Madwoman
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
**A HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES AND THE SUNDAY TIMES**
The extraordinary story of a woman's quest for the truth against all odds - and how her story changed the world
'A moving story' SUNDAY TIMES, Best historical fiction books of 2022
'A must read!' GILL PAUL
'Intriguing ... A fascinating read' HAZEL GAYNOR
'Remarkable' ESSIE FOX
'An astonishing tour de force' REBECCA MASCULL
In 1887 young Nellie Bly sets out for New York and a career in journalism, determined to make her way as a serious reporter, whatever that may take.
But life in the city is tougher than she imagined. Down to her last dime and desperate to prove her worth, she comes up with a dangerous plan: to fake insanity and have herself committed to the asylum that looms on Blackwell's Island. There, she will work undercover to document - and expose - the wretched conditions faced by the patients.
But when the asylum door swings shut behind her, she finds herself in a place of horrors, governed by a harshness and cruelty she could never have imagined. Cold, isolated and starving, her days of terror reawaken the traumatic events of her childhood. She entered the asylum of her own free will - but will she ever get out?
An extraordinary portrait of a woman way ahead of her time, Madwoman is the story of a quest for the truth that changed the world.
'Madwoman is one of the best, a magnificent portrayal of Nelly Bly in all her journalistic integrity and daring' New York Journal of Books
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Treger's middling latest (after The Dragon Lady) chronicles the early life and career of pioneering female journalist Nellie Bly. Outspoken tomboy Elizabeth Jane "Pink" Cochran is raised in rural Pennsylvania by parents who nurture her gift for storytelling. Her vivid imagination is diagnosed as hysteria by one doctor, and her father's unexpected death leaves the family impoverished, dashing Pink's hopes for higher education. After the family moves to Pittsburgh, Pink persuades the Pittsburgh Dispatch to hire her despite her gender and, under the Bly pen name, writes controversial exposés of slum and factory conditions. Relocating to New York City, she can't find a paper that will hire a woman reporter until she makes an audacious proposal to Joseph Pulitzer's New York World: she'll feign madness and get herself committed to the mental hospital on Blackwell's Island to investigate rumors of inhumane practices there. A deal is struck, and she soon finds the conditions are even more brutal than she imagined, leaving her wondering if she'll leave the island with both mind and body intact. While Bly's time at the madhouse is too well-documented (not least by Bly herself) to offer much in the way of surprise, Treger's evocation of the reporter's formative years is illuminating. It's decently done, but the straightforward treatment doesn't do enough to animate or reevaluate some rather well-known terrain.
