'A Perfect Hand' is a romp through 19th-century England, with a suffragist twist

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Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 25 May 2026

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

A Perfect Hand has all the ingredients of a charming Victorian romance novel: a scheming matchmaker plot, an upstairs-downstairs dynamic, and a hefty dose of petticoats. But author Ayelet Waldman also explores what lies beneath the shiny historical romanticism. When protagonist and lady's maid Alice partners with an attractive valet to set up their wealthy employers, she discovers there could be more to life than servitude or marriage. But can she make it happen? In today’s episode, Waldman joins NPR’s Elissa Nadworny for a conversation about A Perfect Hand, and its unexpected political edge.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Alyssa NADwarnie, and this is NPR's book of the day.
0:06.2	Today's book has Bridgerton and Downton Abbey vibes with a dash of rebellion and a pinch of
0:12.5	feminist history. It's Ayelet Waldman's latest novel called A Perfect Hand. It's plot
0:19.3	heavy, with lots of twists and turns. I talked with
0:22.1	Waldman while guest hosting Weekend Edition. Here is our conversation. The heroine of our next
0:28.3	story is Miss Alice Locky, the daughter of a tenant farmer on the estate of Beville Marlcombe,
0:34.9	Fourth Earl Alderwick. At the time of our telling, Alice had, by dint of hard work, innate intelligence,
0:42.3	a skillful hand with the needle, and a sense of style and color in clothing unusual for a girl of her birth,
0:50.3	raised herself to the lofty status of ladies' maid to Lady Jemima Alderwick, eldest daughter of Lord and Lady Alderwick.
1:00.6	Alice had thus far resisted the temptations of matrimony, preferring to enjoy the fruits of her own labor,
1:06.9	or at least that part of it her father returned to her when it was paid to him by the steward at the end of each quarter.
1:14.2	Until that is, Alice falls for Charlie Wells, valet to the eccentric Lord Winstow.
1:21.0	To be together, Alice and Charlie must devise a plot to bring about an unlikely romantic union between their employers.
1:30.6	A perfect hand is Aielle Waldman's new novel, and she joins us now. Hello. Hello, it's so great to be here. I'm curious about the
1:37.2	title, A Perfect Hand. Is there a little bit of a double meaning there? Yes. So, hand in marriage,
1:46.3	obviously, but also there's this concept in Victorian England of the perfect hand, like a lady should have a beautiful,
1:51.6	perfect hand, very white, very kind of soft, no calluses. It should not have done any work but
2:00.3	the most delicate needlework, which I
2:03.2	embroider and quilt, and I can tell you, my hands are very calloused from the needle. I don't
2:07.6	know how they maintain their perfect hand. But sort of the irony is that Jemima, who is the
2:13.1	lady in this novel, she actually has kind of not particularly pretty hands and also very, very
2:18.8	stinky feet. And our heroine, who's a maid, actually has beautiful hands. I don't go into
	...

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