Belinda Starling
La Rilegatrice dei Libri Proibiti

THE REVIEW

What do we look for in a book: originality, adventure, passion, intrigue, love, sex, good feelings, great emotions, a touch of perversion? Often, we do not choose; it is the book that chooses us, but we do not always realize this. Thus, delighted by an innumerable quantity of books smiling at us, neatly arranged from the shelves, that evening we decide to turn to a debut work.

Keywords: bookbinding, books, forbidden books, bookbinder.

Dora Damage, the young wife of a famous London bookbinder, is the protagonist who must cope with her husband's unexpected total disability, affected by a severe form of deforming arthritis of the hands; stepping into his shoes in the workshop, she breaks unwritten laws, which prohibit women from engaging in anything beyond domestic work.

Dora is very capable and creative: oriental fabrics, fine leathers, gold filigrees, many small seemingly insignificant objects, gain splendor and beauty in her hands, which soon attract the attention of a group of aristocratic bibliophiles, led by Lord Knightley, lovers of books covering various topics ranging from human anatomy to pure pornography.

Binding pornographic books soon becomes worse than a prison: she can no longer abandon the project, except for such heavy reprisals that it will lead her to numerous reconsiderations and just as many intimidations against her family.

We are in London in 1859, at the dawn of female emancipation and the start of the fight against racism in America; in the workshop, our heroine is helped by young apprentice Jack, kind and devoted, and by Din, a former black American slave, who will mark Dora's destiny.

The publishing situation of the time is indissolubly linked to the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, established by Pope Paul IV in 1559.

The Index was definitively abolished only in 1966 by Pope Paul VI, after four hundred years of censorship imposed on reading allowed to the faithful: My God, incredible!

In the Victorian era, many restrictions and the possible imprisonment if found in possession of books placed on the index, led to the flourishing of an underground market of forbidden works, lavishly paid and solely for the use of an aristocratic class as rich as it was dissolute, debauched and a thousand light years away from the primary needs of the people.

In this novel, which some define as historical, books are at the center of the story with love, passion, obsession for their contents: all senses are strained to perceive the olfactory, visual and tactile sensations they transmit. Does anyone who loves books recognize themselves in any of these sensations?

A mention of the narration is due: it flows smoothly and without abrupt interruptions for most of the writing; the characters are well described, as is the dirty, foul-smelling, and evil-swelling 19th century London; the ending is probably the weak point: improbable situations, it seems to arrive too quickly and hastily, in any case, not very credible.

It is an unusual, original book, it certainly deals with little-known topics, such as 19th century pornography; it is not a masterpiece, but perhaps it is precisely the presence of the factory defects that makes it more attractive to us.

Should you decide to read it, know that, those books, the true protagonists, will keep you company with all the force of their perverse charm.