tea. books. love.: [REVIEW] Folly by Marthe Jocelyn

Published: May 2010
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books
Age Group: Young Adult - Historical

Three fates interwine in this moving and passionate love story set in Victorian London.

Mary Finn: country girl, maid to a lord in London

Caden Tucker: liar, scoundrel, and heart's delight

James Nelligan: age six, tossed into a herd of boys

When Mary Finn falls into the arms of handsome Caden Tucker, their frolic changes the course of her life. What possesses her? She's been a girl of common sense until now. Mary's tale of alternates with that of young James Nelligan, a new boy in an enormous foundling home.

In Folly, Marthe Jocelyn's breathtaking command of language, detail, and character brings Victorian London to life on every page, while the deep emotions that illuminate this fascinating novel about life-changing moments are as current as today's news. (From Goodreads)

Folly is an amazing book and the author mangaes to squeeze in countles emotions in to less then 300 pages.

Folly is written in two perspectives, one in 15-year old Mary's perspective and the other in a young child named James. Mary is sort of like your typical cinderella. Her mother dies and her stepmother decides to send her away from the family and become a maid in London. James on the other hand is a child that was abandoned by birth. Living through the foster care, his foster parents must send him back to the foster care centre when he turns six. The years that both these perspectives take place are about 8-10 years apart. Mary's narrations are from around 1876-1878 and James is from 1884.

Throughout the whole story, both characters fall in to a sort of trap. Mary conflicts with the other maid in the house, Eliza, and starts to fall in love with a man ultimately committing the greatest sin possible. James flees the foster centre and is left homeless on the streets. Both characters truly grab you and it's hard not to feel sympathetic or share the saddness that they are experiencing.

The ending of the story also has a sudden twist that is quite rewarding. In my opinion, it answered alot of questions that iIthought of and couldn't find an answer too.

The title of this book is also quite ingenious. Folly essentially means being foolish and throughout the book, the word folly tends to appear quite often. When I read this book, I really felt that the majority of the writing was focused on the character's emotions. Often there would be alot of descriptive paragraphs to aid in the understanding of a character's feelings.

The settings are nicely explained. And the character's actions are also described very in depth.

Personally, I found folly to be a very heartbreaking story but that really depends on how emotional you are.

I would definitely recommand this to those who enjoy reading emotional stories or just those that would like to understand how the people in the lower classes survived back in the late 1800's.