"The Dress Lodger," by Sheri Holman, Atlantic Monthl, Press, 291 pages, $24.</p><p> By MICHAa GILTZ the cholera-plagued city -with fresh cadavers-for dissection.</p><p> In return, Gustine hopes to win the favor of Chiver, -the only man who can keep her baby alive.</p><p> Holman, the author of "A Stolen Tongue" (another historical fiction), certainly Gustine tosses Qff. the retort: "Good and Evil are opposite points on a circle, Dr.</p><p> Chiver.</p><p> Greater good is just halfway back to Bad.") - Holman's desire for a.big finish . is-a minor disappointment in an otherwise enjoyably morbid tale of sickness and resurrection.</p><p> It's 1831 in Sunderland , makes Sunderland come alive.</p><p> England , and -15-year-old She delights in morbid Gustine is a "dress lodger" - a details, like the well- r-----------.:~-.:..- __ poor woman who works by day preserved eyes and brains and prostitutes herself at night, that line Chiver's donning fancy gowns to attract a operating room, and the higher class of gentlemen. lice-infested hovels that Gustine's gowri is provided by serve as breeding grounds her despicable landlord, Whilky, for cholera. - . in exchange for a cut of the -Holman also dOes well profits.</p><p> Whilky also employs a by keeping her characters haggard old crone known as "the frustratingly real.</p><p> Chiver, Eye," who shadows Gustine for instance, remains everywhere to make certain she incapable of seeing doesn't run off with the valuable Gustine as anything dress.</p><p> The poor girl endures it all other than a whore. for the sake of her frail, "The Dress Lodger" deformed baby. falters a bit at the end, Gustine soon crosses paths devolving into Victorian with Dr.</p><p> Henry Chiver, a surgeon melodrama , complete and ardent teacher of anatomy with angry villagers who, fresh from a scandal in brandishing pitchforks. another city, has settled into And the depiction of Sunderland with a lovely Gustine, so convincing fiancee. throughout , is undercut But Chiver is distressed to find later in the novel by himself attracted to Gustine, a insights that are clearly slattern who's surely far beneath beyond her uneducated ~i~, _ ~~~io~ ., -~9:e, _ :Wl.wey~r, cfaq-, I ..P,l\Dd._ ; .~~ _ef1 ,.th~, ~OCN?~ _; prpy.lde. .hl~ anq.tR.~Y ~cAool -;-:-,pieads WIth -her tothm-ff due-'to hei-"1ite-:ni"ght trolling ofJ"6f the "greater good," --------- -------------------
