The Mistress of Nothing
ABOUT
THE BOOK
Lady Duff Gordon is the toast of Victorian London society. But when her debilitating tuberculosis means exile, she and her devoted lady’s maid, Sally, set sail for Egypt. It is Sally who describes the odd menage (marshalled by the resourceful Omar) that travels down the Nile to a new life in Luxor. When Lady Duff Gordon undoes her stays and takes to native dress, throwing herself into weekly salons, language lessons and excursions to the tombs, Sally too adapts to a new world, which affords her freedoms never known before. But freedom is a luxury that a maid can ill-afford, and when Sally grasps more than her status entitles her to, she is brutally reminded that she is mistress of nothing.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
This is a fictional accounting of the life of the maid of writer Lucie Duff Gordon. Based partly on historical fact, it is a moving and gritty story of two unconventional women and the challenges they faced in 19th century England and Egypt. Winner of the Governor General’s Award – Fiction 2009
Pullinger has created a moving story about an unconventional literary figure’s unconventional maid. Pullinger skilfully captures the subtle cruelties of power relationships in the late 1800s.