Inconvenient People

Product Description

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'.