Book Review: Folly, by Marthe Jocelyn.

    Told from the alternating points of view of James Nelligan, a young orphan and Mary Finn, a teenage servant girl, this is an engaging and revealing work of historical fiction. Folly is a tale of the kind of rotten luck that could typically befall a poverty stricken youth in the largely unforgiving society of London at the time when it was the most powerful and wealthy city on earth. Folly also abounds with interesting incidental detail. Jocelyn manages to convey the wearying sort of day a servant might have without ever imposing that humdrum on the reader. As the servants peel potatoes or run out to buy thread, schemes and intrigues are unfolding and the stakes for Mary slowly rise. The orphan James is a virtual prisoner at the school for foundlings but despite a strictly controlled and regimented existence he manages to get himself into trouble at several points in the story. Based on historical reality and skilfully incorporating the poetic and archaic writing style of the times into an accessible narrative, Folly is a beautiful sharp eyed glimpse of two harsh young lives in a brutal and demanding world.