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La historia del doctor Gully
En mayo de 1870, Florence Ricardo, esposa de un capitán bebedor y violento, acudía a la consulta del doctor Gully en Malvern (Gales), en busca de una cura para su estado de nervios: estaba agotada, deprimida, ansiosa, bebía preocupantemente, no paraba de llorar. El doctor Gully era famoso por sus tratamientos que hoy denominaríamos «alternativos», en especial la hidroterapia. Entre sus pacientes agradecidos se contaban Darwin, Tennyson y Carlyle. A pesar de los más de treinta años de edad que los separaban, el médico y su paciente iniciaron una relación que no tardaría en ir más allá de lo profesional y que, a lo largo del tiempo, pasaría por las más diversas fases, siempre bajo la amenaza del escándalo.
Como en Harriet, Elizabeth Jenkins reconstruye en La historia del doctor Gully (1972) un sonado caso criminal que dejó perpleja a la sociedad victoriana. Con una técnica narrativa magníficamente astuta, al servicio de una compleja trama con muchos e inesperados giros, la autora se las ingenia en todo momento para desbaratar las expectativas del lector y llevarlo de uno a otro extremo de la identificación con los personajes.
Psicológicamente brillante, socialmente revulsiva, esta historia de amor, manipulaciones y traición es una novela tan lúcida como intrigante.
Como en Harriet, Elizabeth Jenkins reconstruye en La historia del doctor Gully (1972) un sonado caso criminal que dejó perpleja a la sociedad victoriana. Con una técnica narrativa magníficamente astuta, al servicio de una compleja trama con muchos e inesperados giros, la autora se las ingenia en todo momento para desbaratar las expectativas del lector y llevarlo de uno a otro extremo de la identificación con los personajes.
Psicológicamente brillante, socialmente revulsiva, esta historia de amor, manipulaciones y traición es una novela tan lúcida como intrigante.
456 pages, Paperback
First published February 28, 1972
4 people are currently reading
122 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Jenkins
57 books58 followersFrom Elizabeth Jenkins' obituary in The New York Times:
As a novelist, Ms. Jenkins was best known for “The Tortoise and the Hare” (1954), the story of a disintegrating marriage between a barrister and his desperate wife that Hilary Mantel, writing in The Sunday Times of London in 1993, called “as smooth and seductive as a bowl of cream.” Its author, Ms. Mantel wrote, “seems to know a good deal about how women think and how their lives are arranged; what women collude in, what they fear.”
To a wider public Ms. Jenkins was known as the author of psychologically acute, stylishly written, accessible biographies. Most dealt with important literary or historical figures, but in “Joseph Lister” (1960) she told the life of the English surgeon who pioneered the concept of sterilization in medicine, and in “Dr. Gully’s Story” (1972) she reconstructed a Victorian murder and love triangle.
Margaret Elizabeth Jenkins was born on Oct. 31, 1905, in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, where a year earlier her father had founded Caldicott, a prep school.
She studied English and history at Newnham College, Cambridge, where at the time women could take exams but not receive degrees. The principal of the college was Pernel Strachey, sister of the biographer and Bloomsbury figure Lytton Strachey, and through her Ms. Jenkins met Edith Sitwell and Leonard and Virginia Woolf.
She found the company intellectually distinguished but rude and unpleasant. Woolf’s description of Ms. Jenkins’s first novel, “Virginia Water” (1929), as “a sweet white grape of a book” did not erase the impression.
Despite good reviews for her first novel and a three-book deal with the publisher Victor Gollancz, Ms. Jenkins began teaching English at King Alfred’s School in Hampstead, where she remained until the outbreak of World War II.
In this period she wrote two of her most admired biographies, “Lady Caroline Lamb” (1932) and “Jane Austen” (1938), as well as the chilling “Harriet” (1934), a novel about the sufferings of a mentally disabled woman whose husband, a scheming clerk, marries for her money.
During the war Ms. Jenkins worked for the Assistance Board, helping Jewish refugees and victims of the German air raids on London. She later worked for the Board of Trade and the Ministry of Information.
“Elizabeth the Great” (1958) showed her biographical talents at their most effective. Although she relied on the standard historical sources, Ms. Jenkins added a psychological dimension to her portrait that other historians had scanted.
The historian Garrett Mattingly, in a review, wrote that Ms. Jenkins “is really not much interested in war and diplomacy, politics and finance.” Her specialty, he argued, was the human heart. “We believe Elizabeth Jenkins,” he added, “because, by imaginative insight and instinctive sympathy, she can make the figures of a remote historical pageant as real, as living, as three-dimensional as characters in a novel.”
Ms. Jenkins returned to the Elizabethan period in “Elizabeth and Leicester” (1961) and roamed further afield in “The Mystery of King Arthur” (1975) and “The Princes in the Tower” (1978). In “Six Criminal Women” (1949), she presented short studies of two murderers, a pickpocket, a blackmailer and a con artist living between the 14th and 19th centuries. A more wholesome gallery of characters was put on view in “Ten Fascinating Women” (1955).
In 1940 she helped found the Jane Austen Society and took part in its campaign to buy Austen’s house at Chawton, where Austen spent the last eight years of her life. It is now a museum.
Her novels included “Doubtful Joy” (1935), “The Phoenix’ Nest” (1936), “Robert and Helen” (1944), “Brightness” (1963) and “Honey” (1968).
In 2004 Ms. Jenkins published a memoir, “The View From Downshire Hill.” Its title refers to the Hampstead neighborhood whe
As a novelist, Ms. Jenkins was best known for “The Tortoise and the Hare” (1954), the story of a disintegrating marriage between a barrister and his desperate wife that Hilary Mantel, writing in The Sunday Times of London in 1993, called “as smooth and seductive as a bowl of cream.” Its author, Ms. Mantel wrote, “seems to know a good deal about how women think and how their lives are arranged; what women collude in, what they fear.”
To a wider public Ms. Jenkins was known as the author of psychologically acute, stylishly written, accessible biographies. Most dealt with important literary or historical figures, but in “Joseph Lister” (1960) she told the life of the English surgeon who pioneered the concept of sterilization in medicine, and in “Dr. Gully’s Story” (1972) she reconstructed a Victorian murder and love triangle.
Margaret Elizabeth Jenkins was born on Oct. 31, 1905, in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, where a year earlier her father had founded Caldicott, a prep school.
She studied English and history at Newnham College, Cambridge, where at the time women could take exams but not receive degrees. The principal of the college was Pernel Strachey, sister of the biographer and Bloomsbury figure Lytton Strachey, and through her Ms. Jenkins met Edith Sitwell and Leonard and Virginia Woolf.
She found the company intellectually distinguished but rude and unpleasant. Woolf’s description of Ms. Jenkins’s first novel, “Virginia Water” (1929), as “a sweet white grape of a book” did not erase the impression.
Despite good reviews for her first novel and a three-book deal with the publisher Victor Gollancz, Ms. Jenkins began teaching English at King Alfred’s School in Hampstead, where she remained until the outbreak of World War II.
In this period she wrote two of her most admired biographies, “Lady Caroline Lamb” (1932) and “Jane Austen” (1938), as well as the chilling “Harriet” (1934), a novel about the sufferings of a mentally disabled woman whose husband, a scheming clerk, marries for her money.
During the war Ms. Jenkins worked for the Assistance Board, helping Jewish refugees and victims of the German air raids on London. She later worked for the Board of Trade and the Ministry of Information.
“Elizabeth the Great” (1958) showed her biographical talents at their most effective. Although she relied on the standard historical sources, Ms. Jenkins added a psychological dimension to her portrait that other historians had scanted.
The historian Garrett Mattingly, in a review, wrote that Ms. Jenkins “is really not much interested in war and diplomacy, politics and finance.” Her specialty, he argued, was the human heart. “We believe Elizabeth Jenkins,” he added, “because, by imaginative insight and instinctive sympathy, she can make the figures of a remote historical pageant as real, as living, as three-dimensional as characters in a novel.”
Ms. Jenkins returned to the Elizabethan period in “Elizabeth and Leicester” (1961) and roamed further afield in “The Mystery of King Arthur” (1975) and “The Princes in the Tower” (1978). In “Six Criminal Women” (1949), she presented short studies of two murderers, a pickpocket, a blackmailer and a con artist living between the 14th and 19th centuries. A more wholesome gallery of characters was put on view in “Ten Fascinating Women” (1955).
In 1940 she helped found the Jane Austen Society and took part in its campaign to buy Austen’s house at Chawton, where Austen spent the last eight years of her life. It is now a museum.
Her novels included “Doubtful Joy” (1935), “The Phoenix’ Nest” (1936), “Robert and Helen” (1944), “Brightness” (1963) and “Honey” (1968).
In 2004 Ms. Jenkins published a memoir, “The View From Downshire Hill.” Its title refers to the Hampstead neighborhood whe
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abandoned
August 26, 2017Empecé este libro con muchas ganas porque ya había leído otro de la misma autora y lo disfruté mucho. Desgraciadamente tengo que poner La historia del doctor Gully en la estantería de abandonados. Llevo más de la mitad del libro (casi tres semanas sin tocarlo) y me resulta muy aburrido, nada que ver con Harriet, inspirado también en otro suceso real. Los personajes no me llaman lo suficiente y, aunque sea simplificarlo demasiado, la historia de los amoríos de un médico maduro con una joven , tampoco.
Eso sí, no me iba a quedar yo con la duda de saber quién mató a quién...gracias Google por la ayudita.
Eso sí, no me iba a quedar yo con la duda de saber quién mató a quién...gracias Google por la ayudita.
November 14, 2020
2,5 estrellas
Aprobado raspado para esta novela de 455 páginas a las que le sobran, como mínimo, 250.
A ver, es cierto que el título no engaña: efectivamente esta novela (o biografía novelada, más bien) narra la historia del doctor Gully, un célebre médico victoriano entusiasta de la hidroterapia y alguna que otra magufada (eso sí, desde la buena fe, no porque fuera un timador), que en su día se vio envuelto en un escándalo máximo.
Es cierto que la novela empieza en el momento en el que un doctor Gully ya maduro (62 años para más señas) conocería a la mujer que años después sería la causa de que su nombre estuviera en boca de toda la sociedad inglesa: la joven y bella Florence Ricardo (de 25 años).
Y a partir de ahí la novela se centra básicamente en narrar la historia de su relación, con las trabas de la diferencia de edad, y de la mojigatería y restricciones sociales de la época.
Pero ni siquiera se trata de una historia romántica, o que reflexione sobre los vaivenes del amor. Parece más bien como un diario de a bordo frío y sumamente superficial. Es cierto que te acabas haciendo una idea de cómo eran (o como concibió Elizabeth Jenkins que eran) Florence y el dr. Gully, pero tampoco acaban de estar perfilados del todo.
Y, encima, el hecho que causó el escándalo en sí, que lo sacó todo a la luz, no se aborda hasta 80 páginas del final. Y misterio más bien poco, aunque sí reconozco que la hipótesis que aborda la autora (que no sé si es de cosecha propia, o la encontró en algunos de los escritos de Gully con los que se documentó para escribir el libro) es redonda y más que satisfactoria.
Ciertamente el libro habría ganado mucho más si hubiera sido más breve.
Pero tal y como está concebido y estructurado, se queda en mera lectura curiosa, sin nada que la haga brillar por sí misma.
No es en absoluto un mal libro: se deja leer y si uno es fan de la época victoriana, siempre es agradable reencontrarse en lugares comunes y conocidos. Pero tampoco es una buena novela.
Como decía, aprobado raspadito.
Aprobado raspado para esta novela de 455 páginas a las que le sobran, como mínimo, 250.
A ver, es cierto que el título no engaña: efectivamente esta novela (o biografía novelada, más bien) narra la historia del doctor Gully, un célebre médico victoriano entusiasta de la hidroterapia y alguna que otra magufada (eso sí, desde la buena fe, no porque fuera un timador), que en su día se vio envuelto en un escándalo máximo.
Es cierto que la novela empieza en el momento en el que un doctor Gully ya maduro (62 años para más señas) conocería a la mujer que años después sería la causa de que su nombre estuviera en boca de toda la sociedad inglesa: la joven y bella Florence Ricardo (de 25 años).
Y a partir de ahí la novela se centra básicamente en narrar la historia de su relación, con las trabas de la diferencia de edad, y de la mojigatería y restricciones sociales de la época.
Pero ni siquiera se trata de una historia romántica, o que reflexione sobre los vaivenes del amor. Parece más bien como un diario de a bordo frío y sumamente superficial. Es cierto que te acabas haciendo una idea de cómo eran (o como concibió Elizabeth Jenkins que eran) Florence y el dr. Gully, pero tampoco acaban de estar perfilados del todo.
Y, encima, el hecho que causó el escándalo en sí, que lo sacó todo a la luz, no se aborda hasta 80 páginas del final. Y misterio más bien poco, aunque sí reconozco que la hipótesis que aborda la autora (que no sé si es de cosecha propia, o la encontró en algunos de los escritos de Gully con los que se documentó para escribir el libro) es redonda y más que satisfactoria.
Ciertamente el libro habría ganado mucho más si hubiera sido más breve.
Pero tal y como está concebido y estructurado, se queda en mera lectura curiosa, sin nada que la haga brillar por sí misma.
No es en absoluto un mal libro: se deja leer y si uno es fan de la época victoriana, siempre es agradable reencontrarse en lugares comunes y conocidos. Pero tampoco es una buena novela.
Como decía, aprobado raspadito.
February 19, 2014
Exquisitely written with care to detail, setting and emotion. It did turn much more tragic than I anticipated...not your usual broken hearted period novel...and it is based on a true story.
June 17, 2016
This is the fictionalised account of the scandalous and adulterous affair between the beautiful, but unhappily married, Florence Ricardo and her physician, Dr Gully, This was a dangerous liaison in Victorian society especially due to their difference in ages. He was 62 and she was 25.
They met when Florence visited Dr Gully’s large and successful hydrotherapy establishment in Malvern in order to take his water cure. At the time she was married to Captain Alexander Ricardo who was an alcoholic and, as a result, she was completely exhausted. A friendship grew between Florence and Dr Gully and, after Alexander’s untimely but not unexpected death, they grew closer and then had a passionate affair. However Dr Gully is still married to an older woman who lives on the coast and from whom he is separated. He is also a celebrity physician with several celebrated patients such Tennyson, and Shelley. However, George Eliot described his as a quack and he did use mesmerism and clairvoyance in his treatments.
Their affair barred from respectable society and, after an abortion performed by Dr Gully, Florence begins to tire of their social isolation. She wants to be accepted in society again and to be reconciled to her parents. She then makes a decision that will bring catastrophe on them both. She decides to marry Charles Bravo, a rising young barrister, and rumoured to be a fortune hunter. Florence had inherited £40,000 from Alexander and is determined to keep hold of it.
Five months later Charles is dead after being poisoned by antimony by an unknown hand who remains undiscovered to this day. The resulting inquest brought Florence’s affair with Dr Gully into the public spotlight as they were both suspects and the papers of the day revelled in the details. One paper described him as Florence’s ‘lean and senile seducer.’ After this his career was over. So was Florence’s bid to be accepted in society again.
I enjoyed the book very much. I had read it before soon after it was published in 1972 and remembered it as being well written. However, this time I just couldn’t see Dr Gully’s attraction for Florence especially as she must have known the cost of the affair. I realised that he was a support to her over his troubles with her first husband but did they really think that they would get away with it in Victorian England? Some of Dr Gully’s ideas on the repression of women in 19th century England were revolutionary but not to be spoken of openly.
They met when Florence visited Dr Gully’s large and successful hydrotherapy establishment in Malvern in order to take his water cure. At the time she was married to Captain Alexander Ricardo who was an alcoholic and, as a result, she was completely exhausted. A friendship grew between Florence and Dr Gully and, after Alexander’s untimely but not unexpected death, they grew closer and then had a passionate affair. However Dr Gully is still married to an older woman who lives on the coast and from whom he is separated. He is also a celebrity physician with several celebrated patients such Tennyson, and Shelley. However, George Eliot described his as a quack and he did use mesmerism and clairvoyance in his treatments.
Their affair barred from respectable society and, after an abortion performed by Dr Gully, Florence begins to tire of their social isolation. She wants to be accepted in society again and to be reconciled to her parents. She then makes a decision that will bring catastrophe on them both. She decides to marry Charles Bravo, a rising young barrister, and rumoured to be a fortune hunter. Florence had inherited £40,000 from Alexander and is determined to keep hold of it.
Five months later Charles is dead after being poisoned by antimony by an unknown hand who remains undiscovered to this day. The resulting inquest brought Florence’s affair with Dr Gully into the public spotlight as they were both suspects and the papers of the day revelled in the details. One paper described him as Florence’s ‘lean and senile seducer.’ After this his career was over. So was Florence’s bid to be accepted in society again.
I enjoyed the book very much. I had read it before soon after it was published in 1972 and remembered it as being well written. However, this time I just couldn’t see Dr Gully’s attraction for Florence especially as she must have known the cost of the affair. I realised that he was a support to her over his troubles with her first husband but did they really think that they would get away with it in Victorian England? Some of Dr Gully’s ideas on the repression of women in 19th century England were revolutionary but not to be spoken of openly.
July 8, 2018
It's hard to believe that this book is written by the author of the brilliant The Tortoise and the Hare. Although the subject matter is involving, the author takes way too long to get to the point. It reads more like a second draft than a finished product. Awkward transitions, extraneous details (I really don't care what decorating choices Florence made, or which room Dr. Gully chose as his study), and way too much time spent laying the groundwork for the courtroom drama near the end . I think this could have been an interesting novel but it needed to be pared down considerably and made less about the research and more about the characters.
April 3, 2023
He terminado de leer ‘La historia del doctor Gully’ de Elizabeth Jenkins. Ya había quedado fascinada con esta autora al leer ‘Harriet’, así que quise continuar con otra de sus novelas. Esta novela al igual que ‘Harriet’ esta basada en hechos reales que se dieron en la Inglaterra del siglo XIX.
Puedo decir que leer a Jenkins es realmente agradable sin embargo debo admitir que me ha gustado mucho más ‘Harriet’. Siendo atrevida podría decir que aquí le sobraron varias páginas que no aportaban mucho a la historia central. Pese a ello este libro es interesante, pero hay que leerlo teniendo en cuenta que efectivamente la autora nos va a contar la historia del doctor Gully (su vida, sus intereses, pensamientos, etc.) y solo se centrará en el crimen que gira a su alrededor casi al final de libro.
El libro además nos muestra cómo era la sociedad inglesa de ese entonces, sus recursos médicos, los asuntos legales familiares (el trato a las hijas casadas) la arquitectura de sus ciudades y casas, Jenkins hace varias descripciones de las casas en las que vivieron los protagonistas eso me pareció muy interesante, la manera cómo te da una vista a esas casas debido al detalle minucioso que da de las mismas. Lo genial del libro, a mi parecer, es que una vez culminando éste sigue rondando en tu cabeza y sigues como que atando cabos de lo que pudo haber sucedido. Eso me gustó.
A mi parecer no es un libro para todos, quizás porque después de tener la experiencia de lectura con ‘Harriet’ se espera encontrar algo similar. Aquí la autora se toma su tiempo y hace descripciones que quizás puedan llegar a desesperar a algunos (me pasó por ratos), con todo y ello me ha parecido un muy buen libro especialmente en el cierre que hace del mismo y la teoría a la que ella llega de lo que pudo haber sucedido realmente, algo que me pareció bastante coherente.
Puedo decir que leer a Jenkins es realmente agradable sin embargo debo admitir que me ha gustado mucho más ‘Harriet’. Siendo atrevida podría decir que aquí le sobraron varias páginas que no aportaban mucho a la historia central. Pese a ello este libro es interesante, pero hay que leerlo teniendo en cuenta que efectivamente la autora nos va a contar la historia del doctor Gully (su vida, sus intereses, pensamientos, etc.) y solo se centrará en el crimen que gira a su alrededor casi al final de libro.
El libro además nos muestra cómo era la sociedad inglesa de ese entonces, sus recursos médicos, los asuntos legales familiares (el trato a las hijas casadas) la arquitectura de sus ciudades y casas, Jenkins hace varias descripciones de las casas en las que vivieron los protagonistas eso me pareció muy interesante, la manera cómo te da una vista a esas casas debido al detalle minucioso que da de las mismas. Lo genial del libro, a mi parecer, es que una vez culminando éste sigue rondando en tu cabeza y sigues como que atando cabos de lo que pudo haber sucedido. Eso me gustó.
A mi parecer no es un libro para todos, quizás porque después de tener la experiencia de lectura con ‘Harriet’ se espera encontrar algo similar. Aquí la autora se toma su tiempo y hace descripciones que quizás puedan llegar a desesperar a algunos (me pasó por ratos), con todo y ello me ha parecido un muy buen libro especialmente en el cierre que hace del mismo y la teoría a la que ella llega de lo que pudo haber sucedido realmente, algo que me pareció bastante coherente.
May 27, 2020
Hard to believe I've owned this book for almost 50 years and have never read it before. I remember picking it up and putting it down any number of times in the 1970s; yes, I've been a fan of historical true crime THAT long. Jenkins mentions in her intro that she considered writing a biography of the doctor, but that presented problems. Ultimately, the book is neither a novel nor nonfiction, and it suffers because of it. (I'm appalled that Mary S. Hartman, who wrote a book on Victorian murderesses, also in the 1970s, lists this novel as a "study" on the crime; what WAS she thinking? I don't care how much research Jenkins did on the Bravo case, this is FICTION!) Things jump back and forth, information is dropped without explanation, and while Gully is a clear-cut character, none of the others are particularly well drawn. I'm glad I finally got around to reading this book; now I'd like to move on to a real, nonfiction exploration of the Bravos.
January 23, 2021
This is a work of fiction that's based on events in the lives of real people in 1870's England. It's an interesting story, and was quite a scandal for the time period. Excessive alcohol consumption, "criminal intimacy", an illicit affair, the untimely death of two spouses, and a murder trial; it's got all the ingredients for a great novel, and for that I gave it 3 stars. Sadly though, I got bored with it halfway through. Perhaps because it was based on truth, it felt too much like a retelling of a series of blah facts, rather than a story. I finished it because I am often pleasantly surprised by an unexpected ending, or a unique perspective that the author has cleverly saved for last, but nothing like that happened here. The book's value for me was in learning about the real life Dr. Gully, for which reading an actual biography would probably have been a better use of my time.
August 19, 2021
Una historia novelada del doctor Gully y su escándalo sentimental y judicial que, la verdad, resulta muy soseras. Nada que ver con "Harriet", novela también sobre hechos reales pero inmensamente superior a esta. El personaje del Dr. Gully es planísimo, la narración se hace tirando a larga y alargada, especialmente en las descripciones de las casas que ocupan páginas y páginas (más parece en ocasiones una inmobiliaria). Si alguien tiene curiosidad por leer a esta mujer, sin duda "Harriet" es mucho mejor opción.
October 1, 2017
A well-written story based on a true case in Victorian England. I recommend it.
June 12, 2020
This book was good but about 100 pages too long. I got bored with the characters and wanted to be done reading about them.
July 10, 2020
A well written fictional account of a scandal that rocked Victorian England in the late 1800's.
February 23, 2021
Reseña completa aquí -> http://inquilinasnetherfield.blogspot...
April 9, 2022
Está bien escrito y buen ambientado pero se me ha hecho largo. La historia mejora a partir de la mitad del libro (el principio es un poco folletinesco) pero yo fui perdiendo interés.
August 26, 2022
I was looking forward to reading this book, but it just didn't hold my interest.
July 7, 2023
Historia verdadera de lo más interesante. Un crimen real en la época victoriana, muy bien narrado y recreado por Elizabeth Jenkins.
December 4, 2018
An arresting, vivid, sometimes sometimes partisan but generally, fair minded book about Dr. Gully, one of the key actors in the story of the Charles Bravo poisoning case- the 'Balham Murder Mystery'.
I still find it extraordinary that a notoriously attractive young woman of twenty-six like Florence Ricardo, later Bravo, should have been so besotted by a man int his late sixties - however magnetic his personality. But such seems to have been the case.
The depths of research is remarkable and unobtrusively depicted. The style is elegant and polished, the character depiction vivid. It is indeed like looking through a window into the nineteenth century.
I do think a more less ambiguous, far more thorough treatment of the character Charles Bravo - over whose character there has been such disagreement - would have added to the novel, but perhaps the author decided a vague, ambiguous depiction was more appropriate.
In some ways,the author depicts some of the prejudices of her era, but that is unavoidable. Overall, an excellent read.
I still find it extraordinary that a notoriously attractive young woman of twenty-six like Florence Ricardo, later Bravo, should have been so besotted by a man int his late sixties - however magnetic his personality. But such seems to have been the case.
The depths of research is remarkable and unobtrusively depicted. The style is elegant and polished, the character depiction vivid. It is indeed like looking through a window into the nineteenth century.
I do think a more less ambiguous, far more thorough treatment of the character Charles Bravo - over whose character there has been such disagreement - would have added to the novel, but perhaps the author decided a vague, ambiguous depiction was more appropriate.
In some ways,the author depicts some of the prejudices of her era, but that is unavoidable. Overall, an excellent read.
August 12, 2011
Meticulously researched and imagined novel based on an actual, well-known and respected Victorian physician who figured in a scandalous murder mystery. The book is best when it focusses on Dr. Gully's May-December romance with Florence Ricardo, with settings, clothing, food and other other details so thoroughly described I felt like I was there. The murder does not occur until the last quarter of the book, and after that the narrative leans heavily on courtroom testimony, which made the whole thing feel a bit less immediate. Overall, though, this was a really good book. Now I may have to reread Death At The Priory, a non-fiction account of the same crime.Death at the Priory: Love, Sex, and Murder in Victorian England
December 25, 2015
Una novela con una historia de amor condenada a vivir en la sombra por la época en la que se vive. Aunque me ha gustado, es verdad que me esperaba más misterio.
March 1, 2016
HB-M @ 1972, 10/72. Novel about an eminent doctor, who, while treating his patient, falls in love with said patient's wife, a scandal based upon a true happening in London in 1876. Okay.
April 21, 2017
My impressions here...
http://carmenyamigos.blogspot.com.es/...
http://carmenyamigos.blogspot.com.es/...
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews