The Journal of Dora Damage

Victorian fascination with forbidden sex and science inspires this first novel from Starling, who died last year in Essex, England, at 34. In 1859, arthritic hands and an impatient moneylender force Peter Damage to allow his wife, Dora, to enter the family trade, bookbinding. With assistance from apprentice Jack Tapster and German finisher Sven, Dora masters the art while looking after her invalid husband and their five-year-old epileptic daughter, Lucinda. Business thrives, and then Damage's major clients—dashing Sir Jocelyn Knightley; his crusading abolitionist wife, Lady Sylvia; and their distinguished circle of friends—hire Dora to bind pornographic texts (including Fanny Hill , The Satyricon and very low-end material). Dora can only guess at their other illicit activities, having no great romantic expectations for herself until the arrival of Din Nelson, an American slave seeking refuge in London. Starling thus sets up a tale of two cities, contrasting wealthy aristocratic London indulging in secret obsessions with London's working poor struggling through hard times. Not every choice Starling makes works, but she creates secondary characters with Dickensian flair, evokes Victorian pornography without being pornographic and viscerally captures the craft of bookbinding. Starling's heroine is a woman of great energy and courage. (Oct.)