The Journal of Dora Damage
Sex, Violence and Book-Binding in Victorian London
It is London, 1859. More precisely, Ivy Street, home to Damage’s Bookbinders, a small business struggling along under the helm of Peter Damage and his wife Dora. Business is slow; in this part of London, the loan-sharks are always circling somewhere nearby.
When disaster strikes in the form of acute arthritis in Peter’s hands, it is down to Dora to save her family from destitution. She herself is from a family of bookbinders, and resolves to run the business as well as looking after the house, her ailing husband, and her epileptic daughter Lucinda. In addition to these responsibilities, she must also pay back the huge debts her husband has run up without her knowledge, and cope with the condemnation of her neighbours: this being Victorian times, it was most unseemly for a woman to attempt to run a business.
Pornography in Victorian London
Dora is a fighter, however, and the first part of this highly enjoyable novel traces her attempts to win a steady stream of orders from a new customer, Charles Diprose. At first all goes well: her work is impressive and the orders start to come in almost more quickly than she can cope with. The seedier side of London is never far away though, and Dora is soon enmeshed in a tangled web of pornography, sex and violence, courtesy of her apparently charming client Sir Jocelyn Knightley.
Dora’s journey is an eventful and enjoyable one. The first half of the novel is a triumph, with Starling skilfully blending a huge amount of technical information about the bookbinding process with humour and fascinating details about life in Victorian London. Dora is a likeable and lively character: resilient, funny and fiercely loyal to those she cares about.
Weaknesses in the Novel
The book is not without its flaws, however. Dora’s voice is intelligent and educated, perhaps too much so for a woman in her position. Starling also introduces too many issues throughout the course of the novel, and whilst the status of women in Victorian society is well managed, the topic of slavery is less so – the character of Din, who represents this idea, is unconvincing, and Starling is forced to resort to shock tactics towards the end of the novel to make her point. The climax of the novel is a little farcical; a shame considering the witty and subtle humour characterising the book up until this point.
Death of Belinda Starling
Sadly, The Journal of Dora Damage is the only novel we will be able to read by this talented writer: Belinda Starling died in 2006 from septic shock following a routine operation. She was just 34, and in a moving afterword, her brother comments “she would have been thrilled that you have read her novel”.
The Journal of Dora Damage by Belinda Starling is published in the UK in paperback by Bloomsbury, 2008, 445 pages, ISBN 978-0-7475-9325-6.
If you enjoyed this novel, try: Sarah Waters, Jane Harris
Cover of Dora Damage
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