The Madwomen of Paris (e-book) (used book) | bookbook.eu

Description

Two women fall under the influence of a powerful doctor in Paris's notorious women's asylum in this gripping historical novel inspired by true events, from the bestselling author of Wunderland.

When Josephine arrives at the Salpêtrière asylum, covered in blood, badly bruised, and suffering from amnesia, she is diagnosed with what the Paris papers are calling "the epidemic of the age" hysteria. The disease is so baffling and widespread that Doctor Jean-Martin Charcot, the hysteria ward's famous director, devotes many of his popular public lectures to the malady, often using hypnosis to demonstrate hysteria's symptoms. To Charcot's delight, Josephine proves extraordinarily susceptible to hypnosis. He is soon featuring Josephine on his stage, entrancing the young woman into fantastical acts and hallucinatory fits before enraptured audiences and eager newsmen--many of whom feature her on their paper's front pages.

Laure, an asylum attendant tending to the young woman, knows that Josephine's diagnosis is a godsend. Life in the Salpêtrière's Hysteria ward is far easier than in its dreaded Lunacy division, from which few inmates ever return. But as Josephine's fame grows, her memory starts to return--and with it, images of a terrible crime she's committed. Haunted by these visions and trapped in Charcot's hypnotic web, she starts spiraling into true insanity. In order to save the girl she has grown to love, Laure begins to plot their escape from the Salpêtrière and its doctors. First, though, she must confirm whether Joséphine is a madwoman, doomed to die in the asylum--or a murderer, destined for the guillotine.

Both are dark possibilities--but not nearly as dark as what Laure unearths when she sets out to discover the truth.