I've enjoyed reading everything written by Tremain, and it is testament to her dexterity that she can evoke an atmosphere irrespective of the period. Many of her novels are contemporary, but Restoration is self-explanatory, while Lily is classic high Victorian. The subtitle for this explains what to expect: ‘A Tale of Revenge’. Lily is a Foundling with a capital F, and the novel alternates between her experiences growing up (the idyll of a foster family in Suffolk, followed by the horrors of the Coram Institute) and the present where she regrets the course of action — the revenge — she has undertaken. There is a (somewhat tenuous) love interest angle, which creates an interesting moral dilemma and a compulsion to read on. The ending brings mostly closure too.
By Rose Tremain