Fallen Grace

I read the book Fallen Grace by Mary Hooper. This book takes place sometime in the early 1900’s and is set in London. Grace, at the beginning of the story, is pregnant and desperately trying to accommodate. Grace is 16 years old. Her sister, Lilly, is 17 but is simple minded because she is mentally disabled. People around this time don’t take to simple minded people all that well. Their mother died some 10 years earlier and Grace takes care of Lilly. They had been in a workhouse about 9 months ago when Grace became a “fallen” woman and they left.

The girls try their best to survive by selling watercress at the market but suddenly winter comes and the market no longer exists and on top of that, they are kicked out of their living spaces due to renovation. Grace resorts to living with the Unwin family and working for their funeral business. Grace has a beautiful solemn face and is a mute for the Unwins. Lilly just barely was accepted, being simple minded, and cleans boots and silver wear.

Just recently, there had been an article in the paper about a man who had died and made a fortune in the Americas and the fortune was left to his wife and now 17 year old daughter. The Unwins only took the girls in knowing this information was about Lilly and the man never knew he had a second daughter. Now, at the point I am at, the Unwins are trying to adopt Lilly and convince them she has been living with them for 10 years.

Artistic culture plays a definite role in this book. What is a common theme in the book is clothing, clothing, clothing. Every society has classes and judgments due to clothes but at this time, clothes were one of the most important things any one could imagine. The girls used to dress fair when their mother was alive but they became poor and wore old clothes. They were fortunate enough to have shoes, though. Grace deemed having shoes as one of the most important items they owned at one point in the book while considering what to pawn.

When the girls started to live with the Unwins, they needed good clothes which was taken out of their pay. Grace, as a mute, wore black veils and dresses to the funerals. The Unwins wore the latest, trendiest clothes they could get. Miss Charolette, the daughter of the Unwins being 16 could wear what she pleased. When the King died, Miss Charolette and Mrs. Unwin decided to wear full mourning clothes for 6 months and then half mourning for 3 after that and then quarter after that. Their expression in clothes is valued in society. They were fortunate to wear what they pleased.

Other forms of artistic expression showed in the book were also when the king died. The Unwins, like other rich people decorated their homes with black ribbons on wreaths that hung on their doors, and other black drapings on their bushes. This was important because it showed deep mourning for the king’s passing.