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Title: THE DEVIL KISSED HER by KATHY WATSON
KATHY WATSON
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First published September 9, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 25, 2011
A very thoroughly researched biography that is easily readable if not amazingly engaging. Ms. Watson covers every aspect of Mary Lamb's (and subsequently Charles Lamb's) life, which also allows her to fill the reader in on 18th/19th century treatment of mental illness, the literary circles of London during the same time, and the early children's book publishing business, among other topics. She deftly makes her case that Mary Lamb is far more than the co-author of "Tales from Shakespeare"/insane woman who murdered her mother.
December 31, 2016
Gripping from the first page. A few patches will seem dry if you're not a lit/history buff. Fun to connect authors with authors.
February 16, 2021
I vaguely knew Mary Lamb murdered her mother and spent time in a lunatic asylum, but had always assumed that the murder and subsequent incarceration took place after she and her brother wrote their Tales from Shakespeare.
I was astonished that this was not the case. She was incarcerated for several months after the murder, and then released into William's care, many years before the publication of the Shakespeare book. She spent further long periods in the better class of asylums and he spent the rest of his life caring for her, working full time for The East India Company, drinking, and writing. Throughout, though, they manage to hold their regular salons, make extended visits to friends and seize what pleasures of London life they could. The compassion shown to them by their friends, her mother's family, his employer and various publishers, landlords and acquaintances is surprising and challenges the prevailing view of the period - when Bedlam was still being run like a zoo - and wider society's attitude to mental health.
The book is carefully researched and very readable account of their lives which makes clear that the dependence was, surprisingly, mutual. Mary only really sings into life through her own words, both literary and in her sparkling letters. The tragedy of the straitened circumstances of their early life and the limitations imposed on them by her care needs and his alcoholism make it a poignant read. Throughout the book the author resists speculation, even when her especially informed specualtion would be welcome, and the lack of it resonates. Her references to Mary Shelley as merely Godwin's daughter and 'the widow of the poet' seemed strangely pointed, too.
I was astonished that this was not the case. She was incarcerated for several months after the murder, and then released into William's care, many years before the publication of the Shakespeare book. She spent further long periods in the better class of asylums and he spent the rest of his life caring for her, working full time for The East India Company, drinking, and writing. Throughout, though, they manage to hold their regular salons, make extended visits to friends and seize what pleasures of London life they could. The compassion shown to them by their friends, her mother's family, his employer and various publishers, landlords and acquaintances is surprising and challenges the prevailing view of the period - when Bedlam was still being run like a zoo - and wider society's attitude to mental health.
The book is carefully researched and very readable account of their lives which makes clear that the dependence was, surprisingly, mutual. Mary only really sings into life through her own words, both literary and in her sparkling letters. The tragedy of the straitened circumstances of their early life and the limitations imposed on them by her care needs and his alcoholism make it a poignant read. Throughout the book the author resists speculation, even when her especially informed specualtion would be welcome, and the lack of it resonates. Her references to Mary Shelley as merely Godwin's daughter and 'the widow of the poet' seemed strangely pointed, too.
February 27, 2010
Potentially the first serious book I've ever willingly selected and read on my own initiative. Could this be a sign of encroaching readership maturity? All I know is that I need a nice light book now, to recuperate. :D
August 6, 2011
Despite the tagline on the cover promising a lunatic and murderer this book just really didn't hold my interest. It was a short book and I anticipated a quick read but it turned out to be several days of struggling. Mary Lamb's illness is mostly glossed over and there really isn't much else about the brouther sister duo to hold a reader's interest. In addition to lacking excitment the text is even more bogged down with too many direct quotes and the Lamb siblings poetry. This book just really lacked interesting enough subjects to keep it afloat for 250 pages. It was repetitive and could easily trim off 50 pages of suffering.
August 3, 2011
I enjoyed learning more about both Mary and Charles Lamb. This book gives insight into what it was like to live with a mental illness in the late 1700's and early 1800's. I was surprised to find that Mary's community of friends were constantly there for her. If not for Charles, she may have been confined to an asylum for all of her adult life after murdering her mother. Charles' devotion to Mary allowed her to live a much more normal life than most with mental illnesses during that time, which allowed her to develop her talent as a writer and in turn put her mark on the literary world.
January 22, 2016
Went much deeper into this famous figure's life than I would have thought possible. I was startled to realize that I own a copy of the book she published with her brother, many years after killing her mother with a knife during the first of her manic episodes. The story is an unexpected history of compassionate care of a mentally ill criminal many years before one would have thought it was possible.
June 29, 2024
https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-devil-kissed-her-the-story-of-mary-lamb-by-kathy-watson/
A short but really interesting biography of Mary Lamb (1764-1847), who is well known for two things: the 1807 collection Tales from Shakespeare, in which she and her brother retold a number the great Shakespeare plays in terms deemed suitable for children of the day; and the fact that in 1796 during an attack of mental illness, she stabbed her mother to death in the family kitchen.
There’s a lot more than just those two things to Mary’s story. The Lambs were of humble stock – their father was a servant in the Inner Temple, and Mary was trained as a seamstress at a time when the market for sewing was saturated. Charles was a clerk in the East India Company. But he had a scholarship to a boarding school where he befriended Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and that friendship gave him and Mary the contacts in the literary world, in particular with William and Dorothy Wordsworth, which made them able to establish a literary salon and to get a good reception from publishers for their own writings – and they wrote a lot more than Shakespeare. Their network included William Godwin, widower of Mary Wollstonecraft, who actually commissioned Tales from Shakespeare.
This was punctuated by periods of serious illness for Mary, and less frequently for Charles. To be honest, two centuries of advance in medical science would not have helped them very much. In today’s world, they would have benefited from some medicated relief, but not enough to eliminate their problems entirely; and in countries with a decent welfare system, there would have been perhaps more care available and more respite for Charles who ended up carrying most of the burden of Mary’s illness. Even so, Mary lived to her eighties.
Watson tells the story breezily but sympathetically, and even if you don’t know any of the Lambs’ writings (and I bounced off a collection of Charles’ writings a few years back) the human story is of interest.
A short but really interesting biography of Mary Lamb (1764-1847), who is well known for two things: the 1807 collection Tales from Shakespeare, in which she and her brother retold a number the great Shakespeare plays in terms deemed suitable for children of the day; and the fact that in 1796 during an attack of mental illness, she stabbed her mother to death in the family kitchen.
There’s a lot more than just those two things to Mary’s story. The Lambs were of humble stock – their father was a servant in the Inner Temple, and Mary was trained as a seamstress at a time when the market for sewing was saturated. Charles was a clerk in the East India Company. But he had a scholarship to a boarding school where he befriended Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and that friendship gave him and Mary the contacts in the literary world, in particular with William and Dorothy Wordsworth, which made them able to establish a literary salon and to get a good reception from publishers for their own writings – and they wrote a lot more than Shakespeare. Their network included William Godwin, widower of Mary Wollstonecraft, who actually commissioned Tales from Shakespeare.
This was punctuated by periods of serious illness for Mary, and less frequently for Charles. To be honest, two centuries of advance in medical science would not have helped them very much. In today’s world, they would have benefited from some medicated relief, but not enough to eliminate their problems entirely; and in countries with a decent welfare system, there would have been perhaps more care available and more respite for Charles who ended up carrying most of the burden of Mary’s illness. Even so, Mary lived to her eighties.
Watson tells the story breezily but sympathetically, and even if you don’t know any of the Lambs’ writings (and I bounced off a collection of Charles’ writings a few years back) the human story is of interest.
August 13, 2023
I am reading this, finding it absolutely fascinating - on the figure of Mary Lamb and also her brother Charles, on madness and treatment of mental illness in England at the time - at once no doubt terrifying and often unjust - the incarceration of inconvenient family members, torture as treatment, whether in good faith or as cruel punishment - yet sometimes also enlightened, as in the case of Mary, who seems to have been bipolar (possibly also schizophrenic), and killed her mother in fit of madness, likely triggered by chronic stress of constant care for her and elderly father. Mary's mother was paralysed, and father senile. Later, Mary would be allowed to move between the asylum - where she spent several months most years, when ill - and home, shared with beloved and loving brother Charles. The two of them ran a literary salon, the haunt of Wordsworths and Coleridge and Hazlitt and William Godwin among others.
What a fascinating, original work of biography. A shame it's not better know - now out of print. Love the author's perspective.
What a fascinating, original work of biography. A shame it's not better know - now out of print. Love the author's perspective.
October 4, 2017
Truth be told, I have to say, objectively, that this is a rather nice biography of an individual. However, I found it to be somewhat tiresome, because I had no prior knowledge of the existence of Mary Lamb! I got the book for free, and finally came around to reading it.
Now I know that Mary Lamb and her brother Charles were 19th century writers who hung with a decidedly literary crowd. All in all, they lived moderately interesting lives together--but since I have no interest in their writing or even their lives, it felt a bit forced for me to read. Objectively speaking, though, I think it is pretty good.
Now I know that Mary Lamb and her brother Charles were 19th century writers who hung with a decidedly literary crowd. All in all, they lived moderately interesting lives together--but since I have no interest in their writing or even their lives, it felt a bit forced for me to read. Objectively speaking, though, I think it is pretty good.
August 20, 2023
Very well-written story of the brother and sister Lamb, their lives and travails.
August 1, 2016
I learned a great deal about the madness and genius of both Mary and her brother Charles Lamb. Watson balances out Mary's bouts of madness, when she became "ill" and had to go to the asylum for months and the sweet, gentle Mary everyone adored. A part of this madness started when Mary, frustrated with being a seamstress and caring for infirm parents murdered her mother. Back in the early 1800s, being an aging spinster left few choices in life.But due to the time period she lived, she was found innocent and able to return home to brother Charles, a bachelor, for the rest of her days.
They made up a creative duo together and wrote(mostly Mary) the famous "Stories of Shakespeare for Children." They also hosted salons at their flat that included visitors such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth and several other artistic characters of the day. Mary, when lucid presented herself as a gossipy, supportive friend who always offered a helping hand. Her writing career took a back seat to life with Charles due to her intermittent manic episodes and this is too bad. She as well as Charles were very talented writers.
Although this was an interesting historical biography, the amount of sonnets included(the writing was quite florid back then) was a bit distracting. For the most part, the much quoted book holds interest, but sometimes the quotes get in the way of the narrative. I would have liked to read a bit more synthesis in the narrative but for the most part, I learned a lot about this interesting character.
They made up a creative duo together and wrote(mostly Mary) the famous "Stories of Shakespeare for Children." They also hosted salons at their flat that included visitors such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth and several other artistic characters of the day. Mary, when lucid presented herself as a gossipy, supportive friend who always offered a helping hand. Her writing career took a back seat to life with Charles due to her intermittent manic episodes and this is too bad. She as well as Charles were very talented writers.
Although this was an interesting historical biography, the amount of sonnets included(the writing was quite florid back then) was a bit distracting. For the most part, the much quoted book holds interest, but sometimes the quotes get in the way of the narrative. I would have liked to read a bit more synthesis in the narrative but for the most part, I learned a lot about this interesting character.
June 25, 2007
The story of Mary and Charles Lamb is fascinating. Her descent into madness (she murdered her mother) and yet her ability to rise above it an live and intellectual and gracious life is wonderful to read about. The writing was a bit flat.
Want to read
January 15, 2010Library
May 8, 2012
Too much Charles, not enough Mary.
February 24, 2014
Really rates a ***1/2; found on a list from 8/10.
Read
May 21, 2018The story of Mary Lamb illustrates the saying that truth is indeed stranger than fiction. The bare details really don't come much stranger. In 1796, Mary Lamb murdered her mother with a carving knife. That in itself is shocking enough (matricide is very rare), but what is even more eyebrow raising is the fact that Mary was neither punished nor imprisoned. Instead, she was released into the care of her brother Charles (with whom she wrote the popular Tales from Shakespeare).
It is Kathy Watson's belief that Mary Lamb suffered from what would today probably be diagnosed as manic depression (otherwise known as bipolar disorder) and treated with drugs and therapy.
The great irony is that Mary's murder of her mother proved ultimately liberating. From being a poorly paid seamstress burdened with adding as much as she could to the family's precarious finances, she found herself suddenly freed, at the age of 32, from a life of "hard work and self-sacrifice". A bookish girl who was envious of her brothers' formal educations (in particular their knowledge of Latin), for the first time in her life she had the luxury of plenty of time in which to read - and she did, voraciously.
Nevertheless, Mary's illness remained. Periodically she would have an attack of sometimes violent mania, followed by a phase of intense depression. For the rest of her life Mary was periodically admitted to a 'madhouse' when she couldn't be cared for at home. Most such institutions were grim in the extreme. Patients were treated appallingly and offered nothing in terms of treatment. As a paying patient, Mary's standard of care was likely to have been rather better than it was for paupers.
I admit I wanted to read this book because I find the bare bones of Mary's life story fascinating. But there's much more to Mary than her insanity. With Charles she co-authored 'Tales from Shakespeare', but more interesting perhaps is her book 'Mrs Leicester's School', about a group of girls who find themselves at a new school and away from home for the first time. Many of the stories deal with mother/daughter relationships. Charles, fearing that it would bring on another bout of his sister's insanity, avoided talk of their mother and what happened to her. But Mary needed to talk about 'the great theme of her life - the loss of maternal love, the death of the mother and their corollary, the hauntingly difficult journey of grief'. [June 2006]
It is Kathy Watson's belief that Mary Lamb suffered from what would today probably be diagnosed as manic depression (otherwise known as bipolar disorder) and treated with drugs and therapy.
The great irony is that Mary's murder of her mother proved ultimately liberating. From being a poorly paid seamstress burdened with adding as much as she could to the family's precarious finances, she found herself suddenly freed, at the age of 32, from a life of "hard work and self-sacrifice". A bookish girl who was envious of her brothers' formal educations (in particular their knowledge of Latin), for the first time in her life she had the luxury of plenty of time in which to read - and she did, voraciously.
Nevertheless, Mary's illness remained. Periodically she would have an attack of sometimes violent mania, followed by a phase of intense depression. For the rest of her life Mary was periodically admitted to a 'madhouse' when she couldn't be cared for at home. Most such institutions were grim in the extreme. Patients were treated appallingly and offered nothing in terms of treatment. As a paying patient, Mary's standard of care was likely to have been rather better than it was for paupers.
I admit I wanted to read this book because I find the bare bones of Mary's life story fascinating. But there's much more to Mary than her insanity. With Charles she co-authored 'Tales from Shakespeare', but more interesting perhaps is her book 'Mrs Leicester's School', about a group of girls who find themselves at a new school and away from home for the first time. Many of the stories deal with mother/daughter relationships. Charles, fearing that it would bring on another bout of his sister's insanity, avoided talk of their mother and what happened to her. But Mary needed to talk about 'the great theme of her life - the loss of maternal love, the death of the mother and their corollary, the hauntingly difficult journey of grief'. [June 2006]
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews