The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman, is an intriguing novel about the pre-industrial society in Sunderland, England; a city quarantined by the cholera epidemic of 1831. Gustine is a `dress lodger' who rents a room and a fraying but elegant robe, which she wears to work as a prostitute. The dissolute, violent landlord takes all her earnings and to keep her from hiding the money or stealing the dress, he has her followed by an elderly, sinister-seeming woman, called "the Eye." When Gustine meets Henry Chivers, a young doctor, she believes her prayers have been answered and that Henry will be the one to save her child, who has a rare heart condition since birth. During our book club discussions, we discussed various aspects of this story in depth. I feel that the most significant aspects that we looked at were the society back then (i.e.; the social...