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A review by topazriver
Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad-Doctors in Victorian England by Sarah Wise
3.0
Wow, what a tomb of a book. It started getting interesting about half way through in the chapter 'The Woman in Yellow' referring to Rosina, Edward Bulwer-Lytton's wife and the circles of friends he hung around with, including Charles Dickens, who all snubbed Rosina and her literary works. Interestingly, at the same time as reading this book I find myself reading [b:84 Charing Cross Road|1074384|84 Charing Cross Road|Helene Hanff|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1298030092s/1074384.jpg|938626], where Helene Hanff refers to Dicken's work as boring. I tend to agree. The more I read about this fellow and his followers, the more I dislike the man. I'm going off course here but these were the very people that had influence on the system.
The point being that Sarah Wise includes a comprehensive background and reasons for the way people were manipulating the system through ease of chance, influence, status and politics. This book read very much as a thesis for a Masters Degree at first and I was tiring of it until this chapter 6. I became enthralled in the way people thought at the time - including how spiritualism fitted into all of this and is a wonderful example of how the Victorian's started to change it's mind on certain aspects of religion, acceptance and tolerance.
I really liked this book and would have no hesitation to read a follow-up on the way the health system has treated mental health patients in the 20th Century - a follow-up is implied in the last few words which makes you want to read more.
The point being that Sarah Wise includes a comprehensive background and reasons for the way people were manipulating the system through ease of chance, influence, status and politics. This book read very much as a thesis for a Masters Degree at first and I was tiring of it until this chapter 6. I became enthralled in the way people thought at the time - including how spiritualism fitted into all of this and is a wonderful example of how the Victorian's started to change it's mind on certain aspects of religion, acceptance and tolerance.
I really liked this book and would have no hesitation to read a follow-up on the way the health system has treated mental health patients in the 20th Century - a follow-up is implied in the last few words which makes you want to read more.