The Mad Women's Ball: A Novel

by Victoria Mas, Frank Wynne (Translator)

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

In this slim gothic set in 1885 Paris, "troublesome" women and girls are declared to be hysterics by their fathers, husbands and brothers and locked away in the Salpetriere asylum. But "troublesome" is a subjective label, and this seductive smart novel follows a patient and a nurse as their paths collide. This hypnotic novel has already been optioned for film, and it's a terrific recommendation for fans of The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue, The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton, and The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry.

Soon to be a major film from Amazon Studios, the prizewinning French bestseller

“In this darkly delightful Gothic treasure, Mas explores grief, trauma, and sisterhood behind the walls of Paris’s infamous Salpêtrière hospital.”

—Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train

The Salpetriere 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 Salpetriere dressed up in their finery for one night only. For the women themselves, it is a rare moment of hope.

Genevieve 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 Eugenie, the 19-year-old daughter of a bourgeois family that has locked her away in the asylum. Because Eugenie has a secret: she sees spirits. Inspired by the scandalous, banned work that all of Paris is talking about, The Book of Spirits, Eugenie 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 Genevieve's help . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419757594
Publisher:	ABRAMS
Publication date:	09/07/2021
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	94,841
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

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 bestselling debut of the season.

Editorial Reviews

07/26/2021

French writer Mas debuts with a cinematic gothic story—soon to be a feature film—set in an abusive and exploitive 19th-century Parisian asylum. La Salpêtrière is inhabited almost entirely by women and girls whose male relatives have had them committed for hysteria. As Mas reveals, most of these women are survivors of rape or sexual abuse, but as far as the average Parisian is concerned, the women are grotesque and most likely dangerous. Set in 1885, during the weeks leading up to the hospital’s annual costume ball, at which the bourgeoisie can indulge their voyeuristic inclinations and rub elbows with the “mad women,” Mas’s novel alternates among the perspectives of three characters. Louise fantasizes about becoming charismatic Dr. Charcot’s next celebrity patient and about marrying a junior doctor; Eugénie is a bourgeois young woman who claims to see visions of the dead; and Geneviève is a long-time Salpêtrière nurse whose unwavering loyalty to her employer begins to falter as events unfold. Mas elegantly blends feminist history and spiritualism, and poignantly demonstrates how the hospital is both prison and refuge for its residents, as Geneviève simultaneously grows disillusioned and empowered. Mas’s dark tale will have readers transfixed. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

electrifying...The Mad Women’s Ball is a magnetic historical novel.”

*starred* review Foreword Reviews

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.

Sunday Times bestselling author of The Lamplighters - Emma Stonex

"[a] picturesque tale of female empowerment, gender identity, and liberation"

Create & Cultivate

In this darkly delightful Gothic treasure, Mas explores grief, trauma, and sisterhood behind the walls of Paris’s infamous Salpêtrière hospital.

#1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins

A brooding psychodrama...with [a] cinematic, increasingly Gothic aura

The New York Times Book Review

A must-read for all who have ever felt silenced

SheKnows

Potent and wicked ... a darkly entertaining piece of revisionist feminism

Chicago Review of Books

08/13/2021

DEBUT In 1885 Paris, elite society is looking forward to the Mad Women's Ball, where the women institutionalized in the Salpêtrière asylum don their best finery to dance and perform for the attendees. The majority of patients have been committed by fathers or other family members for refusing to play the roles expected of them. One of them is Eugenie, a young woman unhappy with the prospect of having to become a mother, housekeeper, and wife; she confides a secret to her grandmother that, when shared with her father, gets her committed to the Salpêtrière. Eugenie tries to convince her ward nurse, Genevieve, that she doesn't belong there. At first, Genevieve, hardened by years at the hospital and under the spell of the chief physician, Charcot, believes Eugenie is deluded and dangerous. But then Genevieve's beliefs are challenged by the dawning revelations shared by Eugenie and the failures of Charcot to care for the patients. As the ball approaches and the excitement builds, the inmate and nurse are forced to confront the system that placed them at Salpêtrière. VERDICT Debut novelist Mas blends history with a gothic tale about being a woman in a patriarchal society. It's a compelling and quick read with an ending that seems a bit rushed. For fans of Sarah Waters.—Susan Santa, North Merrick Lib., NY

Library Journal

An enjoyable, quick read...intriguing, original, and captivating...a dark reminder of what it was like to be a woman in previous centuries...perfect for readers interested in the early days of psychiatry and women’s experiences in Europe the late 1800s.”

Girly Book Club

[A] deeply humane, well-researched thriller...This harrowing historical novel...is short but powerful, speaking not only to how women have been inhumanely treated since time immemorial simply for being true to themselves or inconvenient to others but also to how uncomfortably close we as a society still are to the sort of backward thinking that denies a woman her rights and liberties simply on the say-so of a powerful, and usually wealthy, guardian.”

Criminal Element

In her excellent gothic-inspired thriller, the Sorbonne-educated Victoria Mas comments on a society bent on molding women into an ‘acceptable,’ compliant form. An underlying theme of spiritualism heightens the intrigue while the well-researched historical details paint a rich atmosphere. I enjoyed this read very much.”

Mystery Scene Magazine

The Mad Women’s Ball is a fast-paced read that grabs you from the start. You can finish it in a matter of days or draw it out over time, but the impact it leaves will be felt long after you’ve closed the book. Victoria Mas has delivered a powerful story about a group of women being brave in the face of adversity, and it’s a tale that rings particularly true today.”

Fansided

This short first novel by French writer Mas highlights the plight of powerless women and is set in an interesting era in which the burgeoning sciences of psychiatry and neurology exist uneasily alongside spiritualism.”

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