Nightingales : Florence and Her Family - Softcover

Gillian Gill

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340823038 ISBN 13: 9780340823033

Publisher: Sceptre, 2005

Synopsis

Florence Nightingale is history's most famous nurse, the epitome of gentle, nurturing femininity. But behind the public image of 'The Lady With the Lamp' was a brilliant, combative woman, struggling to escape a web of social prejudice and familial expectations. From girlhood, Florence wanted to dedicate her life to nursing in public hospitals, even though nursing was then work done only by women of the lowest classes. Florence's family were determined to stop her. Eventually Florence had her way, and her nursing mission took her to the filthy, disease-ridden military hospitals of Scutari and Balaclava. Her work during the Crimean War made her an international heroine, and thereafter she wielded an influence over public health policy that was unparalleled for a woman of the time. Radical in her ideas, eccentric in her way of life, Florence was often at war with her family, but love and loyalty always triumphed in the end. The other Nightingales adored and criticised her, understood and misread her, supported and thwarted her, defined and were defined by her. This absorbing biography brings the dynamic and complicated social milieu of the Victorian age dramatically to life.Fascinating new light is shed not just on one of the era's most influential social figures, but on the entire era through which the young Florence and her family lived.

About this title

About the Author

Gillian Gill is the author of studies of Agatha Christie and Mary Baker Eddy, and translator of books on philosophy, psychoanalysis and feminist theory. She lives in Boston.

Review

'A dynamic and absorbing account. I highly recommend it!' -- Alison Weir, author of ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE 20040904 '...absorbing biography reveals the hidden side of this brave and remarkable woman' -- Sunday Express 20040904 'vigorous and enlightening' -- Sunday Telegraph 20040904 'Gill does honor to her subject while providing a vivid and compellingly readable account of the family whose loyal support was crucial to her achievement.' -- Miranda Seymour, New York Times 20041004 'Florence Nightingale comes out of the biography undiminished but far better understood. You could hardly ask much more of a biography' -- The Scotsman 20040904 'This rousing biography recounts the challenges [Nightingale] overcame in order to become history's most famous nurse and an icon of feminine mercy.' -- You 20040904 'An appropriately unfancy and practically accomplished biography that makes you feel the force of this extraordinary personality' -- The Herald 20040904 'expansive, richly detailed, generous to a fault; Gill's skills may well set a new standard for the novelistic mode of biography.' -- Publishers Weekly 20040904

About this edition

• Publisher: Sceptre
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0340823038
• ISBN 13: 9780340823033
• Binding: Paperback