Asylum

by Nina Shope

Winner of the Dzanc Prize for Fiction

A work of brilliant and innovative historical fiction, Asylum delves into the disturbing and seductive relationship between a young hysteric named Augustine and renowned nineteenth-century French neurologist J.M. Charcot. As Charcot risks his career to investigate the controversial disease of hysteria, Augustine struggles to make him acknowledge their interdependence and shared desires—until a new lover, M., drives them all to the brink of fracture.

Drawing upon the medical photography, hypnotic states, and “grand demonstrations” that accompanied Charcot’s research, Asylum traces the deterioration of the dynamic between doctor and patient as they transform from mutually entranced creators to jealous and spurned paramours, to fierce rivals, and finally to bitter enemies. Told in lyrical, feverish, and sometimes delirious prose, Nina Shope delivers a captivating narrative at the crossroads of Mary Shelley and Donna Tartt.

Genres: Fiction, Historical, Horror, Historical Fiction, Dark Academia

194 pages, Paperback

Published May 17, 2022

Reviews

[Blair · Rating 2 out of 5]

Asylum is a novel based on real people: the 19th-century French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot and his patient/muse, the so-called ‘hysteric’ known as Augustine. It imagines an obsessive, erotic, albeit exploitative relationship between the two in which Augustine is in thrall to her ‘Maître’, he haunted by her. This is impressed on the reader through a narrative so repetitive that it is somnolent. Medical demonstrations; twisted desire; repeat, again and again. It might have been more effective as a short story, but the whole thing is so slight, I can’t see any real reason it needed to be padded out to novel length.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fictionalized account of the famed 1800’s French Neurologist Doctor Charcot and his particular patient Augustine whom the Doctor used in public displays to demonstrate her symptoms. She suffered from seizures (tetanism).

The book delves into the doctor patient relationship and appears to be the motive for the book.
“From its inception, medicine has struggled to define the appropriate distance between doctor and patient, and often it has failed”. (Pg.24/25)

At a time when women’s ailments were too often referred to as ‘hysteria’ and then associated with erotica the author has written a provocative narrative where we find the doctor somewhat obsessed with his patient and Augustine attempting to entice the doctor into seeing her as a person and not just a patient. Some of the passages are explicit and may be offensive to some.

The author states: “I set out to write a hysterical narrative…..” (Pg.193) and so she did. While a number of the medical words escaped me the full meaning, scope and significance of the doctor and his patient in this book did not.

[Claire Gault · Rating 5 out of 5]

This stunning piece of literary fiction captures the reality of a constructed condition—how pseudoscience can impact its proponents, victims, and audiences in an exquisitely unnerving way. In Nina Shope’s Asylum, the hysterical woman is not to be trusted; she is to be studied, probed, picked apart. She is a live mold for casts and electrically wired and displayed for large audiences, in explicit, raw performances of what the hysterical body was made to do. Though hard to read—each paragraph laced with vivid, often disturbing detail—I was enraptured by the content, made even more impactful by the fact it was built upon real history. It’s important to recognize the lasting distrust of women in our society, and reading and reflecting with brilliantly-written historical fiction is such an enlightening means to do so. I’d recommend this to any reader who enjoys remarkable and thoughtful prose, as well as anyone interested in the depths of what “stagecraft” was in the 19th century. 5 stars.

Thank you to Dzanc Books for this galley!

[Bill Hsu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting idea, and the prose is actually decent. But the material is stretched soooooo thin.

[Jaye Viner · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deep dive into the intimate dynamics of a patient and her psychiatrist in the early days of the field. Beautiful language, detailed, often graphic descriptions that take on added meaning in the themes of performance, visibility, who decides what is an illness, and what drives doctors to act as they do, sometimes crossing lines beyond the quest for healing or life improvement.

[Eileen Daly-Boas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn’t the book for me, but it’s well-written, and has an interesting premise. Based on a real woman, this is the story of a French woman being treated for hysteria in the early age of photography.
It made me feel bad in a eww-uncomfortable way, but it has a happy ending. The style was different from your average novel, but it didn’t click with me.

[Carly Willis · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️
This was hauntingly beautiful story. The writing was different than what I’ve read but overall enjoyable

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, the hysterical woman! How many women have been dismissed or diminished by the use of the word hysteria? Women have even been diagnosed with it, an (un)official disease which, according to some, must be studied, the bodies of these "ill" women locked away, examined and documented at length.

In this book Shope takes two of the most famous names in the history of hysteria, J.M. Charcot and his patient Augustine, and in evocative, feverish writing imagines the strange dynamics of their relationship. Boundaries, if there were any to begin with, become blurred as doctor and patient push each other further and further into the exploration of Augustine's body, the ways in which Charcot can will it to do what he wants and the ways in which Augustine aims to please him.

As time passes, as Charcot dives deeper and deeper into his study of hysteria, into the ways he can manipulate the disease, supposedly in search of a cure, Augustine's body is repeatedly displayed to audiences. She is expected to perform her disease, her privacy and autonomy steadily eroded. Perhaps, though, Augustine has more power than it might seem, maybe as much as Charcot. His reliance on her to prove his theories creates a thick co-dependence. How far can this study of hysteria go?

This book is a look at a one of the many ways in which women's bodies, women's experiences, have been subject to the tyranny of male doctors and medical practices that don't take their well-being into account. It's also, in a way, a study of illness, of mental illness, what it is, how it's diagnosed, how environment can, perhaps, create symptoms where otherwise there might be none. Ultimately, this book is about Augustine, all the Augustines throughout history, not as case study, but as way to give voice to her reality in an asylum as an object both of fascination and exploitation. Shope's writing is rich, compelling, strong. I recommend looking up the real Augustine and the photos taken of her in the grips of her supposed madness. It's understandable why people continue to be captivated by her.

[Alex St-Andre · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Your gaze settles on me, and you recognize your succubus, your death incarnate, your Augustine. Disfigured. Horrible. As you created me."

The strength of this novella lies in its prose; otherwise, the plot is threadbare, and the stream-of-consciousness style makes it difficult to follow at times.

The use of second-person narration when Augustine addresses Charcot or M was effective, highlighting their dynamic and her subjugation. The shifts from first to second to third person contributed to the dream/nightmare atmosphere.

But there were details that pulled me out completely: typos and incorrect uses of French throughout; “aimant” instead of amant (loving vs. lover), “flueurs” for fleurs (flowers). Why use another language and then not have an editor, proofreader, or translator review it?

[Jacqueline Doyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dark, intense, atmospheric. Love the combination of research and fictionalization in this account of the charged relationship between Charcot and his "hysterical" patient "Augustine."