The book Carnegie’s Maid by Heather Terrell [who goes by Marie Benedict] is an immigration story about a brave 19 year old girl named Clara who travels to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from her family home back in Ireland. When Clara lands in USA she makes the decision to act as a co-passenger with the same name. The author draws into the reasons of this decision to show the desperation that Clara had to make money for her family. All that was clear to Clara about this decision was that it would allow her to get a job that would let her make more money than all other occupations that she could possibly get as herself. Completely unaware of what is ahead of her, Clara gets in a carriage and is then driven to the home of one of the richest men in America during that period time. That man is Andrew Carnegie, the king of steel. Clara finds out using the information she gets from the people around her that she is going to be the maid of Andrew’s Mother. For the first day, Clara smartly uses the information she gets to help Mrs. Carnegie but later on she starts reading books in order for her mistress not to have any reason to fire her. But while Clara does everything she can to stay on the job, she doesn’t realize that she is being changed completely in the process. Clara doesn’t understand that she is powerless in the world of all these ruthless business owners. When she becomes aware of the fact that she is falling for Andrew, she does everything she can to avoid it however, it doesn’t help that Andrew is in love with her as well. But Clara sticks to her most important value and continues to work hard and pay for her family but as I said, Clara is powerless. She could only hold back for a certain amount of time so when she finally thinks she has hope with Andrew, something happens that makes her realize her small place in the world. Read more to find out.
To find out if this book is available at your library, click here.
Review by Pravigna U.
Last Modified April 19, 2024