Urania Cottage in Shepherd’s Bush, London, was a home for ‘fallen women’ founded in 1846 by Charles Dickens and Angela Burdett-Coutts. Their vision was to provide a safe place for young women to rehabilitate after serving prison sentences or working on the streets as prostitutes. At Urania Cottage they would receive an education and the opportunity to train as domestic servants, enabling them to start new, more respectable lives overseas. In her latest novel, The Household, Stacey Halls imagines the stories of some of these women.
During the period covered in the novel, there are many young women staying at Urania Cottage, but Halls chooses to focus on two of them. One is Martha who, while trying to rebuild her own life at the cottage, is also worrying about her sister, Emily, who has disappeared. As Martha grows more desperate about Emily, she is driven to make a decision she may later regret. The other is Josephine, who had expected a close friend to accompany her to Urania Cottage. When the friend never arrives, Josephine must decide whether to continue participating in the scheme or leave in search of happiness elsewhere.
Dickens himself is mentioned now and then but always stays in the background, never becoming an actual character in the novel. Angela Burdett-Coutts, on the other hand, has a much larger role. We meet Angela as a woman in her early thirties who several years earlier inherited a fortune from her banker grandfather, making her one of England’s wealthiest people. She is becoming known as a philanthropist and Urania Cottage is one of her first big projects.
Angela’s privileged lifestyle means she struggles to truly understand the needs of the women at the cottage, but she and Dickens both enter into the project with the best intentions. However, despite Angela’s wealth and position she still has problems of her own to deal with – such as being stalked by Richard Dunn. She had thought she was safe from Dunn when he was sent to prison for four years, but now he’s been released early and is on her trail again. As I read, I wondered whether this was a fictitious storyline, but I looked it up and found that, yes, Richard Dunn was a real person and did obsessively pursue Angela Burdett-Coutts as described in the book. It seems that other parts of the novel I had assumed were invented were also based on historical fact; after finishing the book I was interested to learn that many of the incidents described as happening at Urania Cottage were taken from Dickens’ letters to Angela and even inspired his own David Copperfield.
The Household is fascinating in many ways, yet it’s probably my least favourite of Stacey Halls’ books. The separate stories of Angela, Josephine and Martha never quite blend together properly and give the novel a disjointed feel. I found the first half very slow and although there’s a twist towards the end that I hadn’t seen coming, it happens too late to really change the way I felt about the book overall. Still, I’m pleased to have had the opportunity to learn about life at Urania Cottage and will look forward to whatever Stacey Halls writes next.
Thanks to Manilla Press for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.
Book 16/50 for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2024
She Reads Novels 
This was actually my favourite of her novels (although I haven’t read The Foundling yet) – the others were too plotty and didn’t quite work for me!
I liked the plotty ones better, but this was interesting as well!
Your thoughts are very interesting, Helen. I have this one to read in the next week or so.
I hope you enjoy it more than I did, Sandra!
I’m always interested in a new Stacey Halls book and this setting sounds intriguing.
Yes, the setting was fascinating, even though this isn’t my favourite of her books.
I liked Halls’ The Foundling well enough, although I thought the ending was unbelievable. Her covers certainly are pretty, now that I look at what she’s written. If I wanted to try another, which one did you like best so far?
I think Mrs England is probably the one I liked best, although they’re all interesting.
Thanks!
It may be that the events on which the novel are based are more interesting than the novel itself. However I’ll certainly read The Household at some point having enjoyed all Stacey Halls previous books. I do have some sympathy for authors who build up a reputation and then have to live up to it with each novel they write. That being said she’s been successful enough already not to have to worry about being dropped by her publisher if she doesn’t quite hit the mark.
Well, maybe you’ll enjoy this one more than I did. I didn’t dislike it, but I thought all three of her previous books had stronger plots and more engaging characters.
I haven’t read anything from Stacey Halls, and this one’s premise is pretty interesting. And you made me missing reading Dickens! 😀
Yes, it’s an interesting subject, particularly if you enjoy Dickens.
The historical parts of this one sound very interesting; I’m sorry the fictional parts didn’t come together better.
I think it might have actually worked better as non-fiction.
One day I will read this author. I do have at least one of her books on my kindle
Thanks for sharing your review with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge
I think Mrs England is my favourite of her books, but they’re all worth reading.