The Dwelling Place

Cissie Brody grew up on a tenant farm where life was a continual struggle for survival. When she was only fifteen, the fever swept the English countryside, leaving her to cope with the death of her parents and the care of her nine younger brothers and sisters. They were evicted from their cottage and forced out with hardly a shilling to their name. Rejecting the offers of town officials to care for the children in the workhouse, Cissie is determined to keep the family together and manages to move them to a cave-like dwelling place on the Fells. Then one afternoon as she is returning home, she is attacked by young Isabelle Fischel and raped by her twin brother, Lord Clive Fischel. Nine months later she bears him a son. Despite offers of wealth and comfort from the young peer’s father, Cissie refuses to give up the child until one of her younger sisters faces imprisonment in the House of Correction for a childish misdemeanor. But it is through love and friendship that Cissie is taught not to fear the world beyond the dwelling place. Set against the rough class-divided society of Victorian England, this vigorous Gothic narrative portrays a young woman who uses her intelligence and determination to defy the circumstances of her birth and to gain wealth, respect and happiness.