Anne here, and today I'm musing on the subject of madness. I've always liked the Regency expression "blue-devilled" and this drawing by Cruikshank illustrates it perfectly. But blue-devilled, depressed, beset by anxiety, or mad — it's a fine line that separates them.
You might think madness is a strange subject for a Regency romance writer to be talking about, but recall if you will, the Regency period (1811—1820) came about because King George III was believed to be mad, and was incarcerated and treated for insanity. His eldest son, the Prince of Wales, was thus declared the Regent and ruled in his place until the king died.
These days some researchers believe that the poor king had a disease called porphyria, and was not insane at all. Porphyria involves a problem in the production of heme, which is a component of the protein in red blood cells. Heme production, which occurs in the bone marrow and liver, involves eight different enzymes and a shortage (deficiency) of a specific enzyme determines the type of porphyria. One of the possible symptoms of porphyria are mental changes, such as anxiety, confusion, hallucinations, disorientation or paranoia. (Information from this site.)
But the question is still being debated, and some historians today believe the king was insane after all, and exhibited classic signs of psychiatric illnesses such as bipolar disorder. More information about this theory here.
Whatever the truth, poor King George was considered to be mad, and received all kinds of horrible treatments intended to shock him back to sanity, but which to our eyes today seem more like torture. Ascribing his various symptoms to "evil humours" and having no real idea of how to treat them, his various doctors tried all kinds of extreme treatments — purging, blood-letting, blistering with arsenic powder, various toxic drugs and more. The king's final months were spent being bound in a straitjacket and sometimes chained to a chair. Towards the end, he was deaf and blind and living in misery. You might have seen the movie, The Madness of King George. (The image is from the stage play, staring the brilliant Nigel Hawthorne.)
History was not kind to those deemed "mad." If this was how they treated the king, imagine what conditions were like for ordinary folk.
As well, in a time when women were regarded as the property of their fathers, husbands or guardians, they could be placed in an insane asylum on the word of their male "protectors". Women were committed for such things as "female hysteria", for "frigidity," for believing in things their husbands did not — in spiritualism, for instance or for exhibiting "religious excitement". More information here.
"Lock hospitals" contained women who had contracted venereal disease — even though some of them had no doubt been infected by their husbands, who walked free to infect others. There are many tragic stories.
And "normal people" could pay a penny or two to visit madhouses and be entertained by the antics of the lunatics locked up inside. (They treated orphanages in the same way, like a kind of zoo.)
Of course rich families could organize to have their "mad" (or inconvenient) relatives treated in private institutions or even hidden away with a keeper or two in some rural retreat. Insanity was thought to be inheritable, and the taint of "bad blood" was something that nobody wanted to have associated with their family. In my novel, The Perfect Rake, this was the final decision Great-uncle Oswald made about his seriously unbalanced older brother — he was kept securely at home, in the country, with a keeper. (And yes, that's a new cover.)
So enough of gloom and misery and depressing tales, let's turn to other novels and romances that have dealt with or at least touched on madness in the regency and Victorian eras.
One of my all-time favorite novels that deal with this topic is Flowers From The Storm, by the wonderful Laura Kinsale. In it, the hero, The Duke of Jervaulx, considered dissolute, reckless, and extravagant, is also a mathematical genius and corresponds with a Quaker mathematician. Later he disappears and the Quaker's daughter finds him — in a madhouse. It's a superb novel, and for years has been voted one of the top ten all-time favorite romances.
Another book that deals with madness is The Madness of Lord Ian McKenzie, by Jennifer Ashley.
As a child young Lord Ian was placed in an asylum by his father, an Earl, for exhibiting symptoms which modern readers would recognize as Asperger's Syndrome, a form of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Years later, after his father's death, his older brother, the new earl, has his younger brother brought home. A wonderful romance, and currently on special.
A third book that uses the spectre of inherited insanity in a wonderfully creative way is Eva Ibbotson's A Countess Below Stairs (also called The Secret Countess.) I shan't spoil it by explaining how it happens, but I do strongly suggest that if you haven't yet read this book, you've missed a real treat.
So, have you read any of the books I've mentioned? Can you think of any other novels that touch on the subject of madness? Do you find the way "madness" was treated in the past fascinating? Or is it a topic you'd much rather avoid?
How about Jane Eyre and wasen't Rochester's first wife locked up in the attic because she was mad?
Posted by: Donna H. | Friday, March 11, 2022 at 07:15 AM
Love the new Rake cover, Anne! The history of treating madness is dismal indeed. Poor people would be luckier than George III because there wouldn't be so many doctors giving horrendous treatments. I've researched the subject myself for my book The Wild Child, which dealt with asylums and how they could be used as punishments for unruly women. Living in the attic sounded pretty good by comparison.
Posted by: Mary Jo Putney | Friday, March 11, 2022 at 07:40 AM
Thank you for this excellent post and for solving a mystery for me. I recently reread Mary Jo’s Wild Child and I’ve been trying ever since to remember who wrote a book about a duke in a madhouse and a quaker woman who rescued him.
Posted by: Kathy Lynn Emerson | Friday, March 11, 2022 at 07:45 AM
I find the way madness was dealt with in the past more horrifying than fascinating. However, I can recommend a recent read - Mimi Matthews FAIR AS A STAR - where the heroine deals with depression. Lovely and loving read.
Posted by: Mary T | Friday, March 11, 2022 at 08:05 AM
"We all go a little mad sometimes."
And I should comment that I love the new Rake cover :)
Posted by: theo | Friday, March 11, 2022 at 08:34 AM
I was thinking of The Wild Child while reading this post. Not only is Meriel committed to an asylum, albeit briefly, but we also meet this other lady they rescue (sorry I forgot her name, was it Jenna?) that had been in there for a while and had been unjustly locked up by her husband. That such things could happen was criminal.
Just by chance I am now in the middle of re-reading “Tempting Fortune” part of Jo Beverley’s Malloren series. In this book the subject of madness is not the main theme, but the subject is weaved throughout the whole series because the hero’s brother, the Marquess of Rothgar, is an important figure throughout the whole series, and his mother had been mad and that is the reason he wants to avoid marriage and procreation, to keep from passing the ‘tainted blood’. In Rothgar’s book, Devilish, we see another side of dealing with madness, the effect it has on the relatives and descendants of the person. I love that book so much.
Posted by: Laynis | Friday, March 11, 2022 at 11:18 AM
Laynis, yes, Jenna was the woman locked in the asylum after her husband faked her death so he could inherit her fortune. Horrible, and entirely possible.
You're right that the specter of madness haunts the characters in Jo's Malloren series, particularly Rothgar. Mental illness damages many lives and families now as well.
Posted by: Mary Jo Putney | Friday, March 11, 2022 at 11:43 AM
Kathy, the Wenches know these things!!!
Posted by: Mary Jo Putney | Friday, March 11, 2022 at 11:44 AM
Oh, Donna, of COURSE! How could I have forgotten that? Thank you.
Posted by: Anne Gracie | Friday, March 11, 2022 at 12:55 PM
Mary Jo, I forgot about the Wild Child — another of the wonderful books that show the way women were unjustly incarcerated. I do love a book that will teach us something about the dark side of history and give us a happy ending as well.
Posted by: Anne Gracie | Friday, March 11, 2022 at 12:57 PM
As Mary Jo says, "The wenches know these things" but it's a collective mind, and sometimes one of us forgets. *g*
Posted by: Anne Gracie | Friday, March 11, 2022 at 12:58 PM
Thanks, Mary, I haven't read that one. Mimi Matthews writes a good book. I recommended her in a WWR post some time back.
Posted by: Anne Gracie | Friday, March 11, 2022 at 12:59 PM
"We all go a little mad sometimes." So true, Theo. Isn't it so much better these days when we recognize that there's not "mad" or "sane" but a range of conditions that are often contextual.
Glad you like the new Rake cover. I love that she's a red-head — which she was. I did love the old one, though.
Posted by: Anne Gracie | Friday, March 11, 2022 at 01:01 PM
Thanks, Laynis — I forgot about Jo's Malloren series too. I just knew that the wenchly community would come up with more that I couldn't think of. I loved that series. Might be time for a reread.
Posted by: Anne Gracie | Friday, March 11, 2022 at 01:03 PM
I do love the new cover, but there was something about the old one that really drew me to the book. Not sure what it was.
"We all go a little mad sometimes." is from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, when Anthony Perkins is talking to Janet Leigh about his mother.
"She just goes a little mad sometimes.
We all go a little mad sometimes.
Haven't you?"
;)
Posted by: theo | Friday, March 11, 2022 at 01:23 PM
I remember doing a bit of research about this one time and discovering that the Quakers' York Retreat was the beginning of more humane treatment of the insane. Sometimes I think that every time I read about a change for the good, it's the Quakers behind it.
Posted by: Lil | Friday, March 11, 2022 at 02:33 PM
I agree that The Madness of Lord Ian McKenzie and Flowers From The Storm are great reads, Anne, and now you've made me curious about A Countess Below Stairs. I don't intentionally seek out books dealing with depression or madness as they can make me depressed or mad (angry).
Posted by: Kareni | Friday, March 11, 2022 at 02:41 PM
Thanks, Lil — yes, the Quakers are responsible for leading the way in many social innovations. They led the way to prison reform as well in the 19th century. An admirable group.
Posted by: Anne Gracie | Friday, March 11, 2022 at 03:02 PM
Kareni, fear not — A Countess Below Stairs will NOT depress you in the least. I think you'll really enjoy it. It's one of my regular comfort reads.
Posted by: Anne Gracie | Friday, March 11, 2022 at 03:03 PM
Thanks, for the source of that quote, Theo — I didn't recognize it. Been a long time since I watched Psycho.
And yes, I was very fond of that original cover for The Perfect Rake — my first book with Berkley, and the cover was so classy and pretty.
Posted by: Anne Gracie | Friday, March 11, 2022 at 03:16 PM
Thank you, Anne. I shall download a sample and take a look.
Posted by: Kareni | Friday, March 11, 2022 at 09:15 PM
I can second this one Mary. A lovely read.
Posted by: Teresa Broderick | Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 02:50 AM
What about Bedlam, a madhouse at the time that has made it as a word in our lexicon. You can imagine, just from the name, what the place was like for the poor inmates. The actual name of the hospital was St. Mary of Bethlehem, but was corrupted to the popular Bedlam.
Posted by: Yvonne | Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 03:44 AM
I would highly recommend all of Eva Ibbotson's romances. I first heard about her from the Word Wenches, for which I am very grateful
Posted by: Alice Mathewson | Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 06:07 AM
Donna H - Jane Eyre was the first book that came to mind when the topic was introduced. I read the book for the first time when I was ten, and have re-read it several times. The madwoman in the attic...
Posted by: Binnie Syril Braunstein | Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 07:44 AM
King George is such a sad story, and no doubt some of the treatments worsened his condition!
I am rather oversensitive about the past treatment of people thought to be insane, so I have trouble reading some of the books with that storyline. I have avoided Flowers From The Storm for that reason. I did love The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie, but his incarceration took place before the action of the book. Likewise, the asylum only played a brief part in The Wild Child.
The heroine of Mimi Matthews' The Matrimonial Advertisement is threatened with being put in an asylum. Women being unjustly locked up by family members plays a big role in the plot, but she avoids incarceration, and justice is served in the end, so I didn't find it overly angsty.
Posted by: Karin | Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 07:53 AM
Anne - I have read both Flowers from the Storm and The Madness of Ian MacKenzie. I think "Madness" is my favorite of Jennifer Ashley's books. I also love the way Ian was portrayed in the other books in the series. But aside from historical romance - at least, 19th century historical romance - I would also like to mention Amanda Quick's 1930's set "Burning Cove" series, in which Adelaide escapes from the sanitarium where she has been sent by her husband so that he can benefit from her fortune, and the sanitarium "doctors" can use her as a guinea pig. And I believe the spectre of madness is raised in several of the other books in the series, including "The Other Lady Vanishes." I believe it also a factor in Jayne Ann Krentz's "Fogg Lake" series.
Posted by: Binnie Syril Braunstein | Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 07:58 AM
Wives were sent to mental hospitals in the 20th century as well. Post partum depression wasn't well recognized until fairly recently. Many who were sent to the hospitals could retreat so far from the treatment that they become mad.
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin wrote a book Maria or the Wrongs of Women in which a wife was sent to an asylum. if my memory isn't playing me false.
I have always thought that if the poor King hadn't been mad at the beginning of his treatment, he surely would have been after it. The movie the madness of king George is one I can't sit through.
Posted by: nancy | Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 08:49 AM
I have read Flowers from the Storm and agree that it is a well written book. However, some parts of it disturb me. The doctors of the day weren't so stupid that they didn't understand the effects of a stroke and committing a duke wasn't as easy as committing a wife. I really would like a discussion on that novel sometime. Also, there was no way the marriage of the Duke and the Quaker could be easily set aside. Only when two Quakers married could they marry by Quaker rules. If a Quaker married any one who wasn't a Quaker, the marriage was valid until proven otherwise on grounds of impotence, bigamy, or insanity.It took the brother of the Earl Portsmouth years to have the brother declared mentally incompetent to marry and then to have the marriage annulled. At that time every one believed it was possible for even one who was insane to have a period of lucidity in which he/she could enter into a valid marriage. I just have trouble believing that Quakers would want the woman to become a bigamist. I prefer the book , I think the title is Moonlight Madness where the woman has built an airplane.
Posted by: nancy | Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 09:01 AM
Winterset by Candace Camp comes to mind.
I do find the way "madness" was treated in the past fascinating, whether the people considered as "mad" were actually mentally ill or who simply didn't behave like they were "supposed to behave". Or somebody just wanted to get rid of their wife, relative etc. and just shoved them into madhouse. I think of two examples from history: Prince Philip's mother Princess Alice of Battenberg (I think there's at least one documentary about her on Youtube) and Harriet Mordaunt, mistress of Edward VII.
Posted by: Minna Puustinen | Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 09:49 AM
Yes indeed, Yvonne, that's a very good point. Thanks for mentioning it.
Posted by: Anne Gracie | Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 02:16 PM
Karin, I love Flowers from the Storm — yes it's a bad situation, but so well portrayed and such a happy ending.
And yes, Mimi Matthews has touched on the subject in several of her books.
Posted by: Anne Gracie | Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 02:18 PM
Thanks so much, Binnie — I didn't think of Amanda Quick's Burning Cove series, but you're right. And that was set in the 1930's, wasn't it? I haven't read the Fogg Lake series. I tend to reread my favorite JAK/AQ books and miss some of the newer ones.
Do I gather that you haven't read the Eva Ibbotson book I mentioned? You must! I know you'll love it.
Posted by: Anne Gracie | Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 02:21 PM
Oh, I know, Nancy, and some of the treatments were dreadful. I think we've probably all seen One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, too, and know it wasn't just women who were mistreated.
I agree, the movie of The Madness of King George was very hard to sit through — but compelling.
Posted by: Anne Gracie | Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 02:23 PM
It would make for an interesting discussion, I'm sure. It's been a long time since I read it, but I have retained the impression that there was some corruption at work as well concerning the duke's incarceration.
Posted by: Anne Gracie | Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 02:25 PM
Thank you, Minna. I haven't read that Candace Camp book — and I know almost nothing about Prince Phillip's mother or Harriet Mordaunt. I'm off to investigate.
I see there are several videos on youtube about her — thanks again.
I love how well-informed the wenchly community is.
Posted by: Anne Gracie | Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 02:26 PM
I find her far more admirable than her son, frankly. Despite her illness (or maybe because of it) and the way her own family treated her, she apparently helped quite a few people.
Posted by: Minna Puustinen | Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 02:32 PM
I saw a documentary about Prince Phillips mother a few years ago. She was indeed one of the most interesting persons I had never heard of.
Posted by: Mary T | Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 03:13 PM
Oh, oh! And let's not forget Nellie Bly, who went to an asylum voluntarily in order to write a report about her experiences there.
Posted by: Minna Puustinen | Sunday, March 13, 2022 at 10:27 AM
I just looked her up, Minna — what a heroine! Thank you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Days_in_a_Mad-House
Posted by: Anne Gracie | Sunday, March 13, 2022 at 01:26 PM
Great post, Anne, and so sad to think about what was done to people in the past when they weren't mad at all!
What about Georgette Heyer's 'Cousin Kate'? Wasn't her cousin Torquil a bit mad? It's not one of my favourite Heyer books so I haven't read it for a long time, but that's how I remember it.
Posted by: Christina Courtenay | Monday, March 14, 2022 at 06:21 AM