and I'm sure were friends long after the last page. Tess eventually realized where her heart was at and decided to follow it. I think that if Tess had never walked out that front door, had never stepped foot on that ship, that her life would never have changed the way it did.
Sometimes a little risk is what we need in order to take the reins of our own lives. Imagine if Tess had not set foot on the Titanic, but instead stayed in Cherbourg. She would have been lost and confused and living in the shadow of all those whose voices ran through her head constantly. She most likely would never have discovered her heart and her dreams, never realized the person she is or what she could accomplish. Don't be afraid to open that front door, grab that envelope, and step foot on the next boat out of there. You never know what might be waiting for you when you get off. Yes there may be heartache along the way, but that can only make you stronger. Now I'm not saying quit your job and travel the world; all I'm saying is, don't be afraid to take a risk.
If you have not read this book yet, I suggest you do so as soon as possible. It is a beautiful story and one that I know I will cherish for a while. If you have read the book, do you think I did it justice? Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Happy reading!
