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    The Dressmaker: A Novel
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    The Dressmaker: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Dressmaker: A Novel
    Audiobook7 hours

    The Dressmaker: A Novel

    Written by Rosalie Ham

    Narrated by Rachel Griffiths

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A darkly satirical novel of love, revenge, and 1950s haute couture-now a major motion picture starring Kate Winslet, Judy Davis, Liam Hemsworth, and Hugo Weaving

    After twenty years spent mastering the art of dressmaking at couture houses in Paris, Tilly Dunnage returns to the small Australian town she was banished from as a child. She plans only to check on her ailing mother and leave. But Tilly decides to stay, and though she is still an outcast, her lush, exquisite dresses prove irresistible to the prim women of Dungatar. Through her fashion business, her friendship with Sergeant Farrat--the town's only policeman, who harbors an unusual passion for fabrics--and a budding romance with Teddy, the local football star whose family is almost as reviled as hers, she finds a measure of grudging acceptance. But as her dresses begin to arouse competition and envy in town, causing old resentments to surface, it becomes clear that Tilly's mind is set on a darker design: exacting revenge on those who wronged her, in the most spectacular fashion.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateAug 11, 2015
    ISBN9780147521569
    Unavailable
    The Dressmaker: A Novel
    Author

    Rosalie Ham

    Rosalie Ham is the author of The Dressmaker, Summer at Mount Hope and There Should be More Dancing. She was born and raised in Jerilderie, NSW and now lives in Melbourne.

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    Reviews for The Dressmaker

    3.5/5

    203 ratings22 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 1/5
      Unpleasant and badly written.
    • 3/5
      Starts off okay but with far too many characters and shallow characterization. I had to make a list of who was who. About 75% into it, the author decided she needed a really exciting ending and made a complete hash of it. The fashion was the most interesting thing about it and the reason I'm giving it three stars instead of two. Hopefully the movie will remedy the flaws of the book, in the spirit of Chocolat, another overdone book about outcasts in a closed-minded small town with a heavy dose of magical realism. The only reason I would be tempted to see the movie is to see how Hugo Weaving does with Sergeant Ferrat--far and away my favorite character.
    • 3/5
      A good story, but not a good book, in my opinion. A girl who has run away from home and made a successful life for herself, returns home to a her little "one horse" home town to look after her ageing mother. The townsfolk although still resenting her because she is different, all have there own peculiarities and hidden lives. In fact there does not seem to be one conventional character in the whole book except the hero, who if anything is too good to be true. The story is very confusing at times but should, if simplified, make an excellent movie. With such a strong cast of quirky characters played by some great Australian actors it should be a "hoot".
    • 3/5
      Starts off okay but with far too many characters and shallow characterization. I had to make a list of who was who. About 75% into it, the author decided she needed a really exciting ending and made a complete hash of it. The fashion was the most interesting thing about it and the reason I'm giving it three stars instead of two. Hopefully the movie will remedy the flaws of the book, in the spirit of Chocolat, another overdone book about outcasts in a closed-minded small town with a heavy dose of magical realism. The only reason I would be tempted to see the movie is to see how Hugo Weaving does with Sergeant Ferrat--far and away my favorite character.
    • 3/5
      Tillie Dunnage returns to her small, rural Australian town to care for her mentally ill mother. Something mysterious happened many years ago that make the residents of Dungatar loathe Tillie. She is called a bastard and a murderer, a whore's daughter. The reader doesn't know what happened, where Tillie's been or for how long she's been gone. Tillie keeps to herself, cares for her mother, and begins to be wooed by the sun of the garbage dump keeper. Tillie's mail, opened by the postal official, shows that she must have lived in Spain and France. Her boxes are filled with herbal mixtures, fancy material, patterns, and fashion magazines. When Tillie makes a wedding dress for a local girl, the women of the town realize that she has a talent they can make use of. Strangely, Tillie is obliging.Dungatar is filled with vile and quirky characters: an old-maid peeping-Tom gossip, a male policeman who makes and dresses in women's clothing, a lesbian postal officer who goes through everyone's mail, and a pharmacist who does not believe in treating sinners with functional medicine, to name a few.Ham's descriptions of the materials, colors and fashions of the 1950s is detailed and fun. Tillie's secrets are revealed slowly and skillfully, and the final scene is brilliant. The revenge component was a little dark for me, but I can understand why so many people like this book.
    • 5/5
      The Dressmaker was a fabulous novel. The characters, and they are characters, are wondrously believable as residents of a small town. One looks at one's neighbors in a new light! Tilley is jubilant to the end!
    • 5/5
      A descriptive, characterful, funny, tragic, heartbreaking story, beautifully written. I loved it.
    • 5/5
      Loved this book. It's dark with a little glimmer of hope. And then all hope is dashed and everyone comes to a very bad end.

      Tilly Dunnage returns to her small hometown after a 20 year absence to take care of her elderly and sick mother. As the book progresses, we see Tilly's past in flash-backs.

      Tilly has a complex and difficult past with just about every single inhabitant of the town, but with her return as a successful adult she's gaining acceptance she never had as a child. But then a tragedy occurs and the whole town shuns Tilly again. She has the last laugh and leaves the town in ruins.
    • 2/5
      fiction (1950s small Australian town full of awful people, dressmaking and neighbors' secrets, but mostly revenge). I was expecting more of a period sewing story, so was pretty surprised by all the dark and twisty (and kind of bloody and horrifying) parts. I enjoyed parts of it, but probably would not recommend.
    • 5/5
      gripping. Best book I have read/heard in years. like Corelli's mandolin in character development. the story is twisty. get it!
    • 5/5
      Good story about fashion and revenge. It was surprisingly good.
    • 4/5
      @
    • 5/5
      loved it
    • 5/5
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    • 2/5
      I couldn’t get a handle on ‘The Dressmaker’. The characters are all described, or what they are doing is described. We do not get any insight to their motives; their interiority. Reading it was a process of going along and tripping over the author’s misuse of some words, wayward third person pronouns, and the want of better punctuation. Oh for some semi colons to separate out the author’s reconsidered second object to the subject of her sentences. Where was the editor?At about the halfway mark I thought I had it; that the book was about gathering all these types of possible people in an Australian country town in the 1950’s as analogous to gathering oddments of fabric to make some strange patchwork gown that is symbolic of something. I figured it could only be a witch’s cape. But then the novel changed tack.Out of the blue, the author kills of the romantic lead. Very odd. The book goes down hill from there; tripped into poor slapstick. Mad Molly, the mother, who has been good for a chuckle with her absurdities, suddenly goes all mumsy and then dies of a stroke. Others in the town get bumped off by the author – or by the Grecian ‘Fates’ hooking them on their flaws. Some of this is very funny but best of all is when the limp OCD wife of the Councillor, now wised up by Tilly, unleashes on her philandering husband. Oh such delicious bitchery. And a nasty way to waste him at the Achilles tendon – more Grecian gods of devilry. It is all out of tone of the first part of the narrative.Overall, the novel is not well structured and needed much better editing. It is all a bit too silly but there are some nice crazy people in it and there are some good laughs to be had – possibly inadvertently. It is the characters and particularly the cross dressing town policeman who earn the two stars.
    • 4/5
      This is good escape reading about a young Parisian dressmaker who returns to her isolated Australian town to care for her mother and has to confront her past. Her mother never married and she was an outcast the entire time she lived there. But her dressmaking skills force people to come to her. Add a kind-hearted town policeman who is a cross-dresser and loves to sew, and unexpected romance, and a variety of townspeople and you’ve got the elements for a good story that ends in delightful revenge.
    • 2/5
      The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham is an historical novel set is rural Australia during the 1950’s. Myrtle “Tilly” Dunnage has returned to Dungatar, Australia (a town full of quirky townspeople) after being sent away when she was a child. Her mother, Molly (the locals call her Mad Molly) is ill and needs her assistance. Tilly has never been treated kindly in this town. Mostly because she is illegitimate. Tilly is a fashion designer and seamstress. She starts off wearing her creations around town which intrigues the citizens. After designing a dress for Gertrude to get married in, the ladies of the town slowly come to her for unique, one of a kind dresses. Soon Tilly is in great demand. Tilly starts seeing Ted McSwiney. Ted comes from a large family that lives on “The Hill” along with Tilly and her mother. Ted was the local football star and is well regarded in town. Sergeant Horatio Farrat is the local police officer for the town. He wears is uniform in public, but what he wears underneath it (ladies underwear) and at home (ladies clothes that he sews himself) he keeps to himself. He is thrilled that Tilly came to town. She can help him with his clothing.Then an accident happens. Ted dies in a tragic accident. The townspeople blame Tilly. They no longer go to her for dresses. They actually bring in a designer from Sydney (who is terrible). Then her mother, Molly, passes away. Tilly comes up with a way to get even with the town before she leaves.If you can get through the first forty percent of The Dressmaker, the rest of the book is interesting to read. The first part of the book is very confusing. There are a lot of townspeople thrown at you along with their information (written with Australian slang and terminology). I give The Dressmaker 2.5 out of 5 stars. I did enjoy the last part of the book. I loved the revenge plot that Tilly concocted and executed. The clothes that Tilly designed sounded beautiful. How anyone could stand living in this town, I do not know. The people were mean, cruel, selfish, nosy, and big gossips. I am shocked that this book is being made into a movie. I really hope it is much better than the book.I received a complimentary copy of The Dressmaker from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The review and opinions expressed are my own.
    • 4/5
      A wild romp of a story with a cool Gothic flavour
    • 5/5
      fabulous first novel by a great friend - now looking forward to the movie - she said I perhaps could be an extra!!
    • 3/5
      Heartbreaking. Loved every minute of it.
    • 4/5
      An interesting Story of a girl, who returns to her home town to look after her sick mother, after making dresses for Vionnet amongst other famous designers in Paris. She is welcomed home with caution, as she has an insavory past but manages to win over the townsfolk with her wonderful dresses. Although tragedy does strike.I really enjoyed this book and love the way it is written. I like the way that Ham shows what is happening in the townsfolks lives aswell - none of them have perfect lives.
    • 3/5
      Read this after really enjoying the film. Prefer to read a book first but was interesting to read the differences between the 2.