Play Audiobook Sample
The Mad Women’s Ball Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(0.00) - 0 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
The Salpêtrière Asylum: Paris, 1885
Dr. Charcot holds all of Paris in thrall with his displays of hypnotism on women who have been deemed mad and cast out from society. But the truth is much more complicated—these women are often simply inconvenient, unwanted wives, those who have lost something precious, wayward daughters, or girls born from adulterous relationships.
For Parisian society, the highlight of the year is the Lenten ball—the Madwomen’s Ball—when the great and good come to gawk at the patients of the Salpêtrière dressed up in their finery for one night only. For the women themselves, it is a rare moment of hope.
Geneviève is a senior nurse. After the childhood death of her sister Blandine, she shunned religion and placed her faith in both the celebrated psychiatrist Dr. Charcot and science. But everything begins to change when she meets Eugénie, the nineteen-year-old daughter of a bourgeois family that has locked her away in the asylum.
It is because Eugénie has a secret: she sees spirits. Inspired by the scandalous, banned work that all of Paris is talking about, The Book of Spirits, Eugénie is determined to escape from the asylum—and the bonds of her gender—and seek out those who will believe in her. And for that she will need Geneviève’s help.
Download and start listening now!
“The Mad Women’s Ball is a darkly sumptuous tale of wicked spectacle, wild injustice, and the insuppressible strength of women…as moving as it is macabre.”
— Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters
Quotes
-
“Potent and wicked…a darkly entertaining piece of revisionist feminism.”
— Chicago Review of Books -
“[A] deeply humane, well-researched thriller…short but powerful.”
— Criminal Element -
“Essential reading.”
— Cosmopolitan (France) -
“Electrifying…a magnetic historical novel.”
— Foreword (starred review) -
“A cri de coeur against the condition of women in this world.”
— Marie France -
“Enter the danse of this little masterpiece and let yourself be dazzled.”
— The Parisian -
“Elegantly blends feminist history and spiritualism and poignantly demonstrates how the hospital is both prison and refuge for its residents.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“Highlights the plight of powerless women…[when] the burgeoning sciences of psychiatry and neurology exist uneasily alongside spiritualism.”
— Booklist -
“[A] darkly delightful Gothic treasure.”
— Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author
The Mad Women’s Ball Listener Reviews
Be the first to write a review about this audiobook!
About Victoria Mas
Victoria Mas has worked in film in the United States, where she lived for eight years. She graduated from the Sorbonne University, where she studied contemporary literature. The Mad Women’s Ball, her first novel, has won several prizes in France, including the Prix Stanislas and Prix Renaudot des Lycéens, and has been hailed as the best-selling debut of the season.
About Kristin Atherton
Kristin Atherton is a voice talent and audiobook narrator.