The Cultured Handmaiden: A Novel

By Catherine Cookson

Book Overview

At twenty-one, Jinny Brownlow's life is not going as well as she had hoped. She's working at a dead-end typing job at an engineering firm and has just been dumped by her fianc? for her own roommate. Outside of work her only hobby is her local theater group, but even there she's just a general helper and not credited with having any talent at all. Something needs to change in Jinny's life, and it may have to be Jinny herself. "A bloody cultured handmaiden...Yes, that's a good description of you. So agreeable, so polite, so damned eager to please." These are Ray's words to Jinny the night he confesses he's gotten her roommate, Emily, pregnant. Ray had apparently found Emily a more willing bedmate, and he reminds Jinny that things might have worked out had she been more cooperative. Thinking this over after Ray's departure, Jinny recalls the past year with a sigh. Her experiences with men have been disasters. Jinny's lonely life -- working the day away at her desk and sitting alone in her tiny apartment at night practicing French and listening to her radio -- seems destined to continue indefinitely, until one day the owner of the firm, Mr. Henderson, calls her into his office. Known to be a devil of a man who works longer and harder than everyone else, Bob Henderson seems an unlikely candidate to change Jinny's life. When she's called to do typing for him she's terrified but refuses to cower like the other secretaries and ends up earning his respect and affection. On the same day, Hal Campbell, leading man in her theater group, goes out of his way to take a special interest in Jinny and her personal problems, and she realizes she may not have to be as lonely as she thought. Each of these two men will be an important part of Jinny's changing life, inspiring her to become less of a "cultured handmaiden" and think more about what she wants, but she's holding out for the perfect man -- one who will treat her like a princess while respecting her beliefs about marriage and her hesitancy to give herself to any man outside those sacred bonds. After a twisting, unpredictable search, in the end Jinny discovers that there just might be someone for everyone after all. The Cultured Handmaidendisplays the beloved Catherine Cookson's powers at their fullest and her enduring themes of hardship, love, virtue, and hope.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684808552
• ISBN13: 9780684808550
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 1.0" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

fine English relationship drama

Her fiancé Ray Collard dumps twenty-one years old Jinny Brownlow insisting her roommate registered nurse Emily Houselea is much warmer. At work Jinny is part of the typing pool at Henderson & Garbrook Engineering when the senior partner Bob Henderson needs office assistant help with his long time aid in the hospital. After several girls are run off by the demanding Bob, Jinny is kicked upstairs and calmly handles the curmudgeon refusing to bow to his nastiness. Jinny becomes indispensable at work but eventually in her boss' personal life too especially when Henderson's wife dies. Concerned over her growing influence on their father and how much he likes Jinny's company, Bob's four daughters worry that their dad will marry his young assistant. However, though she likes her boss, who obviously finds Jinny helping him to overcome his loneliness and grief, she finds herself quite attracted to his son John. Her feelings are awkward because he acts strange towards her as one moment he seems in love with her and the next he acts like she is beneath him. Though the tale takes place in the 1970s, class distinctions still remain a part of English society as this reprint by the late great Catherine Cookson portrays. The story line focuses on the relationships between Jinny and the Collard family including the wife before she dies. Fans will appreciate this fine English relationship drama while wondering who the lead female will choose, if anyone. Harriet Klausner