England, 1789. Under a cloud of scandal, Henrietta Lightfoot flees her home at Melmouth Park. She has little money and no worthwhile talents, for what use is a neat stitch and a pretty voice outside the drawing room? Without family support, her only hope lies with the dashing but elusive Lord Allenham...
In a desperate quest to find him, Henrietta embarks on a journey through London's debauched and glittering underworld. With the aid of new-found skills at the card table and on the stage, will Henriette be able to turn her life around to become mistress of her fate?
MISTRESS OF MY FATE by Hallie Rubenhold
Published: 2011
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, Coming-of-age Novel
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Mistress of My Fate: The Confessions of Henrietta Lightfoot. Ahhh, what a revealing confession it was. This book was ruthlessly honest in revealing of the horrors women encountered in the 1700s when cast out in the world to fend for themselves. No dark corner was left unillumined, no woman un-debauched. Had anyone in the 1700s actually got hold of this book to read, I swear they would have been shocked into a swoon, before burning it upon the fire where their daughters would never discover it. This was not your typical regency romance, and I was glad of the refreshing approach. Rather than a romance, I read a sequence of tragic events, grippingly told and unputdownable.
'If I may say, madam, it is for men to do what they ought and women to do what they must. We have not the choices they have. If we desire something, we do what we must to have it, or else...we have nothing, madam."
Henrietta Lightfoot is, by her own admission, a naïve young woman when we discover her at the beginning of her tale. Under the care of her uncle, with no parents to speak of, even Henrietta acknowledges that she has very few prospects. She's resigned to a life in her cousin's shadow, expecting fate to take her where her cousin goes, to be her companion when she marries. The hand she hadn't expected fate to deal, was that the man her cousin Catherine would fall for, would capture Henrietta's heart and return her affections. It's a match that appears destined for disaster, until fate takes another turn and Henrietta is forced to choose an entirely different path for herself and her love. Romance is found and quickly replaced with the grime of the periods realities, when she flees her home to his arms.
This was a remarkable Historical Fiction, that leads from the respectable drawing rooms of London, to the bedrooms of men who 'protect' women who find themselves with no other options. It's coloured with fictional characters, but also features many very real people who would genuinely have been encountered amongst London's seedy ranks. The historical references to people, shops and products from the period give more clout to this novel, for example, descriptions of the effects of elixirs purchased by women to 'remove obstructions from the womb'.
As historical fictions go, this is one I'm glad to have discovered. I believe it was the author's debut novel of this genre, and I'm eager to read more of her work, particularly The Scandalous Lady W.
If you've had the delight of reading this book or any of Hallie Rubenhold's others, please let me know which you would most recommend in the comments below.
Happy reading,
Zuzu
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