The Corset: a perfect chilling read to curl up with this Autumn

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My gosh, The Corset was such a cool, edgy and randomly horrifying tale, such descriptive beauty to be found here wrapped around a story that is both scary and entirely emotive. When it first came about, this was a corset style that was perceived to be more comforting to the body than any other type because it supported the abdomen but it proved to be more restricting than others – it can reduce the waist to as much as 3 inches and the shape is a little unnatural.The profile it created were called S curve, kangaroo profile. 5. Straight front corset or Gibson Girl corset The Corset is centred around two women, Dorothea Truelove and Ruth Butterham. One, a rich and privileged woman obsessed with phrenology and how it can be prescribed to the insane, the other a murderer languishing in prison with the gift to kill using her sewing skills. The initial premise is incredibly interesting, mixing this Victorian horror with murder mystery in quite a modern way. Purcell excels at creating and describing her scenes in such a way that you can imagine the horrors unfolding around you extremely easily, and the writing itself is well done and flows well. It’s always atmospheric, and when you factor in unreliable narrators in both these women, the reader becomes deeply unsettled as to what is real and what is not, which was cleverly done and added to the story's tension.

The Corset by Laura Purcell | Waterstones

Doyle, R. (1997). Waisted Efforts, An Illustrated Guide to Corset Making. Sartorial Press Publications. ISBN 0-9683039-0-0. During the early 1990’s Madonna famously wore fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier’s corset during her world tour in 1990. Known for his extreme fashions, Gaultier designed Madonna’s memorable one of a kind pink corset with a built in cone bra. This launched a huge trend and empowers women till today. Today Dorothea and Ruth. Prison visitor and prisoner. Powerful and powerless. Dorothea Truelove is young, wealthy and beautiful. Ruth Butterham is young, poor and awaiting trial for murder. During the late 19th century tight-lacing has raised some concerns. Some doctors supported the theory that corset may cause health injuries, specifically during pregnancy and women who practiced tight-lacing were looked upon as slaves to fashion. After reading The Silent Companions, a modern masterpiece of Gothic fiction, I was very excited to try another novel by Laura Purcell. The Corset does not quite live up to the high expectations set by The Silent Companions, but it is, nevertheless, a very compelling read.The Poison Thread (alternatively titled The Corset), is a gaslamp mystery with the dark undertones Laura Purcell’s books have become known for. This is an immersive reading experience; the Victorian setting is very well rendered and the characters’ speech has that touch of formality and antiquated phrasing typical of the period. Purcell smartly chose a dual narrative structure, with Ruth relaying her story to Dorothea, starting from when she first discovered her power at thirteen, to the present day, where she’s sixteen years old and in prison awaiting her execution day. Hanging over the story is the question of how she got there. At the prison, Dorothea becomes fascinated with Ruth, a young seamstress who believes that she can embed her emotions into her sewn garments. For example, by focusing her hate into her sewing needle, the resulting garment can become a type of weapon against whoever wears it. Ruth is imprisoned as a murderess, and much of the book is devoted to Ruth telling her story to Dorothea, including elaboration of her supposed powers. I grew up in the 70’s and hated bras, wearing them only when necessary: for work or sports. In the 90’s I discovered corsets, real corsets, custom-made to fit a woman and her lifestyle. When created in the proper size and worn properly, they have been comfortable. And, yes, I put them on by myself in a few minutes because I know how. Even though society began to reject the idea of normalized corsets, that didn’t stop actresses from wearing them. Corsets were not unusual to see on the silver screen, on treasured celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe or Audrey Hepburn. Despite this though, corsets never sustained popularity in the 1960s. Additional comment, there was quite detailed gore in this book, which I'm surprised about. I thought they were totally unnecessary and didn't add much to the story. Plus, it made my stomach cringe.

The Corset: a perfect chilling read to curl up with this

Steele has heard the disempowering argument many times but says "It's a mistake to patronise women, to suggest they were all stupid victims for, say 400 years," she says. Laskowska agrees: "A corset can be a beautiful thing you wear just for yourself, not for any man. I do that, and I feel empowered by it." This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( November 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)

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They dressed to their OWN tastes and according to their comfort. They weren’t fainting on couches (those were just roman-inspired daybeds) or deforming their bodies for beauty or even cinching their waists at all in most cases. They used illusion, with big sleeves and hip padding. And those scary looking pictures of wasp waists? Victorians were the first photo editors! Painting them as stupid and helpless spits in the face of their feminism, and ours. https://nyamcenterforhistory.org/2015/05/29/did-corsets-harm-womens-health/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11639434/ Hate to say it, but I agree with some of the comments about missed opportunities to discuss the fact that everyday women wore corsets, and they generally weren’t a horror. In the period I knew well, France from the Revolution to Waterloo, the “bustier” was very popular – sometimes they even wore an embroidered one OUTSIDE the gown. Its shape was much more in line with a modern brassiere, often with a rising pyramid lifting and separating the breasts. Many tied in front, for easy on and off, and their slim outline was better than a classic corset when worn under the thin muslin gowns of fashion. And it’s probable that, in the country, poor women still practiced some form of breast binding, just a wrap of linen for support. Reply Yes, if I have to wear a bra, I fling it off the moment I get home. A corset I may loosen right away, but since I have been able to adjust it (by myself, depending on my outfit that day) during the day, it’s rarely that awful by the time I get home. Dorothea Truelove is 25 and still unmarried, much to her father's chagrin. Her father has designs for her potential husband, but Dorothea secretly loves a policeman. Dorothea occasionally meets up with her secret admirer discreetly in public gardens. Dorothea has an intellectual passion, that of phrenology...or the study of the shape and size of the skull/cranium as an indicator of character and mental abilities. She is well known at the local prison where she is on the board and visits prisoners. It is here that she met up with Ruth Butterham.