Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad-Doctors in Victorian England - Hardcover
Gaslight tales of rooftop escapes, men and women snatched in broad daylight, patients shut in coffins, a fanatical cult known as the Abode of Love.
The nineteenth century saw repeated panics about sane individuals being locked away in lunatic asylums. With the rise of the 'mad-doctor' profession, English liberty seemed to be threatened by a new generation of medical men willing to incarcerate difficult family members in return for the high fees paid by an unscrupulous spouse or friend. And contrary to popular modern belief, the madwoman in the attic was at least as likely to have been a madman.
Among the victims were the beautiful and charismatic Rosina, wife of the novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton; Edward Davies, victim of a mother's greed; Louisa Lowe, who paid for her religious fervour; and John Perceval, who, despite the best efforts of the abusive asylum attendants, cured himself.
Sarah Wise uncovers twelve shocking stories, untold for over a century, which reveal the darker side of the Victorian upper and middle classes - their sexuality, fears of inherited madness, financial greed and fraudulence - and chillingly evoke the black motives at the heart of the phenomenon of the 'inconvenient person'.
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Review:
"An illuminating look at an area of social history that inspired Wilkie Collins among others" (Sebastian Faulks Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year)
"Sarah Wise is an excellent writer, and those who pick up this book will not lightly put it down. Her ten chapters read like short novels, and she has the true social historian's ability to make her period come alive. She selects and compresses the salient details beautifully; one often feels as if one is actually present at the scenes she describes. There can be no higher praise... Inconvenient People is as interesting a work of social history as you are ever likely to read" (Anthony Daniels Spectator)
"The great gift of Sarah Wise's excellent Inconvenient People is to blow apart the myth that the most likely victim of the lunacy laws was a married woman... If much of Inconvenient People reads like a mood book through which Wilkie Collins might have flipped if stuck for inspiration, there are moments of high farce too. Wise is flexible enough in her narrative register to make it all right to find this very funny indeed" (Kathryn Hughes Guardian)
"Deeply researched and gripping... The book owes its enormous power to Sarah Wise's patience. She has sifted through hundreds of case histories... It makes for harrowing reading, but much of it is also hilarious, and as gripping as the most lurid Victorian melodramatic novel. Yet again, one closes a book with the impression that beneath the polished mahogany surfaces and shimmering silks of Victorian interiors lurked Hell itself" (A N Wilson Mail on Sunday)
"Fascinating... Sarah Wise has used her subject like an axe, to split open the Victorian facade and examine everything wriggling behind. It has enough tragedy, comedy, farce and horror to fill a dozen fat novels, and enough bizarre characters to people them" (Suzi Feay Financial Times)
"Sarah Wise has unearthed [several riveting cases] for this fine social history of contested lunacy in the 19th century... Wise has given us a fascinating book that teems with rich archival research. The pictorial sources are an added boon and make for a wonderfully illustrated addition to the history of the 19th century" (Lisa Appignanesi Daily Telegraph)
"A dark and disturbing investigation...trenchant and disturbing book" (John Carey Sunday Times)
"I thrilled to Sarah Wise's Inconvenient People, an enthralling study of those who fell foul of Victorian mad-doctors and greedy relatives" (Philip Hoare Sunday Telegraph)
"There is so much to interest and entertain in this book, which is enhanced by over eighty informative illustrations" (Gillian Tindall Literary Review)
"After these cheerful late cases comes a devastating epilogue... You put this quite superlative book down, shaken" (Edward Pearce Independent)
Book Description:
"Sarah Wise is an excellent writer, and those who pick up this book will not lightly put it down. Her ten chapters read like short novels, and she has the true social historian's ability to make her period come alive. She selects and compresses the salient details beautifully; one often feels as if one is actually present at the scenes she describes. There can be no higher praise... Inconvenient People is as interesting a work of social history as you are ever likely to read" (Anthony Daniels Spectator)
"The great gift of Sarah Wise's excellent Inconvenient People is to blow apart the myth that the most likely victim of the lunacy laws was a married woman... If much of Inconvenient People reads like a mood book through which Wilkie Collins might have flipped if stuck for inspiration, there are moments of high farce too. Wise is flexible enough in her narrative register to make it all right to find this very funny indeed" (Kathryn Hughes Guardian)
"Deeply researched and gripping... The book owes its enormous power to Sarah Wise's patience. She has sifted through hundreds of case histories... It makes for harrowing reading, but much of it is also hilarious, and as gripping as the most lurid Victorian melodramatic novel. Yet again, one closes a book with the impression that beneath the polished mahogany surfaces and shimmering silks of Victorian interiors lurked Hell itself" (A N Wilson Mail on Sunday)
"Fascinating... Sarah Wise has used her subject like an axe, to split open the Victorian facade and examine everything wriggling behind. It has enough tragedy, comedy, farce and horror to fill a dozen fat novels, and enough bizarre characters to people them" (Suzi Feay Financial Times)
"Sarah Wise has unearthed [several riveting cases] for this fine social history of contested lunacy in the 19th century... Wise has given us a fascinating book that teems with rich archival research. The pictorial sources are an added boon and make for a wonderfully illustrated addition to the history of the 19th century" (Lisa Appignanesi Daily Telegraph)
"A dark and disturbing investigation...trenchant and disturbing book" (John Carey Sunday Times)
"I thrilled to Sarah Wise's Inconvenient People, an enthralling study of those who fell foul of Victorian mad-doctors and greedy relatives" (Philip Hoare Sunday Telegraph)
"There is so much to interest and entertain in this book, which is enhanced by over eighty informative illustrations" (Gillian Tindall Literary Review)
"After these cheerful late cases comes a devastating epilogue... You put this quite superlative book down, shaken" (Edward Pearce Independent)
This highly original book brilliantly exposes the phenomenon of false allegations of lunacy (and the dark motives behind them...) in the Victorian period.
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- PublisherBodley Head
- Publication date2012
- ISBN 10 1847921124
- ISBN 13 9781847921123
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages496
- Rating
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Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad-Doctors in Victorian England
Published by
Bodley Head, London
(2012)
ISBN 10: 1847921124
ISBN 13: 9781847921123
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. (Ref.O6) Brand new hardback. **Heavy volume may require extra shipping if ordered from outside UK mainland. Please message for details prior to ordering.**. Seller Inventory # 005878
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