Book Review of Hope by Lesley Pearse

The book opens with the wealthy Lady Ann Harvey who had an adulterous affair and was birthing a child as a result of it. Her midwife Bridle claims the baby is stillborn, and tries to get rid of her quickly. Nell, the longtime housemaid there, feels for this child as her own mother has had at least ten babies. She realizes that the baby is alive, and quickly names her Hope, taking her away to the cottage where her parents live happily, but very much in poverty. Nell talked her mother Meg into keeping Hope and raising her as her own, which is what happens. No one else in the family with the exception of her husband would know any different anyway as she has had so many kids. Hope grew up happily with all her other brothers and sisters, though poor. But when typhus struck her father down, and then her mother contracted it, that was the beginning of the end for Hope. When both parents died of typhus, she goes on to live with her sister Nell and her abusive husband Albert in the gatehouse by the Briarhouse Estate. This turns into a nightmare for poor Hope. Albert is sadistic and hits both Nell and Hope around severely.

When Hope comes of age, she works for the Harvey family as does Nell in the Briarhouse Estate, slaving for the rich folks. Rufus, Lady Harvey's youngest child and Hope have a special bond and are very close to one another. But all this is threatened when Hope happens to catch Albert with Sir William in bed, Albert almost kills Hope and tells her to go away and that no one must ever know that he was really gay. He sends Hope packing on her way with no place to go, and Hope is out in the middle of nowhere when she stumbles among a couple folks to help her find a place to wash and sleep, though it is not in pleasant conditions. Betsy and Gerry become her fast friends until Cholera breaks out, and they come down with the illness and die unfortunately. Hope tried her darnedest to heal them, but fate turned against them. So once again, with no money, barely any clothes or anything, Hope is on her own again.

As she meanders about aimlessly wondering what to do, she runs into Dr. Bennett again, the doctor that tried to bring healing as well to Betsy and Gerry. The doctor takes Hope under his wing immediately. Impressed with her healing efforts with Betsy and Gerry, the doctor suggests Hope come along as his nurse, and could act as his assistant for healing patients with the Cholera breakout which is all over the place. Bennett takes her to his rich uncle's estate where his uncle is anything but welcoming of Hope, but Alice, the servant takes to Hope immediately. She helps Hope get some clothes, food and Bennett arranges for Hope to move in at St. Peter's Hospital where many are dying of the Cholera more then living. So under deplorable conditions at the hospital, Hope works tirelessly beside Dr. Bennett helping patients in their time of desperate need. Some patients even get well under her care.

In the meantime, Hope and Bennett are falling in love and marry in spite of his uncle's disapproval. Bennett feels called to serve in the army lending his hand over in Bristol. The day comes when Hope and Bennett are separated, not by choice but by duty. Hope is a great nurse there to many patients, until sent home at last.

Nell is overcome with joy that Hope is coming home and alive and well as she had suspected Albert of killing her. Hope is pregnant about 7 months by the time she reaches home, and depressed being without Bennett. She has the baby, a girl, whom she names Betsy, after her friend. But she is so depressed she can hardly care for her, and this is where Nell comes in taking over with the baby until Hope gets better. Hope feels that with the war, Bennett is dead most likely as there was so many casualties there. And she is unable to go on living until she finds out whether he is alive.

In the background here are secrets. Hope never knew the story of her birth, and that Rufus and Lady Harvey were connected by birth to her. It isn't until Lady Harvey is weak and frail, that she confesses to Hope about her heritage. With shock, Hope is once again back into deep depression, seeming not to find a way out. And with Bennett still missing from her life with no answer to letters from him, it is all too tempting to end her life in the end.