Jennifer Delamere's The Captain's Daughter, an in-depth look at Victorian theatre life

Despite one’s initial impression, this novel isn’t a seafaring yarn. The heroine of Jennifer Delamere’s Victorian inspirational romance is the daughter of a ship’s captain who went missing at sea years earlier. The title also refers to a character from the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta H.M.S. Pinafore, a popular musical production that opened on the London stage in 1878. By a fortunate chance, Rosalyn Bernay gets the opportunity to work backstage at the theatre, where she does odd jobs and develops her singing skills… and becomes intrigued by two different men.

Her story begins in different circumstances, though. Rosalyn and her two younger sisters had grown up in a Bristol orphanage founded by Prussian evangelist George Müller. At eighteen, as expected of her, Rosalyn had left to go into service. Seven years later, after being falsely accused of theft by her mistress’s unscrupulous husband, she flees in desperation and finds herself on London’s streets, destitute, alone, and desperate for food and shelter. Although injured soldier Nate Moran sees the danger she’s in and tries to save her, Rosalyn’s natural wariness prevents her from trusting him. He later runs into her again at the theatre where he’s temporarily working as a stagehand.

The Captain’s Daughter presents angles on several little-known aspects of Victorian life, from roles during a Gilbert & Sullivan production – props, lighting, acting, singing, and more – to Müller’s clean, efficiently run orphan houses, which defy the Dickensian stereotype. (History says that Dickens himself went to investigate these orphanages personally and had a positive report.) One interesting fact included in the plotline, about the necessity of staging the followup production The Pirates of Penzance in a small coastal Devon town to preserve its copyright in Britain, is accurate.

Rosalyn is enterprising, courageous, yet somewhat naïve, especially when it comes to a handsome actor named Tony. There are many rags-to-riches sagas that see poverty-stricken young women rise high in their chosen profession, but this novel takes a more realistic approach. Also, through Rosalyn’s experiences on the job, she comes to a new understanding about the performing life, which she’d always been taught was immoral and wicked.

In addition to all the details on the London theatre, other highlights are Rosalyn’s relationship with her sister, Julia, a skilled nurse who’s a bit of a firecracker (her confident outspokenness will make her a great heroine in the sequel); and Nate’s difficult journey toward accepting his broken engagement to another woman. The characters sometimes quote from Biblical passages, but the novel's Christian elements are most clearly shown in their' principles and their kindness towards others in need.

Recommended for inspirational fiction fans interested in career women, Victoriana, and London theatre life.

The Captain's Daughter was published by Bethany House in June; thanks to the author and publisher for sending me a review copy.