The Complete Works of Nellie Bly: Ten Days in a Mad-House, Around the World in Seventy-Two Days and More

by Nellie Bly

This collection gathers together the works by Nellie Bly in a single, convenient, high quality, and extremely low priced Kindle volume!

Ten Days in a Mad-House; or, Nellie Bly's Experience on Blackwell's Island. Feigning Insanity in Order to Reveal Asylum Horrors

Around the World in Seventy-Two Days

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Journalism, Biography, Audiobook, Historical, Travel

505 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2010

About the author

Nellie Bly (1864-1922) was the pen name of pioneer female journalist Elizabeth Jane Cochran. She remains notable for two feats: a record-breaking trip around the world, in emulation of Jules Verne's character Phileas Fogg (Bly completed the trip in seventy-two days) and an exposé, in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. In addition to her writing, she was also an industrialist and charity worker. Bly died of pneumonia at St. Mark's Hospital in New York City in 1922 aged 57.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whew! This took me a loooooong time to get through it all.

I LOVED the first story - Ten Days in a Mad House. This is the real reason I bought the collection to begin with. I had heard of this in passing several different times and felt I needed to check it out. It did not disappoint.

Story 2 - The Mystery of Central Park - An interesting fictional story. My only real complaint on this was the editing on the kindle edition was pretty poor in this section.

Story 3- Around the World in 72 Days - This dragged for me. An interesting concept and I am sure that the point it was written it was just fascinating. However, reading it today felt more like a chore to me.

Story 4 - Six Months in Mexico - Again, I struggled with this, but liked it better than her travels of the whole world. She did paint a beautiful picture of Mexico at the time of her travels.

All in all I would have read the first two and stopped there.

[Prasidh Ramson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was intrigued by Nellie Bly (real name Elizabeth Jane Cochrane Seaman) when she was celebrated with a Google Doodle in May 2015. I chose this book as it collected her most famous exploits as reporter, journalist, anthropologist, social observer and explorer during the late 1800's...I was not disappointed!

In Ten Days In A Mad-house, she voluntarily feigns mental illness to be admitted to an asylum, exposing the shoddy (sometimes evil) treatment of patients by doctors and nurses in an under resourced health system. In The Mystery Of Central Park, a well-to-do socialite ('He lacked the spur of necessity which urged men onto greater deeds') is given an ultimatum by his fiancée to solve a crime- in the course of which issues of poverty, class battles and exploitation in late 19th century New York are raised. Around The World in Seventy-Two Days, tells of her efforts to better Phileas Fogg's journey in a grand, sweeping commentary of a gentler, newer world, while in a friendly competition with a rival journalist on a similar trip (a TV series waiting, here). Finally, Six Months In Mexico, details her socio-economic and cultural observations of daily life in a young, independent Mexico.

I found the writing to be easy to read and the storytelling easy to follow. I'm more impressed by the gutsy, intrepid and extremely progressive views of Nellie Bly. She deftly melds both her observations and writing in a flippant, but informative manner. I later found out that she went on to campaign for social injustice issues and has a few patents to her name - it's very rare to find people that can change the world for the better through their writings and their actions. If her writings are not standard reading for journalists/historians/anthropologists - it well should be! I cannot recommended this book enough - not only from a historical perspective but also for its contribution to larger social debates. Well done Nellie Bly!

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nellie Bly was an investigate reporter in the late 1800's. The book includes some of her writings including her around-the-world trip based on the book Around the World in 80 days. She wanted to do it in less than 80 days. The book goes into her preparations and the various places she visited and how she got there including going by train, boat, etc and going from the United States on to England (London), France (where she got to meet Jules Verne), Italy, Ceylon, Singapore, Canton, Hong Kong, San Francisco, etc.

It also includes information on her sea-sickness and the kinds of people she met along the way.

Then there's what amounts to a travelogue about six months she spent in Mexico and what she experienced there including a lot about the people she met there, the police, the good and the places she visited. She does praise Santa Anna, though, and he's the general that carried out the massacre of the men at the Alamo.

She also has to work on Ten Days in a Madhouse, her work to expose the apalling conditions women had to live under in an asylum. She also has a story she wrote about The Mystery of Central Park which is about a guy that finds a dead girl on a bench and how he became involved in trying to find out just how (and why) she died. I thought it was a rather good story.

[Elizabeth Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a truly amazing story of the infamous Nellie Bly. Her strength of determination to become a reporter brought her to the idea of having herself admitted to an asylum at the turn of the century. This took incredible amounts of bravery and (forgive the term) balls of steel! Her account of this 10 day span is horrifying and so so sad. Everyone needs to read this book. It is even more important as there are such blind people who would insist that we should return to this system. Those who forget are doomed to repeat.

[Abby L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rather nice insight as to what a particular asylum was like. Written from first person, Nellie Bly describes of her experience in a mad house. It was interesting and it illustrated a nice almost fiction-like story. I would recommend this as an educational yet appealing read.

[Elizabeth Sanders · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this. But it was a great listen about how she spent her time in a nut house when she didn’t need to be there

[Candy Robosky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ten Days in a Madhouse is a tale of a writer who had herself committed to an insane asylum in order to find out what it was really like inside. She spent ten days inside and found such horrendous conditions that it led to a grand jury. Unfortunately as much as she hoped it did not change much as even 50 years later places such as this were still horrible conditions for the mentally ill. And now today many are still not treated at all due to budget cuts and hospitals being shut down.
My version was whole unlike some other reviewers. After taking into account the time frame in which it was written I found the writing well done and exactly what I expected. It was written originally for publication in a magazine or newspaper and was written as such. I felt so badly for the patients and wanted to have charges brought up against most of the nurses and doctors. I think if this were done today so many would be up in arms and would demand an entire account of all women in the hospital in order to find those who had "left" to assure their whereabouts. Even though she did not go into a ton of detail I found it enough and very well done given she had no recordings or even a written account to fall back on as they took her pencil away from her. I feel morbid in saying that I found this work very interesting but this is the case and all we can do is learn from history and hope that cases such as this are not ans will not repeat themselves.

[Kiel Bryant · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's 1889 and this exchange occurs:

“Why do you not go [through India] as my hero Phileas Fogg did?” M. [Jules] Verne asked.

“Because I am more anxious to save time than a young widow*,” I answered.

“You may save a young widower before you return,” M. Verne said with a smile.

I smiled with a superior knowledge, as women, fancy free, always will at such insinuations.

*Phileas took advantage of local custom and "rescued" a comely sati from the funeral pyre, merely to bind her up again in "redeemed" — that is to say, European — matrimony.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was like a text book-I only read two of the four stories: Around the world in 72 Days and Ten days in a mad-house. Both were very intriguing and I was fascinated by this female investigative journalist from the 1800s. The stories were interesting, but full of a lot of details about various passengers, their looks, their manners, etc. I was not very interested in those parts. I really would have liked more details about how she herself was thinking about the process and discoveries. Even though the book itself was not what I’d hoped, I’m glad to have read it and impressed by this woman and all she did, especially for her time.

[Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful account of an unimaginable journey

What a courageous woman, to willingly step into hell to reveal what was taking place to the weak and powerless. She is a saint.

[Laura]

You may read online at Many Books

[Blts · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was only interested in the first story. I may go back to the others. It seems very predictable until you realize the context in which it happened. Then it's just amazing.

[Martha Doukas · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extraordinarily sad history, told by an extraordinary woman.

[Bev Walton-Porter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing. Recommended.

[Rosie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed it. Had been wanting to read it for a long time.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book which includes 3 stories. I have only just finished the first story: Around the World in 72 Days.
First, a negative comment. The book I got (from Amazon) is a different cover than shown here, and is a catalogue size, with fairly large print, but the size of the book made it hard to read: both hands are needed at all times.
I am most anxious to read the Mad-House story, though I haven't yet.
Writing for Around the World is simple, declarative, and reads like a travelogue. It was interesting to read about her adventures.

[Ed Dodson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this several years ago after watching a short movie about Nellie Bly's assignment to experience first hand the horrors of an insane asylum for women in late 19th century New York City. The book had a lot more of the details of her adventure. Being a journalist she writes like one, with clarity and factual descriptions of what she experienced. She also shares her emotional reaction to the mistreatment she endured. She was quite a courageous woman, and her work set a standard for investigative journalism.

[Michelle Mendoza-Aguilar · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was an interesting read, yet written a bit basically. I have no doubt that the conditions of these asylums and mental wards were kept horribly and the patients treated despicably. I found it a little hard to believe that Nellie Bly was able to get herself committed and then able to get released so easily. Although, her purpose was eventually the reason that conditions of these places were improved.

[Harriet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bly's account of the mental health system at the time is devastatingly observed (and experienced) and compellingly written. Her travel writing doesn't hold up as well; she like all of us was subject to the cultural biases and norms of her time. But she writes about people with compassion and vividness and her pioneering work is well worth a read.

[Antoinette Bolduc · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the book much better than the movie. I actually had started the book before watching the movie. Took a while to get through as it wasn’t the type of book the you just couldn’t put down. Courageous woman indeed!

[Ricky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read about a woman journalist who wanted to expose the horrible conditions of mental institutions in the last 1800's. The book was a little too dramatic and lacked facts, nonetheless, it did make a lasting impact and produce change.

[Jackalacka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating history! I had no idea how daring and brave she was. Her writing is wordy but that is typical of the time period. And of course the naive views of the time were quite ignorant of poverty had racist views of the world (calling people in 3rd world countries heathens or savages, etc)

[Sheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and sad look at history of mental health in this country. The lengths this reporter was willing to go to and the chances she took, were scary and commendable. Worthy of a read.

[Digger's Mom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simultaneously interesting and awful -- in a horrifying way. Mental illness was so misunderstood.

[Addy Buck]

It was good, the story was very descriptive and interesting. I think it was worth reading.

[Sue Lott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well told encounters with sane and insane individuals who were committed to the “mad house” simply due to their lack of funds. Truly an eye opener to the world on the inside.

[Greynomad · Rating 2 out of 5]

She writes like a young teenager..........

[Emma Shore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warning: contains colonial era racist attitudes in Six months in Mexico.

[Marlena · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very sad reality for women from that time. And a reminder of what we fight for.