A review by cernunnos
The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Lindsey Fitzharris

3.0

Written in an easy, journalistic style, this much-hyped book deals with the first fifty years of Lister's life and then comes to an abrupt end. Despite extensive references there are numerous errors which other reviewers have pointed out, some of them absolute howlers (Ilfracombe is in Somerset? How about checking that before publishing? OK, don't bother, no-one will notice). The American English from an Oxford-educated author writing about a British subject is very annoying, but I understand the author is originally from the United States so I'll grudgingly let that pass. The gruesome descriptions of hospital conditions and surgical procedures do not, however, make up for the basic errors in the text.