Lady of Milkwood Manor

Julie Klassen
Bethany House (2008)
ISBN 9780764204791
Reviewed by Wendy Cleveland for Reader Views (5/08)


A 20-year-old unwed woman, Charlotte Lamb, is disowned by her vicar father because she is pregnant.  She is sent to live at a home for unwed mothers called “The Manor.”  When Charlotte first arrives, she notices that the property is engulfed with “milkweed” plants.  So, she becomes “Lady of Milkweed Manor” in Julie Klassen’s sad, but wonderful story.

Ms. Lamb is from an affluent family, so, under the instruction of her father, she arrives at the Manor with a different name.  However, one of the doctors, Daniel Taylor, was a former suitor whom her father rejected.  Dr. Taylor helps her conceal her identity as well as asks her for the same in return when she stumbles upon a secret of his.  Throughout the story, Charlotte makes sacrifices for those she loves, forgoing her own happiness.

The way women lived back in the 19th Century was very different from the way we live today.  If you became pregnant out of wedlock, you were sent away to an institution for unwed mothers until your child was born.  After that, you needed to leave the facility no matter if you had the means to take care of yourself and your child nor not.  Many of these women turned to becoming “wet nurses” who would be hired by the more upper-class families to nurse and take care of their infants.  The author notes that “Jane Austen herself was sent to live with (and be nursed by) a woman in the country for most of the first two years of her life!”

Many of the women at the institutions came down with “puerperal insanity” which in today’s terms means “post-partum depression.”  This was treated as a type of “insanity” which no doctor knew how to treat except with herbs (the “milkweeds” were used for this purpose) and sometimes even chloroform if the case was severe.  These histories were explained very well with short epigraphs being provided at the beginning of each chapter.

Being a mother myself, I could not imagine making the decisions and going through what Charlotte did back then.  Each time I thought that things would get better for her they turned in a different direction.  My heart broke each time.  The ending was not what I expected, very much a surprise.  This novel was well researched and would fare well with reader’s interested in 19th Century England as well as historical fiction.  There could easily be a sequel, and I will be first in line to read it.  If I could have given “Lady of Milkweed Manor” more than five stars, I would have.  

Make comment on weblog