
Gaslight tales of rooftop escapes, men & women snatched in broad daylight, patients shut in coffins, a fanatical cult known as the Abode of Love. The nineteenth century saw repeated panics about sane individuals being locked away in lunatic asylums. With the rise of the 'mad-doctor' profession, English liberty seemed to be threatened by a new generation of medical men willing to incarcerate difficult family members in return for the high fees paid by an unscrupulous spouse or friend. & contrary to popular modern belief, the madwoman in the attic was at least as likely to have been a madman. Among the victims were the beautiful & charismatic Rosina, wife of the novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton; Edward Davies, victim of a mother's greed; Louisa Lowe, who paid for her religious fervour; & John Perceval, who, despite the best efforts of the abusive asylum attendants, cured himself. Sarah Wise uncovers twelve shocking stories, untold for over a century, which reveal the darker side of the Victorian upper & middle classes
- their sexuality, fears of inherited madness, financial greed & fraudulence
- & chillingly evoke the black motives at the heart of the phenomenon of the 'inconvenient person'.