Molly

Dressmaker #.5

by Rosalie Ham

It's 1914 and Molly Dunnage wants to see at home, at work and in underwear.

Her burgeoning corsetry business is starting to take off, thanks to some high-profile supporters. She's marching with Melbourne's suffragists for better conditions for women everywhere. And her family - her eccentric, confounding, adored father and aunt - are turning their minds to country retirement.

But as the clouds of war gather and an ominous figure starts skulking in the shadows of her life, Molly's dreams begin to falter. Then, when true love drops out of the sky and into her arms, her hopes for her life and the world are entirely upended.

With the dark humour, richly detailed settings and vividly drawn characters we've come to expect from Rosalie Ham, this prequel to the international bestseller The Dressmaker is an unforgettable story of hopes lost, love found - and corsets loosened.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Audiobook, Book Club, Australia, Romance, Feminism

389 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2024

About the author

Rosalie Ham was born, and raised in Jerilderie, NSW, Australia. She completed her secondary education at St Margaret's School, Berwick in 1972. After travelling and working at a variety of jobs (including aged care) for most of her twenties, Rosalie completed a Bachelor of Education majoring in Drama and Literature (Deakin University, 1989), and achieved a Master of Arts, Creative Writing (RMIT, Melbourne) in 2007. Rosalie lives in Brunswick, Melbourne, and when she is not writing, Rosalie teaches literature. Her novels have sold over 50,000 copies.

Reviews

[Gloria (Ms. G's Bookshelf) · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️4 Stars⭐️
Molly by Rosalie Ham is the entertaining prequel to the best selling novel The Dressmaker and can easily be read as a standalone.

The main themes of the story are corsetry and women’s rights and the setting is Melbourne, 1914. Molly Dunnage is a corset designer and lives with her father and her Aunt in poverty, she’s working in a corsetry factory. Molly is hoping for her own corsetry business to take off but war is looming. Our protagonist is a modern woman and is marching with the Melbourne suffragists for better conditions for women.

The story starts off a slow burn but I found the pace soon sped up, it was absolutely intriguing reading about corsetry in that era and the family relationships were a delight. There’s a love story woven into the story that is heartbreaking.

The characters are quirky and well developed, I really adored Molly’s family.

If you love historical fiction and feminism this humorous and sometimes dark story will resonate with you. I’m now determined to read The Dressmaker next month to see what happens next to Molly and her daughter.

Publication Date 29 October 2024
Publisher Imprint Picador

A huge thanks to the fabulous team Macmillan Australia for a copy of the book.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the prequel to Australian author Rosalie Ham’s book and film The Dressmaker. It is set in 1914 Melbourne amongst the factories and poorer suburbs. This is the story of Molly, mother of Tilly Dunnage from The Dressmaker. As a young woman she works in a factory but dreams of setting up her own business as a corseter. She lives with her eccentric microbiologist Aunt April and struggling ceramicist father August.

Molly has a few enemies who make her life a misery, like the snobbish and conservative Mrs Sidebottom and her boss Mr Addler. She also has a few people in her corner such as the bosses’ daughter Alathea, who is a looming promise that when she takes over she will bring in better working conditions for the factory women. The book encompasses the political fight of the suffragettes, people suffering with the yet unnamed PTSD, and the history of women’s underwear. And finally Molly’s life is turned upside down by an unexpected romance.

Molly is a likeable, feisty woman with strength of character and a sharp sassy wit. The tone of the book is quirky with a dark humour and slightly farcical, surreal feel to it. There is a considerable amount of detail on fashion and fabrics and the book is obviously well written. This was an entertaining technicolour story that would also convert well onto screen.

[Wendy McInerney · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the worst books I’ve ever read. I skipped through many of the chapters after chapter 16. The content was very repetitive and each chapter felt like the previous chapter.

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rosalie Ham is one of my favourite authors, I’ll read anything she writes. She’s thoughtful and fun, there’s always humour and always impending danger or ruin in store for her characters. This is a prequel or backstory to her novel The Dressmaker, one of my all time faves. It’s a bunch of fun. A story of hardship, struggles and a hefty dose if revenge. Great fun.

[Jess Cap · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[Nicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a prequel... I feel for Molly, it's a very good read. So much strength in a tiny girl, she did her best...

[Pan Macmillan Australia]

From the opening line I was absolutely all-in on this book! Molly is such a great character and I was desperate to be a part of her life –especially as she set about changing things one corset at a time. She is such a stark reminder that it took women like her -not particularly influential, not rich, not in positions of power, women who just decided that enough was enough –demanding change that cascaded out through the decades. Thank God for Molly and the women like her! And what a delightful contradiction she presents –the woman fighting for freedom while making corsets. Brilliant.

There is such a sense of place and time in this novel. You can smell the streets, hear the noise of the rattling carts on cobblestone, feel the constriction of the women –both physical and emotional. All the while, with war casting its shadows and the feelings of fear and excitement that provoked. I feel like I got to be friends with Molly, met her crazy aunt and uncle, joined her on marches, walked the streets she walks. Everything about this book feels so real.

This book does what every good prequel does – it stands alone while being in the same world and absolutely makes you want to read The Dressmaker, for the first time or the fifth time!

- Kristen

[ABel Bainger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had loved Rosalie Ham’s previous novels so was excited for Molly. Perhaps it is more a reflection on my brain capacity at the start of a school year but for the first half of the story I had no idea what was going on or who all the characters were. The second half was an improvement with Molly and Leander’s love story but 3 stars was probably on the generous side.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this book, it has very endearing characters and I loved the dressmaking aspects of it.

It helped that I had read the Dressmaker previously, the preceding story to some of the characters I did so enjoy.

[Claire Dolan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the movie the dressmaker and mad molly. So this book was always going to be 5 stars.

It was amazing!! Extremely tragic but with a hopeful ending. I can’t wait to actually read the dressmaker which has been sitting on my shelf for like five years.

[Michael Burge · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gripping blend of politics, couture, war, universal suffrage, creativity and unionism.

[Kaija Pedler · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5⭐

I love the Dressmaker series, so really enjoyed this backstory. It's strange reading a book already knowing the character arc, but knowing the character has no clue yet. A hopeful but very sad story.

[Alison · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess when you’re into a good thing, stick with it. The Dressmaker was so good, so was the film, and even Hope St was good. This feels like it’s a film script waiting to happen, replete with already made quirky Australian characters. The politics is sound (feminist unionist) but so didactic and 2 dimensional. I didn’t get very far before I decided I wanted something more nuanced.

[Virginia Mc · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. It had elements of a good story but needed some heavy editing, it meandered all over the place and some sentences seemed to have no relation to the preceding ones. I found it quite poorly written for such a well known author.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first book for 2025 is by one of Australian best-loved authors — Rosalie Ham, who brought us The Dressmaker in 2000, which was made into a stunning film in 2015 where the real star of the show was the costume designer Marion Boyce who made the dresses for the film. Ham went on to write a sequel, The Dressmaker's Secret in 2020, and now we have the prequel — Molly.

With the dark humour, richly detailed settings and vividly drawn characters we've come to expect from Rosalie Ham, this prequel to the international bestseller The Dressmaker is an unforgettable story of hopes lost, love found - and corsets loosened.
Ham's Gothic blend of feisty females, satire and historical detail was just what I wanted after a run of Serious Books. By the end of the novel Molly is the mother of Tilly Dunnage who in the next book goes on to be the dressmaker who returns to the fictional town of Dungatar to wreak her revenge. Like the rest of the books in the series, Molly's themes showcase malice, vanity, hypocrisy and bigotry but — as was historically accurate for the pre WW1 era in which it is set — Molly also explores the wasted talent of working class people, condemned to lives of poverty and disadvantage.

In Molly, Ham shows that small mindedness isn't confined to small towns. A dedicated activist for women's rights, Molly is the target of an obnoxious conservative called Mrs Sidebottom and also of Mr Addler, her boss at the corsetry factory who makes her life a misery. A lowlife called Evan Pettyman is there to represent the way even mediocre men can survive and prosper, but the wealthy have a mean streak too, as we can see in the character of Alethea Pocknall who offers false hope when she inherits her father's factory.

It is the wealthy who give Molly (and the author) a chance to flaunt haute couture. Talking about this novel with a friend yesterday, it was nostalgic memories of our mothers wearing 1950s fashion that made us love The Dressmaker because we could imagine the dresses that were described in lush detail. But while, yes, feminists can rejoice in Molly's quest to redesign ladies undergarments to allow freedom of movement, the (rather long) descriptions of corsetry never quite worked for me because I could not really imagine their designs or appearance. When I think of corsets, I think of the film of Gone with The Wind and Mammy lacing Scarlett O'Hara into a gruesome concoction, and how women ever managed to dance wearing them I do not know. My generation of feminists but also my mother would not have dreamed of wearing any such thing or variation of it. Feminists of the seventies and women who had serious work to do in WW2 are/were not interested in the idea of shaping our bodies to suit a male gaze, not at all.

But although I failed #Fashion101 I was interested in the dresses that transform their wearers due to the shaping that Molly's creations allow.

Stuck in a factory where she is bullied daily by Mr Addler, Molly dreams of a career in design. She wants to liberate women and herself, and from her physical confrontations with others at the demonstrations she attends, she knows that freedom of movement is critical.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2025/01/02/m...

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this read. It's a bit of a slow burn at the start but it brings to life a couple of things that resonated with me. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) yet to be recognised at the time this book is referred to is acknowledged by Molly and Gladys when the girls are heading out to campaign for women's rights.

Gladys and Molly have been great friends from their school days. Gladys has had a terrible start to life and has ended up at the Sidebottom’s, the wife of the afflicted war survivor who hasn't welcomed her husband back home due to his drinking, rather she has left him to languish in the open nearby. Gladys remembers her own beginnings and the fear imposed from such a man, her father who suffered from the same horrors. Mrs Sidebottom has Gladys working at a mattress factory and demanding board from her. Gladys, unlike Molly, has the simple desire of marrying well, a secure and safe life.

The Dunnages; Aunt April, August and daughter Molly with the exception of their political views and activities are pretty much similar to families of the time, although breaking with tradition Aunt April and Molly are beginning to push the boundaries regarding their mode of dress which gives their neighbours some angst. August was of particular interest to me, a colourful man who recognises Molly's abilities, doesn't rebuke her or Aunt April for their political activities, is a wonderful gardener and a ceramicist for which I identified with being one myself and with the effects of the paints, mediums he used, “making a fine end with his 《lips》 staining them yellow”, an action even today would not be advisable.

Molly's start into her working life of corsetry has come about by her father, the family have little income, both he and April are not well enough to work. Molly had organised an interview at an exclusive dressmaker’s atelier but this didn't work out. She reluctantly had to take on the work at the factory where she considered was in a “slum” area even though her own home was a poor cottage (today in the very area heritage houses would fetch $A1,800,000.00 an apartment $A700,000.00).

Factory life is what one would imagine of the times, long hours, little pay and no protection from odious bosses for which the girls have to deal with, particularly outspoken Molly. Her talent is obvious but this isn't recognised, rather, she is given the hardest jobs. However, she comes to the attention of the owner's daughter, Alathea, which does a lot to improve Molly's outlook for her future dreams.

With a twist of fate after Alathea's father dies leaving her the factory a usurper makes claims against the Will. Finally, Alathea is not true to her word leaving Molly bereft. Her personal life is also in tatters for which the usurper pushes his unwanted attention towards her, which makes matters even worse and leaving Molly no option but to make drastic changes to her life.

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Molly Dunnage started 1914 with a stint in the city watchhouse.’

Okay, so I watched the film adaptation of ‘The Dressmaker’ and immediately read the novel. I was fortunate enough to see the stunning Dressmaker Costume Exhibition when it was in Canberra in 2019, and (naturally) read ‘The Dressmaker’s Secret’ when it was released. And all of this made me keen to know a bit more about Tilly’s mother, Molly.

This novel opens in 1914, with Molly marching with Melbourne’s suffragists. While Molly is seeking better conditions for women, including more public toilets, she also has her own dream of travelling to Paris. Molly lives with her father August and her Aunt April in Carlton and works in a factory making corsetry. Molly had a job lined up as a shop assistant in Miss Archambeau’s exclusive dressmaker’s atelier … but the day before Molly was to start work, Miss Archambeau died. Yes, it is an omen.

But in 1914, war is on the horizon. Molly is now aged 24. Her father is ill, her aunt dabbles in science, and her best friend Gladys dreams of marriage. Molly dreams of revolutionising corsetry and has some high-profile supporters. Will she realise her dream?

I’ll stop there rather than spoil your appreciation of Molly’s journey from Carlton to Dungatar. If you’ve read ‘The Dressmaker’, you know how it ends. Dark humour and memorable characters, heartbreak and tragedy all feature to make this novel unputdownable.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Kiwiflora · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 I feel. So much to like, and yet it drags a bit. This could be considered the prequel to The Dressmaker, the story of Tilly who returns to her childhood town of Dungatar to look after her ailing mother, Molly. This story is Molly's story. It is 1914, in Melbourne. WWI has yet to begin, but already there are rumours on the horizons. Molly is in her early 20s, living with her father and aunt in a working class suburb of Melbourne. Molly works in an underwear factory. Life is not easy, and money is always short. Molly and her aunt are involved in the local suffragette movement, taking part in protests and general activism. Their protest is about much more than getting the vote. They also want equal pay for equal work, vastly improved working conditions, and free of society's expectations of marriage, childbirth and repression. She is feisty, is Molly. And also very talented in the making of women's underwear - moving away from the tight control of the woman's body. Her dream is to one day open her own corseterie shop in Paris! It's hard work though, and at all turns Molly comes up against challenges and brick walls. But she gets back up again to face the next challenge. Eventually however life gets the better of her. She has to make some life-changing decisions, which lead, inevitably to the town of Dungatar and Tilly. This is a great prequel to The Dressmaker, but was perhaps a tad too long.

[Rina · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's 1914 and Molly Dunnage wants to see change: at home, at work and in underwear. Her burgeoning corsetry business is starting to take off, and she's marching with Melbourne's suffragists for better conditions for women everywhere. As the clouds of war gather and an ominous figure starts skulking in the shadows of her life, Molly's dreams begin to falter.

I had watched The Dressmaker movie, but I hadn’t read the book yet so I had the opportunity to read this one with somewhat fresh eyes.

Knowing where Molly’s life would end up (because of The Dressmaker) didn’t make this story less interesting for me. It was heartbreaking to see her battling a lot of things society had expected of her, and even more so seeing her losing a lot of them. Molly’s resilience and determination were what kept me hooked till the end.

I really enjoyed the fashion elements, and the female ‘rebellion’ aspect via undergarments. By the end of the book, Molly had become a dear character to me, and I was left with melancholy.

(Thanks to Pan Macmillan Australia for a gifted review copy)

See my bookstagram review.

[Meina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the storytelling a bit jerky, and not always plausible. The focus is very much on conveying the characters of the main protagonists, which I felt In places was to the detriment of the storytelling. It also annoyed me that the author was referring to American birds (barred owl and screech owl only occur in the Americas). We’ve got our own owls and other night birds in Australia, there’s no need to divert to America for the story line. And were head torches really that common in 1920? They could be carbide lamp but how likely would it be that someone like Aunt April would have one? Similarly, the Thermos bottle was only invented in 1904, would a family like the Dunnages have one already?

[Trish G · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rye sense of humour coupled with detailed settings & characters that are uniquely quirky & Australia of the early 20th century, I was bound to be hoping that Molly had a happy ending!
Molly is a talented seamstress working in a corsetry business. She adored by her eccentric father & brother & has ambitions of designing & going into Parisian fashion. She is often found marching with Melbourne’s suffragettes gaining attention to poor working conditions for women.
Molly’s dreams falter when her work place in abandoned & she moves to the country where she meets the love of her life.
What happens next is the beginnings of ‘The Dressmaker’
No spoiler!
A unique story of hopes lost, love found & unforgettable & loveable characters set in a turbulent time in Australian history.

[Bazz Sherwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very dark humour.
This "Dressmaker" prequel follows the ups (very few) and downs (there are many) of Molly Dunnage leading to her arrival in Dungatar. Her hopes of a brilliant career in lingerie in Melbourne and Paris are dashed as scoundrels abound, and her suffrage protests and love life are overtaken by the First World War. It is only when all seems lost that "Molly" lets rip with a riotous romp of events. Not only does Molly end up in Dungatar, but so too do Constable/Sargeant Farrat and Evan Pettyman.
Myrtle (not yet Tilly) is one year old as the story ends so I guess these events leave room for another novel that will sit between "Molly" and "The Dressmaker".

[Cathryn Davey · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars
I enjoyed the first book in the series, 'The Dressmaker' though it was more humorous in nature, the second book, 'The Dressmaker's Secret' was absurd and farcical, so going into this prequel I wasn't sure what to expect.

Well I guess third time's the charm, because this was an engaging and well written historical novel. Set in pre-war Melbourne the struggles of young Molly and her family were interesting and absorbing. I enjoyed the historical aspect of women's rights in Australia as it is not something I've read about a lot in fiction.

The only drawback was that I felt she talked a bit too much about the fabrics and techniques in corsetry, I guess it shows thorough research though.

[maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

twas pretty chill vibes. I think this book was more focused on the world building and aesthetics and the characters rather than the plot - not that the plot wasn’t there but more that it was kinda secondary like not much really happened. I did like the book and I loveeee molly and her family so effing sweet but I have a feeling that rosalie ham likes to see her characters suffer and likes to kill them off 💔 breaks my heart for molly that shit lowkey went south for her especially with everything that happens in the dressmaker but at least she still has her fiery quippy personality and love her down for it

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Molly by Rosalie Ham is the new prequel to The Dressmaker 👗 which was famously made into a movie 🎬 🎞 🎥.

The Dressmaker's Secret was also part of this series.

To read in order you'd read The Dressmaker first, then The Dressmaker's Secret which was the sequel to The Dressmaker.

Although, you could just read Molly as stand alone.

There's a few different characters and some from the past in Molly.

Once again about a small town, suffrages and women's rights.

Molly focuses more on Corsetry than just fashion.

This was a very enjoyable, old fashioned easy to read book.

[Prue Mansfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Dressmaker was the best, this is a good yarn, easy. romantic, feisty women, Molly in the end prepared to give it up for love. The most interesting element was the development of women's underwear, from tightly constrained corsets to the 'breast harness' (demeaning); 'breast support'. Brassiere was unacceptable as it was for modesty only, did not offer any support. And the other intersting element was business swindles and how they were perpetrated.........pay by chq, then remove your money from the account before the chq was cleared.

[Tony Peck · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful prequel. The quirky cast including Molly her father and aunt and a rag tag bunch of odd bods, some judgemental, some quite special is fun and I quickly came to enjoy their foibles.
I think Ham has it in for her best characters though as they always seem to have a tough time despite being heroically good and interesting, strong people.
I really enjoyed the roller coaster of emotions and to follow such lovely cast though the gritty travails of just pre WW1 Melbourne is an experience I highly recommend.

[Douglas Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed the first 4/5ths of this book. There was so much more to the ending - although I do acknowledge it is a prequel to the Dressmaker. Ham’s character creation is phenomenal - the words ‘odious’ and ‘conniving’ are the descriptors that come to mind when considering some of the less desirable characters. Her style is very similar to Pop Williams - which maybe in part because of the similarities in the eras in which the stories take place. Great stories, with strong female characters that highlight the struggle for women and how much there is yet to be done.

[what_amanda_read · Rating 3 out of 5]

Molly is the prequel to the best selling novel "The Dressmaker", but can easily be read as a standalone novel.

Set in Melbourne in 1914, Molly lives with her eccentric and much adored father and aunt in near poverty. She's desperate for change at home, at work, and in women's underwear design. She has a couple of high profile clients supporting her corsetry business, but as war looms, she worties about her future.

This is a story of politics, unionism, creativity, love and family. Molly is a delightful protagonist, full of hope, strength and verve.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had so many emotions in this book! I was invested in the characters from the beginning and I found myself cheering “Go Molly!” as she faced endless challenges. I loved the contrasts between the privileged and the paupers, and the highlighting of self taught skills, business opportunities and fashion. Definitely read this book if you enjoyed The Dressmaker- and I’m glad to see Molly published many years later. I also recognise some links between the two books. 5/5 for this read- I loved it and couldn’t put it down!