The Book of Madness and Cures Pdf Summary
Dr. Gabriella Mondini, a strong-willed, young Venetian woman, has followed her father in the path of medicine. She possesses a singleminded passion for the art of physick, even though, in 1590, the male-dominated establishment is reluctant to accept a woman doctor. So when her father disappears on a mysterious journey, Gabriella’s own status in the Venetian medical society is threatened. Her father has left clues–beautiful, thoughtful, sometimes torrid, and often enigmatic letters from his travels as he researches his vast encyclopedia, The Book of Diseases.
After ten years of missing his kindness, insight, and guidance, Gabriella decides to set off on a quest to find him–a daunting journey that will take her through great university cities, centers of medicine, and remote villages across Europe. Despite setbacks, wary strangers, and the menaces of the road, the young doctor bravely follows the clues to her lost father, all while taking notes on maladies and treating the ill to supplement her own work.
Gorgeous and brilliantly written, and filled with details about science, medicine, food, and madness, The Book Of Madness And Cures is an unforgettable debut.
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The Book of Madness and Cures Review
4.0 out of 5 stars Treat yourself to a sumptuous literary debut!
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 14, 2012
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There is much to enjoy, appreciate and savor here in poet O’Melveny’s debut novel. She creates a spirited and determined heroine, Gabriella Mondini, who sets off on a quest with her two loyal and humble servants (beautifully drawn) across Europe on horseback and mule to find the father who left 10 years ago and who appears to be at risk of madness. The culture of late 16th century Venice, Europe and Morocco come alive in all their mystery, superstition, peril and horror.The journey is mapped and the tale colored with the poet’s pen–vivid prose, steadfast attention to detail,evocative, imaginative passages bordering on the surreal but feeling right at home in the world O’Melveny has created.
One such passage involves a young woman whose malady, Porphyria, causes her to grow the fur of a beast–“From the time she was a very young girl, a woman in Lucca cringed at the light of the sun, the moon, even candle glow. Her hair began to grow in such thick waves from her face and body that from a distance, Irmina was sometimes mistaken for a small costumed bear escaped from the traveling carnival.” Years ago, Gabriella’s father explained–“We can’t cure her my daughter. One of the most important things you’ll learn in the art of physick is the recognition of God’s puzzles or, as some might call them, devil’s knots. He has created someone here who loves animal darkness.” (Irmina begged to be conveyed to a cave). The chapter ends with–“As we left I glimpsed Irmina at the window, the curtain of her hair separating at the sill where her yellow sleeve and hand appeared, a clenched paw cuffed with lace.” How’s that for a haunting image.
This novel is not a fast read. Intend to take time with it. It is a rich and many-layered literary feast. It won’t disappoint.
5.0 out of 5 stars A female doctor’s journey through Renaissance Europe
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 18, 2015
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The Book of Madness and Cures tells the story of Gabriella, a female doctor in 16th century Venice. She has gained success under the mentorship of her father, a famous physician, but he has been away for ten years, on a journey to collect material for a comprehensive Book of Diseases. His latest letter informs Gabriella that he does not intend to return. Without her father to sponsor her, the guild of physicians expels Gabriella, and she leaves Venice on a journey to find him. Accompanied by two loyal servants, she follows the mysterious clues in her father’s infrequent letters. Her journey takes her through Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland, France, Spain, and eventually to Morocco. On the way, Gabriella meets with people who have seen her father, and she comes to realize that he may be slowly losing his mind. She decides to continue her father’s work on the Book of Diseases, and the narrative is interspersed with Gabriella’s desciptions of various diseases and cures that she discovers along her journey.
This is poet Regina O’Melveny’s first novel, and she describes Gabriella’s travels in beautiful, lyrical prose. Renaissance Europe and northern Africa come to life in vivid detail, and the novel provides a fascinating insight into what it was like to be one of the few women physicians of the time. Women who practised medicine were often accused of witchcraft, and Gabriella runs into this danger at several stages of her journey, and she also is forced to travel in male disguise at times. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in historical fiction or the history of medicine.
5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing First Novel
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 16, 2012
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Regina O’Melveny’s first novel, THE BOOK OF MADNESS AND CURES, is a meticulously researched and beautifully written novel about Gabriella Mondini’s search for her father, a physician in Renaissance Venice. Gabriella is herself a physician, but loses the right to practice medicine when her father leaves Venice on a mysterious journey which seems initially tied to his life’s work, The Book of Diseases. His infrequent letters home sound increasingly gloomy and confused, prompting his daughter to set out on a search for him that covers much of Europe and eventually North Africa. This is a classic quest novel in which Gabriella is searching not only for her father but
for increased medical knowledge, and ultimately for her own center, separate from her father. The pace of the book is somewhat slowed by entries from The Book of Diseases, but the entries are a delight in themselves, one of my favorites being blue earworms that emerge from the ground and lodge in the ears of women. The description of the crossing into North Africa from Spain and subsequent travel in the desert is not so very different from what I experienced in the late nineties on a trip to Morocco. This is an unusually rich book that needs to be read slowly
to be savoured.
About Regina O’Melveny Author Of The Book of Madness and Cures pdf Book
Regina O’Melveny Author Of The Book of Madness and Cures pdf Book is a writer, assemblage artist, and teacher. Her poetry and prose have been anthologized and widely published in liteary magazines such as The Jacaranda Review, Yellow Silk, Poetry/LA, The Sun, The LA Weekly, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, and The Wild Duck Review. In 1995 she won first place in the John Foster West National Poetry Award Contest, judged by Marge Piercy. She has been awarded writers’ residency fellowships by the Dorland Mountain Arts Colony in California and the Cummington Community of the Arts in Massachusetts. She lives in Rancho Palos Verdes, California
The Book of Madness and Cures pdf, Paperback, Hardcover Book Information
- ASIN : 0316195839
- Publisher : Little, Brown and Company; First edition. (April 10, 2012)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 336 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780316195836
- ISBN-13 : 978-0316195836
- Item Weight : 1.2 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.5 x 1.25 x 9.75 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,700,758 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,612 in Medical Fiction (Books)
- #14,808 in Historical Mystery
- #50,982 in Historical Romances
- Customer Reviews: 3.7 out of 5 stars 119 ratings
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