The year is 1799. London’s antiquity trade is a lucrative, glamorous affair – ancient pottery inspire lavish costume parties, and the black market brims with archaeological treasures. Hopeful jeweller Dora Blake dreams of making her mark in London’s fashion scene, yet spends her days manning the desk at her late parents’ outdated antiquity shop. Until, that is, her uncle acquires a rare and mysterious Greek vase that may very well be Pandora’s ‘Box’. Expertly woven together with rich prose and charming wit, Stokes-Chapman’s debut is a pleasure to read. Thematic elements of fate, hope, and deception abound against the backdrop of high-brow academia and Georgian London’s class divide. While shelved as historical fiction, Pandora’s characters are rich with contemporary struggles: unrequited love, academic and financial failure, the widening gap between the social classes, and a woman paving her way in a man’s world.
Reviewed by Mindful Puzzles Editorial Assistant, Michaela Hook.
