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Title details for The Madwomen of Paris by Jennifer Cody Epstein - Available

The Madwomen of Paris

A Novel

by Jennifer Cody Epstein
ebook
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EDGAR AWARD FINALIST • “Epstein’s page-turning historical novel—an indictment of the medical establishment’s manipulation of women—remains eerily relevant and timely.”—Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Spectacular

Two women fall under the influence of a powerful doctor in Paris’s notorious nineteenth-century women’s asylum—a gripping novel inspired by true events, from the bestselling author of Wunderland.
After being dragged into the Salpêtrière asylum screaming, covered in blood, and suffering from amnesia, Josephine is diagnosed with what the nineteenth-century Parisian press has dubbed “the epidemic of the age”: hysteria. It’s a disease so uniquely baffling that Jean-Martin Charcot, the Salpêtrière’s acclaimed director, devotes popular lectures to it, using hypnosis to elicit fits and fantastical symptoms in front of rapt audiences. Young, charismatic, and highly susceptible to this entrancement, Josephine quickly becomes a favorite of the powerful doctor and the Parisian public alike. 
But her true ally at the Salpêtrière is Laure, a lonely ward attendant. As their friendship blossoms into something more, the two women find comfort and even joy together despite their bleak surroundings. Soon, Josephine’s memory returns, and with it images of a gruesome crime she’s convinced she’s committed. Ensnared in Charcot’s hypnotic web, she starts spiraling into seeming insanity, prompting a terrified Laure to plot their escape together. First, though, Laure must solve a grim mystery: Who, really, is the girl she’s grown to love? Is Josephine a madwoman . . . or a murderer?
Inspired by true events, expertly researched, and masterfully written, The Madwomen of Paris is a Gothic saga for the ages with themes that remain hauntingly resonant today.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    July 11, 2023

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780593158012

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780593158012
      • File size: 2927 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from June 19, 2023
      This beautifully crafted historical from Epstein (Wunderland) evokes the cruel and misogynistic mental health system of late 19th-century Paris. After Laure Bissonet’s father dies in debt, his house is seized, leaving Laure without a home. She has a breakdown and lands in the hysteria ward of the Salpêtrière, Paris’s massive asylum for women. She recovers, but lacks the skills necessary for employment beyond the asylum. Laure is earning her room and board by working as a resident ward attendant when a blood-spattered, agitated woman is admitted to the Salpêtrière. Chosen to care for the striking redhead, Laure feels an immediate attraction to Josephine Garreau’s beauty, intelligence, and vulnerability. Josephine soon stars in neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot’s popular public lectures, in which he and his students, including Sigmund Freud, use her outré behavior under hypnosis to bolster Charcot’s theories of female hysteria. As Josephine begins to heal she and Laure grow close, but Laure is skeptical when Josephine claims to have killed her abusive employer just before arriving at the asylum. Gradually, Laure realizes that Charcot’s protocol is damaging her friend’s sanity and that Josephine’s confession of murder may be true. Combining elegant prose, artfully chosen historical details, and convincing characterizations, this haunting narrative showcases Epstein at her best.

    • Booklist

      June 21, 2023
      Laure, a ward attendant at the Salp�tri�re women's asylum, knew Josephine was lucky being placed in the hysteria ward, where there were more freedoms than in the lunacy ward. Josephine came to the asylum not remembering anything of her past, but when hypnotized by the famous Dr. Charcot, she relives a brutal attack. Dr. Charcot has his favorites and presents his patients on stage for the public to witness the symptoms of hysteria. Soon Josephine starts to regain some of her memories and believes that she has committed a heinous crime. Laure fears that if Josephine is placed under more hypnosis, it will render her truly insane. Having fallen in love with Josephine, Laure begins planning an escape, but is she saving a madwoman or a criminal? Laure and Josephine's story reflects the raging obsession that people had with hysteria in the nineteenth century. It speaks to the dangers of treatments that were used on patients and the vulnerable positions in which they were placed. A gripping historical novel that describes the treatment patients received from Dr. Charcot at Salp�tri�re.

      COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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