The illness lesson : a novel / Clare Beams.
Sarah Waters meets Red Clocks in this searing novel, set at an all-girl school in 19th century Massachusetts, which probes the timeless question: who gets to control a woman's body and why. The year is 1871. In Ashwell, Massachusetts, at the farm of Samuel Hood and his daughter, Caroline, a mysterious flock of red birds descends. Samuel, whose fame as a philosopher has waned in recent years, takes the birds' appearance as an omen that the time is ripe for his newest venture. He will start a school for young women, guiding their intellectual development as he has so carefully guided his daughter's. Despite Caroline's misgivings, Samuel's vision--revolutionary, as always; noble, as always; full of holes, as always--takes shape. It's not long before the students begin to manifest bizarre symptoms. Rashes, fits, headaches, verbal tics, night wanderings. In desperation, the school turns to the ministering of a sinister physician--based on a real historic treatment--just as Caroline's body, too, begins its betrayal. As the girls' conditions worsens, long-buried secrets emerge, and Caroline must confront the all-male, all-knowing authorities around her, the ones who insist the voices of the sufferers are unreliable. In order to save herself, Caroline may have to destroy everything she's ever known. Written in intensely vivid prose and brimming with psychological insight, The Illness Lesson is a powerful exploration of women's bodies, women's minds, and the time-honored tradition of doubting both.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780385544665
- Physical Description: 271 pages ; 24 cm
- Publisher: New York : Doubleday, [2020]
- Copyright: ©2020.
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Fathers and daughters > Fiction. Girls' schools > Fiction. New England > History > 19th century > Fiction. |
Genre: | Historical fiction. |
Available copies
- 12 of 12 copies available at BC Interlibrary Connect. (Show)
- 1 of 1 copy available at Creston Public Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 12 total copies.
Show Only Available Copies
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Creston Public Library | FIC BEA (Text)
Acquisition Type: New |
35140100061996 | Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Baker & Taylor
Interpreting a mysterious flock of red birds as an omen to pursue his newest venture, a once-famous philosopher opens a revolutionary school to shape the intellectual development of women, before his studentsâ bizarre symptoms reveal otherworldly secrets. - Random House, Inc.
A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORSâ CHOICE
LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE
âAstoundingly original.â âThe New York Times Book Review
From the author of the award-winning debut story collection We Show What We Have Learned, a vivid work of historical fiction with shocking and eerie connections to our own time.
At their newly founded school, Samuel Hood and his daughter, Caroline, promise a groundbreaking education for young women. But Caroline has grave misgivings. After all, her own unconventional education has left her unmarriageable and isolated, unsuited to the narrow roles afforded women in nineteenth-century New England.
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When a mysterious flock of red birds descends on the town, Caroline alone seems to find them unsettling. But itâs not long before the assembled students begin to manifest bizarre symptoms: rashes, seizures, headaches, verbal tics, night wanderings. One by one, they sicken. Fearing ruin for the school, Samuel overrules Carolineâs pleas to inform the girlsâ parents and turns instead to a noted physician, a man whose sinister ministrationsâbased on a shocking historic treatmentâhorrify Caroline. As the men around her continue to dictate, disastrously, all terms of the girlsâ experience, Carolineâs own body begins to betray her. To save herself and her young charges, she will have to defy every rule that has governed her life, her mind, her body, and her world.