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Nightingales: The Extraordinary Upbringing and Curious Life of Miss Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale was for a time the most famous woman in Britain–if not the world. We know her today primarily as a saintly character, perhaps as a heroic reformer of Britain’s health-care system. The reality is more involved and far more fascinating. In an utterly beguiling narrative that reads like the best Victorian fiction, acclaimed author Gillian Gill tells the story of this richly complex woman and her extraordinary family.
Born to an adoring wealthy, cultivated father and a mother whose conventional facade concealed a surprisingly unfettered intelligence, Florence was connected by kinship or friendship to the cream of Victorian England’s intellectual aristocracy. Though moving in a world of ease and privilege, the Nightingales came from solidly middle-class stock with deep traditions of hard work, natural curiosity, and moral clarity. So it should have come as no surprise to William Edward and Fanny Nightingale when their younger daughter, Florence, showed an early passion for helping others combined with a precocious bent for power.
Far more problematic was Florence’s inexplicable refusal to marry the well-connected Richard Monckton Milnes. As Gill so brilliantly shows, this matrimonial refusal was at once an act of religious dedication and a cry for her freedom–as a woman and as a leader. Florence’s later insistence on traveling to the Crimea at the height of war to tend to wounded soldiers was all but incendiary–especially for her older sister, Parthenope, whose frustration at being in the shade of her more charismatic sibling often led to illness.
Florence succeeded beyond her wildest dreams. But at the height of her celebrity, at the age of thirty-seven, she retired to her bedroom and remained there for most of the rest of her life, allowing visitors only by appointment.
Combining biography, politics, social history, and consummate storytelling, Nightingales is a dazzling portrait of an amazing woman, her difficult but loving family, and the high Victorian era they so perfectly epitomized. Beautifully written, witty, and irresistible, Nightingales is truly a tour de force.
Born to an adoring wealthy, cultivated father and a mother whose conventional facade concealed a surprisingly unfettered intelligence, Florence was connected by kinship or friendship to the cream of Victorian England’s intellectual aristocracy. Though moving in a world of ease and privilege, the Nightingales came from solidly middle-class stock with deep traditions of hard work, natural curiosity, and moral clarity. So it should have come as no surprise to William Edward and Fanny Nightingale when their younger daughter, Florence, showed an early passion for helping others combined with a precocious bent for power.
Far more problematic was Florence’s inexplicable refusal to marry the well-connected Richard Monckton Milnes. As Gill so brilliantly shows, this matrimonial refusal was at once an act of religious dedication and a cry for her freedom–as a woman and as a leader. Florence’s later insistence on traveling to the Crimea at the height of war to tend to wounded soldiers was all but incendiary–especially for her older sister, Parthenope, whose frustration at being in the shade of her more charismatic sibling often led to illness.
Florence succeeded beyond her wildest dreams. But at the height of her celebrity, at the age of thirty-seven, she retired to her bedroom and remained there for most of the rest of her life, allowing visitors only by appointment.
Combining biography, politics, social history, and consummate storytelling, Nightingales is a dazzling portrait of an amazing woman, her difficult but loving family, and the high Victorian era they so perfectly epitomized. Beautifully written, witty, and irresistible, Nightingales is truly a tour de force.
535 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
90 people are currently reading
1292 people want to read
About the author
Gillian Gill
15 books53 followersGillian Gill, who holds a PhD in modern French literature from Cambridge University, has taught at Northeastern, Wellesley, Yale, and Harvard. She is the author of Nightingales: The Extraordinary Upbringing and Curious Life of Miss Florence Nightingale, Agatha Christie: The Woman and Her Mysteries, and Mary Baker Eddy. She lives in suburban Boston.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews
March 31, 2019
This book was DENSE!
Florence Nightingale was in her lifetime the second most famous woman in the world, the only woman more famous was Queen Victoria. Florence Nightingale was a social reformer, women's rights advocate, but the reason she is most famous is because she founded modern nursing. She was the first person to practice modern nursing but she was the one who put it on the map. Her work during the Crimean War reduced the death count by two-thirds. She advocated improved sanitation, proper rest, and what we would today call "bedside manner". Florence Nightingale was considered a radical in her time and she had just as many foes as friends.
Nightingales The Extraordinary Upbringing and Curious Life of Miss Nightingale is just much about Florence as it is about her fascinating family. The Nightingales were ahead of their time in their beliefs, they advocated such crazy ideas as protection of the environment, women's right to vote, independence for Ireland and improving work conditions for the poor. The Nightingale family was considered weird but they were also powerful because of the vast amount of wealth the family had. Florence's family hobnobbed with such luminaries as Prince Albert, author Elizabeth Gaskell, and Mary Shelley.
Nightingales is a huge book and I will warn you that there are a lot of people with similar names in this book so at times its hard to keep everyone straight. Gillian Gill's writing is compelling and captivating. You can tell Gillian Gill conducted extensive research and she truly brought Florence, her family and world to life. She challenges long held myths about Florence and separates the saintly lady of legend from the dazzling & difficult real life woman.
A must read for history buffs.
Florence Nightingale was in her lifetime the second most famous woman in the world, the only woman more famous was Queen Victoria. Florence Nightingale was a social reformer, women's rights advocate, but the reason she is most famous is because she founded modern nursing. She was the first person to practice modern nursing but she was the one who put it on the map. Her work during the Crimean War reduced the death count by two-thirds. She advocated improved sanitation, proper rest, and what we would today call "bedside manner". Florence Nightingale was considered a radical in her time and she had just as many foes as friends.
Nightingales The Extraordinary Upbringing and Curious Life of Miss Nightingale is just much about Florence as it is about her fascinating family. The Nightingales were ahead of their time in their beliefs, they advocated such crazy ideas as protection of the environment, women's right to vote, independence for Ireland and improving work conditions for the poor. The Nightingale family was considered weird but they were also powerful because of the vast amount of wealth the family had. Florence's family hobnobbed with such luminaries as Prince Albert, author Elizabeth Gaskell, and Mary Shelley.
Nightingales is a huge book and I will warn you that there are a lot of people with similar names in this book so at times its hard to keep everyone straight. Gillian Gill's writing is compelling and captivating. You can tell Gillian Gill conducted extensive research and she truly brought Florence, her family and world to life. She challenges long held myths about Florence and separates the saintly lady of legend from the dazzling & difficult real life woman.
A must read for history buffs.
October 22, 2009
I cannot tell you how suprised I am to have liked this as much as I did. Before picking up this book, I had little knowledge and less interest in the saintly nursing pioneer and got the book only because I had enjoyed another Victorian-era biography by the author, Gillian Gill (We Two: Victoria and Albert, Rules, Partners, Rivals). As it turns out, Nightingale is actually an incredibly fascinating figure--brilliant, highly cultured, moody, wildly charismatic, fiercely ambitious, and just crazy enough to keep things interesting. The writing style is very compelling and novelistic, with an expansive view of the society at large (think Erik Larson). I'd recommend this to anyone with an interest in the Victorian era, even if they think they have no interest in Nightingale--the myriad details about her liberal, reform-minded, highly educated upper-middle class family in that time should be seriously fascinating for any lover of Victoriana.
May 17, 2010
A terrific biography of Florence Nightingale and her family, from a feminist perspective. It’s the kind of detailed biography I love, with little side trips into politics of the day, family history, and military detail.
At the age of 17 FN had a religious experience that convinced her she was to have a life of service to God. From that point, she sought to be trained as a nurse or in the administration of an institution like a hospital.
As one would expect, her upper middle class family tried to keep her at home and close within the family circle. Much of this book is about Florence’s power struggles with her parents and with other members of her large extended family. For a young woman of her class to become a nurse Just Quite Simply Wasn't Done. But by the time she had taken charge of a home for retired governesses, and then was asked by the government to lead a party of nurses to the army hospital in Turkey, her parents and sister were proud of her, and continued to support her in extraordinary ways for the rest of her life. Her father supported her financially so that she could live independently, unusual for the time even among well to do people. Unmarried daughters were expected to live with their parents.
Because her family was wealthy and socially popular, when she went to the Crimea she had the ears of many powerful men. Eventually it was her skill at organization, more so than her nursing skill (which was considerable) that enabled her to make changes in the way the wounded in the Crimea were treated, and in how the Army dealt with its casualties.
She spend two years in the Army hospital, then for the next fifty two years was virtually a recluse, rarely leaving her home. But during that time she was busy writing, advising, influencing. That is her true legacy.
She had many close women friends but made women enemies, too; she could be clumsy at leading women. Gill makes the interesting observation that most women in this era had little experience of working in collaboration and tended to identify themselves as individuals rather than colleagues. “Discipline, collegiality, and team spirit were not qualities society asked of its women.”
The author is British and gets in some good snarky remarks. “History, as opposed to imaginative literature, is based on evidence, and no one has produced any evidence that Florence Nightingale ever engaged in sexual relations with women. This I assume to be the standard working definition of a lesbian.” About Richard Monckton Milnes, said to have been the man who Florence loved but sacrificed to her vocation (Gill refutes this): “In Turkey, Milnes was invited to a pasha’s dinner party at which the guests were entertained by Greek dancing boys dressed as women. In a letter to his mother, Richard noted that the dance became increasingly ‘lascivious and violent.’ [Biographer:] Pope-Hennessy summarizes: ‘The dance ended with the Turkish guests getting thoroughly involved with the Greek dancing boys. Milnes who had had too much to eat said he dropped off to sleep.’ As a fellow biographer, I can only admire the delicacy of the expression ‘thoroughly involved’ and the positioning of the word ‘said.’”
She’s written biographies of Mary Baker Eddy and Agatha Christie and just did a book about Victoria and Albert. I’ll be looking for these.
At the age of 17 FN had a religious experience that convinced her she was to have a life of service to God. From that point, she sought to be trained as a nurse or in the administration of an institution like a hospital.
As one would expect, her upper middle class family tried to keep her at home and close within the family circle. Much of this book is about Florence’s power struggles with her parents and with other members of her large extended family. For a young woman of her class to become a nurse Just Quite Simply Wasn't Done. But by the time she had taken charge of a home for retired governesses, and then was asked by the government to lead a party of nurses to the army hospital in Turkey, her parents and sister were proud of her, and continued to support her in extraordinary ways for the rest of her life. Her father supported her financially so that she could live independently, unusual for the time even among well to do people. Unmarried daughters were expected to live with their parents.
Because her family was wealthy and socially popular, when she went to the Crimea she had the ears of many powerful men. Eventually it was her skill at organization, more so than her nursing skill (which was considerable) that enabled her to make changes in the way the wounded in the Crimea were treated, and in how the Army dealt with its casualties.
She spend two years in the Army hospital, then for the next fifty two years was virtually a recluse, rarely leaving her home. But during that time she was busy writing, advising, influencing. That is her true legacy.
She had many close women friends but made women enemies, too; she could be clumsy at leading women. Gill makes the interesting observation that most women in this era had little experience of working in collaboration and tended to identify themselves as individuals rather than colleagues. “Discipline, collegiality, and team spirit were not qualities society asked of its women.”
The author is British and gets in some good snarky remarks. “History, as opposed to imaginative literature, is based on evidence, and no one has produced any evidence that Florence Nightingale ever engaged in sexual relations with women. This I assume to be the standard working definition of a lesbian.” About Richard Monckton Milnes, said to have been the man who Florence loved but sacrificed to her vocation (Gill refutes this): “In Turkey, Milnes was invited to a pasha’s dinner party at which the guests were entertained by Greek dancing boys dressed as women. In a letter to his mother, Richard noted that the dance became increasingly ‘lascivious and violent.’ [Biographer:] Pope-Hennessy summarizes: ‘The dance ended with the Turkish guests getting thoroughly involved with the Greek dancing boys. Milnes who had had too much to eat said he dropped off to sleep.’ As a fellow biographer, I can only admire the delicacy of the expression ‘thoroughly involved’ and the positioning of the word ‘said.’”
She’s written biographies of Mary Baker Eddy and Agatha Christie and just did a book about Victoria and Albert. I’ll be looking for these.
June 29, 2020
The title says a lot. It is a biography principally of F. but within the setting of her family, which is a very interesting one. Florence and her sister, her only sibling, were born within a year of each other in Italy, where their parents were on extended honeymoon. Florence, the younger of the two sisters, took the name of the city in which she was born. Her sister was perhaps less fortunate in this respect. She was born in Naples and was given its name in Greek – Parthenope.
The book is extremely readable on so many levels. The family were socially mobile, Unitarian, politically engaged - Whig/Liberal tradition, educated and comfortably off. They were socially conscious and in the main possessed a social conscience. Flo, as she was known in the family, was from a very young age visiting/caring/nursing people in the communities close to the family homes in Derbyshire and Hampshire. Her practical skills and a strong stomach stood her in good stead. She was also extremely articulate, could be very personable and persuasive and had access to some of the great and the good within the family’s social network.
She made her name, assuming national treasure status, for her unremitting work during the Crimean War, at great cost to her physical and mental health. Thereafter she was on a mission to try to ensure that lessons were learnt and that unnecessary deaths, from disease rather than war wounds, were avoided in the future. She argued that the nation owed a duty of care to its fighting forces.
The remaining 50 + years of her life were spent beavering away to these ends and in trying to ensure that conditions in hospitals were improved, particularly through standardised hygiene practices.
Lytton Strachey included her, rightly, as one of his Eminent Victorians, he also had her down for being something of a harpy. He has a point! But there is much much more besides.
Highly recommended.
The book is extremely readable on so many levels. The family were socially mobile, Unitarian, politically engaged - Whig/Liberal tradition, educated and comfortably off. They were socially conscious and in the main possessed a social conscience. Flo, as she was known in the family, was from a very young age visiting/caring/nursing people in the communities close to the family homes in Derbyshire and Hampshire. Her practical skills and a strong stomach stood her in good stead. She was also extremely articulate, could be very personable and persuasive and had access to some of the great and the good within the family’s social network.
She made her name, assuming national treasure status, for her unremitting work during the Crimean War, at great cost to her physical and mental health. Thereafter she was on a mission to try to ensure that lessons were learnt and that unnecessary deaths, from disease rather than war wounds, were avoided in the future. She argued that the nation owed a duty of care to its fighting forces.
The remaining 50 + years of her life were spent beavering away to these ends and in trying to ensure that conditions in hospitals were improved, particularly through standardised hygiene practices.
Lytton Strachey included her, rightly, as one of his Eminent Victorians, he also had her down for being something of a harpy. He has a point! But there is much much more besides.
Highly recommended.
June 20, 2009
No nurse's historical background is complete without reading about Florence Nightingale. I personally didn't know much about her, just that she was considered the founder of nursing, and that she was known as the Lady with the Lamp.
The book begins with a detailed genealogy of Flo's parents and their families... which seemed boring to me but does have relevance later in Flo's life. One of the major familial themes has to do with the inheritance law in Great Britain at the time - since women could not own property in their own right, the ladies in the families were desparate to produce sons in order to preserve their own lifestyles. This sets the stage for Florence's mother's complete outrage when Florence refuses to marry. Florence had a sister, but no brothers, and so after the death of her father, her mother was out on her ear. Okay, not literally, but one of Flo's cousins inherited the family estate because Florence's mother could not legally inherit her husband's property.
Anyway, about the nursing stuff - it seems that Flo was always a very religious and very sensitive, guilt-ridden child. She decided quite early in childhood that she wanted to care for needy creatures, and took in countless pets. She also cared for her sister and her cousins (she was very close with many of her cousins) when they were ill, and seemed to take great pleasure in the act of caring. One theme that cropped up over and over in Flo's private writing was of her overwhelming guilt about some unnamed bad thing that she felt compelled to do over and over. I crassly interpreted that as masturbation, but the author believes that Florence had a deep tendency to daydream or fantasize, which took her away from the concerns of the material world, which caused her tremendous guilt.
Oh, right, the nursing stuff. Florence insisted on taking nurse's training, which caused her upperclass family no end of grief. At that time, nurses were either nuns (and the Nightingales were Protestant) or else they were "working girls" who were alleged to be drunken prostitutes and lousy patient advocates. Florence refused to back down and eventually her family gave in, reluctantly. After training, Florence immediately took on an activism role, advocating for sanitation, a healthy diet, and peaceful surrounding to help patients heal. During the Crimean War, British soldiers in Turkey were dying hand-over-fist, and with the help of her family's connection, Florence managed to get herself appointed to the hospital treating the wounded at Scutari. She loaded a ship with medical supplies that she convinced wealthy friends to donate, recruited a staff of women to train as nurses, and took off for Turkey. The Army's medical director was not impressed with Florence's demand that he give over operations of the hospital to her, but eventually changed his mind after she sat, mule-like, out on her boat in the harbor and refused to hand over the medical supplies.
Once she got inside the hospital, Florence insituted all kinds of changes. She insisted that each soldier needed his own bed with clean linens. She demanded that the dressings on the soldiers' wounds be changed regularly, and the wounds washed with soap and water and redressed with clean bandages. She insisted that the kitchen be sanitized, and that all the soldiers required a healthy diet to be able to heal. And most of all, she showed the wounded men that she cared, personally visiting each one of them. She got the name "The Lady of the Lamp" because she carried around a small lamp as she walked the wards at night visiting soldiers who couldn't sleep or needed comfort.
There's a lot more that Florence did to advance the profession of nursing. But since I'm not writing my own book on her, I'm going to stop there.
The book begins with a detailed genealogy of Flo's parents and their families... which seemed boring to me but does have relevance later in Flo's life. One of the major familial themes has to do with the inheritance law in Great Britain at the time - since women could not own property in their own right, the ladies in the families were desparate to produce sons in order to preserve their own lifestyles. This sets the stage for Florence's mother's complete outrage when Florence refuses to marry. Florence had a sister, but no brothers, and so after the death of her father, her mother was out on her ear. Okay, not literally, but one of Flo's cousins inherited the family estate because Florence's mother could not legally inherit her husband's property.
Anyway, about the nursing stuff - it seems that Flo was always a very religious and very sensitive, guilt-ridden child. She decided quite early in childhood that she wanted to care for needy creatures, and took in countless pets. She also cared for her sister and her cousins (she was very close with many of her cousins) when they were ill, and seemed to take great pleasure in the act of caring. One theme that cropped up over and over in Flo's private writing was of her overwhelming guilt about some unnamed bad thing that she felt compelled to do over and over. I crassly interpreted that as masturbation, but the author believes that Florence had a deep tendency to daydream or fantasize, which took her away from the concerns of the material world, which caused her tremendous guilt.
Oh, right, the nursing stuff. Florence insisted on taking nurse's training, which caused her upperclass family no end of grief. At that time, nurses were either nuns (and the Nightingales were Protestant) or else they were "working girls" who were alleged to be drunken prostitutes and lousy patient advocates. Florence refused to back down and eventually her family gave in, reluctantly. After training, Florence immediately took on an activism role, advocating for sanitation, a healthy diet, and peaceful surrounding to help patients heal. During the Crimean War, British soldiers in Turkey were dying hand-over-fist, and with the help of her family's connection, Florence managed to get herself appointed to the hospital treating the wounded at Scutari. She loaded a ship with medical supplies that she convinced wealthy friends to donate, recruited a staff of women to train as nurses, and took off for Turkey. The Army's medical director was not impressed with Florence's demand that he give over operations of the hospital to her, but eventually changed his mind after she sat, mule-like, out on her boat in the harbor and refused to hand over the medical supplies.
Once she got inside the hospital, Florence insituted all kinds of changes. She insisted that each soldier needed his own bed with clean linens. She demanded that the dressings on the soldiers' wounds be changed regularly, and the wounds washed with soap and water and redressed with clean bandages. She insisted that the kitchen be sanitized, and that all the soldiers required a healthy diet to be able to heal. And most of all, she showed the wounded men that she cared, personally visiting each one of them. She got the name "The Lady of the Lamp" because she carried around a small lamp as she walked the wards at night visiting soldiers who couldn't sleep or needed comfort.
There's a lot more that Florence did to advance the profession of nursing. But since I'm not writing my own book on her, I'm going to stop there.
April 16, 2023
The amount of research done for this book and the included details that stem from it is simply astonishing. That can be seen as both an advantage and a disadvantage of the book, depending on what you want and how much of it you want. If you read this only to familiarize yourself with the remarkable Florence Nightingale, you will be probably swamped by the wealth of information about her extended family (and even some ancestors) and the almost tedious narration of her life before the Crimean mission. However, if you like family sagas, delving deep into Victorian daily life and attitudes, you will have your fill with this book. The title is indeed truthful to the content.
One also must mention that even though dense, the book is very readable and easy to navigate (at least once you get over all those ancestors).
One also must mention that even though dense, the book is very readable and easy to navigate (at least once you get over all those ancestors).
May 31, 2023
It took me forever to read this book. Not because it is dry, but just because it is so comprehensive. As the subtitle implies, Florence Nightingale's life was extraordinary. Gillian Gill's research is extensive and scholarly. She pulls from and includes excerpts from so many primary sources. Members of the Nightingale family were compulsive letter writers and most importantly, letter savers. Much of the information put forward in this book comes directly from their correspondence. This amazing work introduces the reader to the real Florence Nightingale and not just the legendary "Lady with the Lamp". It's worth the read.
June 2, 2014
Nightingales by Gillian Gill
This very well researched and documented biography of Florence Nightingale gives the reader an intimate look into the family, the culture, and the times that shaped the life and character of Florence Nightingale. The author pulls extensively from the voluminous correspondence to and from Miss Nightingale to give a fuller, richer portrait of the "Lady with the Lamp." The severe restrictions on Victorian women, the entail of the family estate, and a call from God to serve came to shape the brilliant mind and life of Florence Nightingale.
It is an excellent book for anyone wishing to understand more deeply the influences on Miss Nightingale. I have only two criticisms and these are perhaps more indicative of my own preferences. First, the author goes into excruciating detail about the extended family and not only the extended family but extensions of the extended family. This was very hard to follow for one not already well versed in the Nightingale family and served no useful purpose. Second, the author presents long sections of letters and I found the intricate Victorian prose again very hard to follow.
However, I don't want to take away from the fact that if you are looking for a solid biography of Florence Nightingale, you could do no better than this volume.
This very well researched and documented biography of Florence Nightingale gives the reader an intimate look into the family, the culture, and the times that shaped the life and character of Florence Nightingale. The author pulls extensively from the voluminous correspondence to and from Miss Nightingale to give a fuller, richer portrait of the "Lady with the Lamp." The severe restrictions on Victorian women, the entail of the family estate, and a call from God to serve came to shape the brilliant mind and life of Florence Nightingale.
It is an excellent book for anyone wishing to understand more deeply the influences on Miss Nightingale. I have only two criticisms and these are perhaps more indicative of my own preferences. First, the author goes into excruciating detail about the extended family and not only the extended family but extensions of the extended family. This was very hard to follow for one not already well versed in the Nightingale family and served no useful purpose. Second, the author presents long sections of letters and I found the intricate Victorian prose again very hard to follow.
However, I don't want to take away from the fact that if you are looking for a solid biography of Florence Nightingale, you could do no better than this volume.
November 25, 2013
I barely made it through the Introduction. I really wanted to read about Florence Nightingale, but I am sure there must be a better biography than this one!
The author's writing style was just God-awful! The author could not make a point without re-iterating and re-iterating and re-iterating... "No lady in the land could vote like her husband, enter Parliament like her father, join the India Office like her brother, preach from the pulpit like her nephew, or serve as justice of the peace like the gentleman farmer she hunted with." Oy. One wonders if the author ended the sentence merely because she ran out of possible male relations or acquaintances. The author clearly could not make a point without running it into the ground. There were numerous laundry list sentences like that. "Her first, her essential, her highest duty as a Christian woman" begins one. The very next starts with "in its laws, its traditions, its science, its myths, its shibboleths, nineteenth-century society decreed that women were fragile."
Seriously one of the most irritating, annoying, frustrating, galling, bothersome, nauseating, disturbing, painful, pointless ten minutes I have ever spent! Do you understand what I am trying to say? ;)
The author's writing style was just God-awful! The author could not make a point without re-iterating and re-iterating and re-iterating... "No lady in the land could vote like her husband, enter Parliament like her father, join the India Office like her brother, preach from the pulpit like her nephew, or serve as justice of the peace like the gentleman farmer she hunted with." Oy. One wonders if the author ended the sentence merely because she ran out of possible male relations or acquaintances. The author clearly could not make a point without running it into the ground. There were numerous laundry list sentences like that. "Her first, her essential, her highest duty as a Christian woman" begins one. The very next starts with "in its laws, its traditions, its science, its myths, its shibboleths, nineteenth-century society decreed that women were fragile."
Seriously one of the most irritating, annoying, frustrating, galling, bothersome, nauseating, disturbing, painful, pointless ten minutes I have ever spent! Do you understand what I am trying to say? ;)
December 5, 2017
I thought this was a wonderful biography about Florence Nightingale. I've wanted to read a book about her for the longest time, and I found the information about her upbringing and her relationship with her parents and her sister very informative. I cannot imagine being a woman back in those times. If you were poor, you worked hard and you died, often in childbirth. If you were wealthy you were severely limited in what you could do in your life in Victorian England. Florence Nightingale bucked the trend of being useless commodity. She wanted to do something with her life, and in spite of her parents and her sister, and the norms of society, she went ahead and did her own thing. She proved everyone wrong about women were capable of doing....and I'm very grateful that she did so. This book talks about the mentality of the British Army and the awful condition of the men in the Crimea before Nightingale went out there.
My only complaint about the book was a little too obvious preaching concerning feminism. It wasn't needed...the story itself made the point concerning women.
A really good read, I enjoyed it a lot and it went quickly...
My only complaint about the book was a little too obvious preaching concerning feminism. It wasn't needed...the story itself made the point concerning women.
A really good read, I enjoyed it a lot and it went quickly...
July 23, 2012
I'm glad Gill made her approach from the angle of Nightingale's private life. We have enough bold-faced stories about her famous subject, now let's hear what was happening from Nightingale's own pen and the pens of those she loved.
Make no mistake, there is plenty of interesting material here. I was never interested in Nightingale as a biographical subject until I read some of Elizabeth Gaskell's work (she was Nightingale's contemporary). I found myself moved by what happened to Nightingale during the Crimean War, much more so than if it had been a fictional account.
I wonder if anyone has ever considered that her withdrawal from life afterwards may have been partially a result of PTSD?
Gill doesn't let her off the hook about her bad behaviour, examples of which there are plenty. This is not hagiography.
Make no mistake, there is plenty of interesting material here. I was never interested in Nightingale as a biographical subject until I read some of Elizabeth Gaskell's work (she was Nightingale's contemporary). I found myself moved by what happened to Nightingale during the Crimean War, much more so than if it had been a fictional account.
I wonder if anyone has ever considered that her withdrawal from life afterwards may have been partially a result of PTSD?
Gill doesn't let her off the hook about her bad behaviour, examples of which there are plenty. This is not hagiography.
August 21, 2014
Excellent read for many reasons, though primarily a view into a woman's world where she sacrifices artifice of life for punishing hours of nursing. What makes the book worth reading is the struggle Nightingale had with parental control and the period restrictions on a woman's potential for growth at a great cost.
Once she gained her strength to walk from the life her parent's wanted for her, Florence Nightingale possibly felt her work giving her means and measures for getting out of her own limits. Her philosophy reached a world that was made up of men and established values. Social changes, war destroying men's bodies and intellectual future existence in English society. Horror came to her and she did not run from the disasters.
Once she gained her strength to walk from the life her parent's wanted for her, Florence Nightingale possibly felt her work giving her means and measures for getting out of her own limits. Her philosophy reached a world that was made up of men and established values. Social changes, war destroying men's bodies and intellectual future existence in English society. Horror came to her and she did not run from the disasters.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 1, 2010
This was a completely absorbing book not only giving insights into Florence Nightingale's character but also providing many interesting details about life and expectations in Victorian England.
July 11, 2018
This is NOT my review. This is the Goodreads review I'm copy and pasting below.
Nightingales: The Extraordinary Upbringing and Curious Life of Miss Florence Nightingale
by Gillian Gill
3.78 · Rating details · 360 Ratings · 64 Reviews
Florence Nightingale was for a time the most famous woman in Britain–if not the world. We know her today primarily as a saintly character, perhaps as a heroic reformer of Britain’s health-care system. The reality is more involved and far more fascinating. In an utterly beguiling narrative that reads like the best Victorian fiction, acclaimed author Gillian Gill tells the story of this richly complex woman and her extraordinary family.
Born to an adoring wealthy, cultivated father and a mother whose conventional facade concealed a surprisingly unfettered intelligence, Florence was connected by kinship or friendship to the cream of Victorian England’s intellectual aristocracy. Though moving in a world of ease and privilege, the Nightingales came from solidly middle-class stock with deep traditions of hard work, natural curiosity, and moral clarity. So it should have come as no surprise to William Edward and Fanny Nightingale when their younger daughter, Florence, showed an early passion for helping others combined with a precocious bent for power.
Far more problematic was Florence’s inexplicable refusal to marry the well-connected Richard Monckton Milnes. As Gill so brilliantly shows, this matrimonial refusal was at once an act of religious dedication and a cry for her freedom–as a woman and as a leader. Florence’s later insistence on traveling to the Crimea at the height of war to tend to wounded soldiers was all but incendiary–especially for her older sister, Parthenope, whose frustration at being in the shade of her more charismatic sibling often led to illness.
Florence succeeded beyond her wildest dreams. But at the height of her celebrity, at the age of thirty-seven, she retired to her bedroom and remained there for most of the rest of her life, allowing visitors only by appointment.
Combining biography, politics, social history, and consummate storytelling, Nightingales is a dazzling portrait of an amazing woman, her difficult but loving family, and the high Victorian era they so perfectly epitomized. Beautifully written, witty, and irresistible, Nightingales is truly a tour de force.
From the Hardcover edition. (less)
Nightingales: The Extraordinary Upbringing and Curious Life of Miss Florence Nightingale
by Gillian Gill
3.78 · Rating details · 360 Ratings · 64 Reviews
Florence Nightingale was for a time the most famous woman in Britain–if not the world. We know her today primarily as a saintly character, perhaps as a heroic reformer of Britain’s health-care system. The reality is more involved and far more fascinating. In an utterly beguiling narrative that reads like the best Victorian fiction, acclaimed author Gillian Gill tells the story of this richly complex woman and her extraordinary family.
Born to an adoring wealthy, cultivated father and a mother whose conventional facade concealed a surprisingly unfettered intelligence, Florence was connected by kinship or friendship to the cream of Victorian England’s intellectual aristocracy. Though moving in a world of ease and privilege, the Nightingales came from solidly middle-class stock with deep traditions of hard work, natural curiosity, and moral clarity. So it should have come as no surprise to William Edward and Fanny Nightingale when their younger daughter, Florence, showed an early passion for helping others combined with a precocious bent for power.
Far more problematic was Florence’s inexplicable refusal to marry the well-connected Richard Monckton Milnes. As Gill so brilliantly shows, this matrimonial refusal was at once an act of religious dedication and a cry for her freedom–as a woman and as a leader. Florence’s later insistence on traveling to the Crimea at the height of war to tend to wounded soldiers was all but incendiary–especially for her older sister, Parthenope, whose frustration at being in the shade of her more charismatic sibling often led to illness.
Florence succeeded beyond her wildest dreams. But at the height of her celebrity, at the age of thirty-seven, she retired to her bedroom and remained there for most of the rest of her life, allowing visitors only by appointment.
Combining biography, politics, social history, and consummate storytelling, Nightingales is a dazzling portrait of an amazing woman, her difficult but loving family, and the high Victorian era they so perfectly epitomized. Beautifully written, witty, and irresistible, Nightingales is truly a tour de force.
From the Hardcover edition. (less)
April 6, 2019
One of the most comprehensive books on the life of Florence Nightingale that I have ever read. To be sure, this is a long book. The beginning seems at first a bit slow because Gillian Gill introduces the reader to Florence's parents and their families as well. Although it may seem confusing or dull at first, these characters are important to the rest of Florence's life and the family background is essential to fully understanding her. All the pieces will fit and become an integral part of understanding the trials Florence endured throughout her life, even from her own family. The account of her time at Scutari during the Crimean War is vivid, grisly and riveting. She has long been one of my heroines and I've read many books about her life, but this is surely one of the most all-encompassing. Gillian covers such subjects as the question of Florence's sexuality, dispels rumors about her life and does not overlook the accusations of Florence's "peculiarities". As with all great historical figures (and all of us as well!), Florence had her good points and her bad ones. Accused through the years of being a hypochondriac, a perfectionist, quarrelsome and other terms used to discredit someone of great stature, I came away with my admiration for her still intact and a greater understanding of why she appeared at times to be the way she was. Those who carry out life-altering things for others will always have their accusers. There is nothing new under the sun. Florence was, as I have always seen her, more than just the Lady with the Lamp, she was a woman who changed the times in which she lived and has left us an example to follow.
March 31, 2018
I quite enjoyed this biography of Florence Nightingale. Gill takes the tactic of "explaining" this extraordinary woman by taking a look at one of the major forces that shaped her, her relationship with her not-quite conventional but still very much of their time, Victorian family.
Growing up, Florence and her sister were both encouraged to be "extraordinary", way more educated and "worldly" than many other girls and young women of the time. But, much to Florence's chagrin, at the end of the day they were still expected to take the "conventional" path. Well, obviously that didn't fly for Florence and for the rest of her life she was both the despair and pride of her family, who might have railed in private but rallied around her and her cause in public.
It's easy to paint someone like Florence Nightingale as a saint, the Lady with the Lamp, and she certainly was to the soldiers she nursed in the Crimean. Her determination to make nursing a respectable institution, her conviction that nursing was essential to good health care make her a heroicly important historical figure. But heroes are often quite difficult to live in and, Gill does not hesitate in showing how Florence often alienated, hurt, and misunderstood those closest to her. All in all it makes her a much more rounded and fascinating character. Even more admirable for her flaws. And it also brings forward her supporting cast and gives them the recognition they often don't get and often didn't get from Florence herself.
Very readable. Very eye-opening.
Growing up, Florence and her sister were both encouraged to be "extraordinary", way more educated and "worldly" than many other girls and young women of the time. But, much to Florence's chagrin, at the end of the day they were still expected to take the "conventional" path. Well, obviously that didn't fly for Florence and for the rest of her life she was both the despair and pride of her family, who might have railed in private but rallied around her and her cause in public.
It's easy to paint someone like Florence Nightingale as a saint, the Lady with the Lamp, and she certainly was to the soldiers she nursed in the Crimean. Her determination to make nursing a respectable institution, her conviction that nursing was essential to good health care make her a heroicly important historical figure. But heroes are often quite difficult to live in and, Gill does not hesitate in showing how Florence often alienated, hurt, and misunderstood those closest to her. All in all it makes her a much more rounded and fascinating character. Even more admirable for her flaws. And it also brings forward her supporting cast and gives them the recognition they often don't get and often didn't get from Florence herself.
Very readable. Very eye-opening.
December 26, 2020
I really enjoyed Gillian Gill's weaving together the lives of the Nightingale family and the society at large during Florence Nightingale's lifetime. There were so many changes in women's rights and medicine that Florence was involved in. Clearly, she had a brilliant mind and would not be deterred from using it no matter what the society of her day thought. She was fortunate to have a father who knew his daughters were very bright and he taught them a wide range of subjects at home. I learned about the Crimean War and the devastating number of British soldiers who died not from battle wounds but from infection and disease in the wretched excuse for a hospital. Florence Nightingale made it her mission to change the way the British treated their soldiers so that they survived.
The beginning of the book is a little challenging with the family history details but after that you will be hooked. If you love reading about history and those who changed the world for the better, this is a very fascinating read.
The beginning of the book is a little challenging with the family history details but after that you will be hooked. If you love reading about history and those who changed the world for the better, this is a very fascinating read.
June 22, 2021
An engrossing and sometimes overwhelmingly detailed account of Florence Nightingale's life and her family background. She seems to have had the best of Victorian upbringings and a belatedly supportive family who eventually allowed her to train as a nurse despite their strong objections and concern. Flo, as she was called, had a deep desire to be of service and organized a trip to the Crimean War so that she could nurse the wounded. She introduced and insisted on good food and strict standards of hygiene for the care of the wounded. After the war, she continued to work ceaselessly for the medical care of soldiers and tirelessly wrote letter after letter, but strangely rarely left her home again. This ultimately reclusive woman, the lady with the lamp, was a major force in establishing good medical care for soldiers and along with Victoria, was one of the few women at the time known around the world by her first name. Remarkable.
March 3, 2021
DNF after 100 pages.
I wanted to learn more about Florence Nightingale, but there doesn't seem to be much of that in this book. To be fair, the lack of focus is right there in the title. This biography is about the Nightingale family, not Florence herself. Chapter 1 centers on her great-great grandparents, and Chapter 2 is about her grandparents and various uncles and aunts. Florence herself is finally born in Chapter 3, but she's almost an afterthought, and the rest of the chapter is about her parents marriage. Chapter 4 is again about her extended family, and only in Chapter 5 do we finally wrap all this family stuff up and get back to, you know, the only person the audience really wants to read about.
Truly devoted readers may enjoy this one, but for me it's a skip. I can find a better biography elsewhere.
I wanted to learn more about Florence Nightingale, but there doesn't seem to be much of that in this book. To be fair, the lack of focus is right there in the title. This biography is about the Nightingale family, not Florence herself. Chapter 1 centers on her great-great grandparents, and Chapter 2 is about her grandparents and various uncles and aunts. Florence herself is finally born in Chapter 3, but she's almost an afterthought, and the rest of the chapter is about her parents marriage. Chapter 4 is again about her extended family, and only in Chapter 5 do we finally wrap all this family stuff up and get back to, you know, the only person the audience really wants to read about.
Truly devoted readers may enjoy this one, but for me it's a skip. I can find a better biography elsewhere.
September 21, 2017
I have not been a reader of biographies when younger, but now that I am more mature, and because I have always loved history, I am reading at least one biography a year, about persons who I may only have a general knowledge of. What a GREAT biography this was to read. Chapter notes, annotations, detailed, and written like a novel - you almost forget you are reading someone's life history. I know little about the Crimean War, but I did know Nightingale was responsible for changes made in public health care because of her work in England and then in a war zone, all during the reign of Queen Victoria. I have read that great social change occurred during Victoria's reign, and Florence Nightingale was one of the reasons for it.
May 30, 2018
This talented biographer, Gillian Gill, gave me exactly what I was looking for; an unvarnished and in-depth insight into how Florence Nightingale became such an important part of Nursing History. Florence was ahead of her time in managing sanitation and improving health, using statistical data to demonstrate the effectiveness of her nursing theory. After Crimea, she worked for 50 years influencing policy to improve the conditions of soldiers, sanitation, and health in Great Britain. Imagine that!? It took a Victorian Woman to change policies in Parliament. That was news to me. She was no saint, but she was a determined defender of the sick, poor, elderly and soldiers. It is difficult to not love someone like that.
April 17, 2022
Downright homophobic work with sentences like:
"Florence Nightingale was not a lesbian."
"Oscar Wilde with his wife, and two sons was actually straight."
And:
Florence Nightingale was "chaste", "virginal" and "celibate."
Never thought an academic of this millenium could write such nonsense in a biographical work. Clearly Gillian Gill has a problem with LGBTQ people. Also noticed the writers of Dr James Barry: A Woman Ahead of Her Time must have read Gill's Nightingale book. At least there are echoes.
Regret I bought the book.
"Florence Nightingale was not a lesbian."
"Oscar Wilde with his wife, and two sons was actually straight."
And:
Florence Nightingale was "chaste", "virginal" and "celibate."
Never thought an academic of this millenium could write such nonsense in a biographical work. Clearly Gillian Gill has a problem with LGBTQ people. Also noticed the writers of Dr James Barry: A Woman Ahead of Her Time must have read Gill's Nightingale book. At least there are echoes.
Regret I bought the book.
February 23, 2017
I trudged, I crawled, I wormed my way through the first 300 pages...and then it got interesting, really interesting and yes, it was worth the effort to arrive at a Florence Nightingale who was whole and real, not just the mystical "Lady of the Lamp". To read what this one woman accomplished in her lifetime makes the rest of us look like slugs. Her behind the scenes activities were notable, her ability to deal with people of all backgrounds was remarkable--and her sharp words when she was not getting what she felt she should have was alive and well, too. Yes, I'm glad I made it through all 465 pages, though I passed on the 80 pages of notes and acknowledgements, etc. Enough is enough!
August 4, 2023
This book was really interesting but it could have been way shorter. As much as I love learning about one’s family history, I am not sure the author really needed to go into as much detail as she did with the many family generations that came before Florence was born. Although along the same line, I did discover that she was a relation of the English actress Helena Bonham Carter…. Which is kinda cool.
March 7, 2019
I'm sorry I was kind of excited to read this and most of the first part that I couldn't get past was just about extended family and honestly it was hard to keep track who was who and what was what and really I just wanted to read about Florence's life... I hope there was a reason for all the back story but I just couldn't get past that first part.
August 3, 2025
Excellent telling of Florence Nightingale’s life. Not just her facts, but also how she I reacted with others such as family , friends, soldiers, as well as superiors and co workers. Florence’s upbringing was a Siri’s to me. Everyone knows her for her nursing skills which she taught herself and others, but she was so much more than just that.
May 24, 2024
I really enjoyed learning more about Florence Nightengale and her family. The author has a very prominent voice, which I didn’t mind, but it surprised me from time to time how she would ruminate on a topic. The most challenging issue was the jumping around and looping back.
June 13, 2017
Well researched, thoughtful conclusions. I couldn't keep the timeline straight, which made character development difficult to follow. The ending was not satisfying.
October 9, 2018
This is an excellent book about Florence Nightingale.
September 17, 2019
"Florence Nightingale was quite convinced she had the God-given talent to make a difference, and woe betide her and society if she was forced to bury that talent in the earth."
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