Johanna is the maidservant for Dame Margery. Dame Margery is considered a holy woman. She speaks to God which causes her to weep constantly. Dame Margery decides to go on pilgrimage to Rome and takes Johanna with her. Johanna has no choice in the matter and is expected to not only take care of Dame Margery, but of the whole group. She has to cook (even though she doesn’t know how), clean their clothes, sew and fetch water and wood. She is not treated well by most of the company, especially grumpy Petrus Tappester who likes to slap her around. Dame Margery even leaves Johanna in the middle of no where on the way to Rome; forcing Johanna to find her way there by herself.
Johanna is spunky and brave and a creature of her times. She doesn’t have modern ideas, but that doesn’t mean she is lacking; it means she is authentic. I enjoyed her wit and commentary on the holiness of those around her, especially Dame Margery. She was not treated well yet she persevered. According to the author’s note, Dame Margery and Johanna actually existed. Dame Margery wrote a book about her pilgrimage which became the first biography. She describes her servant as disobedient. Barnhouse, like the reader, found Johanna fascinating and developed her tale.
Juliet Moreau has been working as a maid and living rather humbly after the scandal that rocked her family’s world. Her father, the infamous Henri Moreau, managed to escape London rather than facing jail time and left Juliet and her mother destitute. After her mother died, Juliet was left to fend for herself. After intruding on a late-night vivisection, Juliet finds a diagram being used by the medical students that was drawn by her own father. A bit of investigation and the desire to see if her father was indeed still alive leads her to an apartment where she runs into her father’s former servant, Montgomery and a hairy, malformed man called Balthazar. Montgomery and Balthazar are in England to pick up supplies for Juliet’s father and agree to take her with them to the isolated island off the coast of Australia. They set sail on a rather sketchy vessel and pick up a castaway named Edward along the way. Edward is full of secrets and refuses to discuss any of the details of his former life. Montgomery grudgingly agrees to allow Edward to join the small group.
How much do I love Terry Pratchett? I can’t even think of the correct quantitative word to answer that question. Dodger might just be his best yet. Dodger is an orphan who has spent most of his life on London’s streets. He makes ends meet by toshing (collecting coins, etc. from the sewers) and is notorious among those that inhabit the workhouses, sewers and streets. He’s most emphatically not a thief (but, if something is just lying around, well then…); he’s the Dodger. Here one moment and gone the next. Things might have continued on like that if it weren’t for Dodger’s admirable sense of chivalry. He hears a scream and finds himself rescuing a girl from two very nasty thugs. Shortly after, he comes across another well-known London-ite with good intentions, a Mr. Charlie Dickens. Dickens finds a safe place for the strange woman (who has yet to tell anyone about herself or her provenance). With the young lady, dubbed “Simplicity” by her caretakers, safety in hiding, Dodger becomes determined to see those guilty for Simplicity’s beating held responsible for their actions. Dodger’s mystery takes him all over London, meeting some very historically important personages and finding a bit out about himself as he goes along. In spite of his lack of education, Dodger proves himself to be, at all times, completely capable of handling any situation he finds himself in.
