The events in this book take place in 1900. There are two main heroines – Adelia and Stepha. Adelia is a daughter of a wealthy doctor. Her mother died in a monstrous fire that destroyed half of the town. In that same fire died Stepha's parents – doctor's servants. So the doctor took Stepha and raised her with her own daughter.
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And now we see that Adelia is married to a man, and Stepha is still with her as her servant. But at the same time, they are closer, they are like friends. Adelia has a really bad difficult character and she's not easy to get along with. So she uses Stepha for her own benefit while humiliating and insulting her at the same time.
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I felt really sorry for Stepha. She was raised as a person of lower status than Adelia and that's why she doesn't even try to think that she could do more in her life. She is an excellent cook, famous for her dishes throughout the town. But even when she gets an opportunity to live a free life she rejects the offer because she's not ready to leave Adelia. And only when she accidentally sets the house on fire and is dying under the crushed roof she understands that she is finally free.
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So the story is quite sad and thought-provoking. I liked that it's set in the town I live now. I was able to find the same streets and buildings now and it was really interesting to imagine different scenes from the book happening here.
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This book was also made into a movie so now I'm going to watch it and compare it with a novel. ( )