Instead of highlighting the experiences of real patients of Victorian asylums, this book places the reader inside of such an institution, based on a couple of real-life examples. The first part of the book, which runs for the first three quarters, is written in the second person. It is intended to serve as a welcome package for someone admitted to an asylum. The book proceeds by providing the reader with information about the layout and administration of the asylum in painstaking detail, with a few examples of actual patients strewn throughout.

While the structure of the novel was intended to place the reader inside the asylum to help one understand how it felt, what it accomplished was removing all of the individuals who experienced life in Victorian asylums. Furthermore, the book was intended as a defense of Victorian asylums, characterizing their existence as misplaced compassion. However, this central thesis existed at odds with the few examples provided of the horrific experiences of various individuals, including children with disabilities who were sent away to live in sterile environments, and the contemplation of sterilisation to prevent mental illness. Furthermore, the examples provided in this volume were drawn from two of the best cases of asylums in Victorian England, which certainly provided better conditions for their patients than the scores of asylums not mentioned. In fact, the Bedlam asylum is often used as a foil to the constructed asylum in the first part of the book, underlining the point that this book did not provide information on what typical Victorian asylum life was really like.

Life in the Victorian Asylum by Mark Stevens
Genre: History, Non-Fiction
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Publish Date: 30 July 2020

Star Rating 3.5/5

Do you want to know what it's like to live in a Victorian Asylum? Then this book is for you!

Stevens has made an amazing and highly researched work that entertains and lets us know just what it was like. The book is split into two parts. The first reads as a brochure for the Victorian Asylum. We are taken on a journey of how we will be assessed if you need to go to an institution, how and whom we will meet on our way on entering the Asylum, activities, accommodation, treatments, etc. all with the reassurances that they are here to help and all procedures are in-line with the Lunacy Act. I felt like I was browsing a broacher for a camping holiday. It's a unique way to present the information and kudos to the author. The second part deals with looking at actual asylums and experiences from contemporary staff and patients.

I liked the book and its quirky format but I found it difficult to connect personally with the book. I'm not sure why, as it seems like the type of book I would not be able to put down which is why I've rated it 3.5 stars out of 5.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Pen and Sword, for an E-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book was written by the pro-Victorian asylum gang.

I went into this expecting a normal book about asylums. This is actually the extremely detailed <i>Life in a Medieval Village</i> for late Victorian asylums. If you were writing a historical fiction set in such an asylum, this would be a hugely helpful resource to look at.

The first two thirds of the book were an exhaustive day-to-day examination of a theoretical asylum and all its workings. It was written like a brochure that one might give a prospective new patient, which was a little bit of an odd affectation. The last third was a more normal look at some of the actual historical asylums that informed the brochure, and some of the staff and patients whose experiences were preserved in records for us to read about today.

*Many thanks to Mark Stevens, Pen & Sword and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
The reason behind my request fpr this book was the interest I have in historical fiction and the fact that the theme of asylum or characters who suffer from different mental problems are a popular theme in the genre. Mr Stevens describes in detail the functioning of a typical Victorian asylum, its structure, procedures, living conditions and daily arrangements, and patients who were admitted to such places. The narration is interesting as the author refers to the reader as if they were to become a patient. The use of the present tense may be somehow surprising but it seems that such technique allows readers to feel the reality of the world presented.
Mr Stevens presents the background for establishing proper mental care and the management of these institutions.

Mark Stevens' book on the 19th Century English asylum immediately transports the reader back into another world. The first part is written as though the reader is a newly admitted patient. This section gives an explanation into the process of admission as a patient and the daily life one might expect. Highly detailed, the book takes the reader into the actual experience flawlessly. The second part of the book discusses the history of the Victorian insane asylum. Overall, the narration describes a humane environment, quite unusual.

this book works to debunk the popular images we have come to associate with Victorian-era asylums by challenging some myths from books and films we're familiar with while explaining the basis for where these images come from. the book explains how public asylums came to be and gives a good background on the system in England. The book tries for a sense of more immediacy with the second person point of view, and while it works sometimes, at others, a different approach may have been wiser. This is definitely a much more readable book than the denser volumes on this subject matter.

This book is written in a very strange way as a manual for someone entering an asylum in Victorian times.
Although interesting I found it quite difficult to read in the current climate and had to stop half way through.
Thanks for letting me read this advance copy.

This was a really well-researched and good book on the history of mental facilities in the Victorian era, especially after 1845. I learned a lot as I had this idea of mental health facilities at that time being dusty buildings where patients were locked in their rooms, barely fed and physically abused... This book goes into detail about how structured these facilities actually were, with emphasis on cleanliness, treating the patients well, encouraging industry (gardening, cleaning...), fresh air... The first part of the book takes the form of a manual for new patients, and I didn't like the format as much, I would have preferred it to be one chapter only rather than most of the book. The second part explains some details about things previously mentioned in that part - which at times make it sound all rosy and great, when the second part does clarify that patients in fact did not have many avenues to share concerns or feedback about the care they received; that physical abuse was in theory forbidden, but a patient complaining about it was unlikely to be heard. It also goes into more details about a few patients, and people working in these facilities - which was really interesting. I would have loved to know more about that.

What an eerily interesting read this was. Of course I suspected much of what occurred from movies and TV dramas as well as general knowledge but it's still quite shocking. I liked the idea behind the patient manual at the beginning. It was helpful and very informative. It was also very well written. I really enjoyed reading the case studies too. Some were fascinating and some were truly heartbreaking. It was enlightening to read that they their function was not one of incarceration but rather of healing. But many of not most were never healed and never reentered society. If you are interested in mental health or if you have an interest in history you will really enjoy this read.

As a history graduate who specialised in the Victorian error this book jumped out at me!

I enjoyed the aspect of the first half being in the perception of a welcome guide for the new patient and the social history of the time, and then the second half being more of a normal standard history of Asylums with specific places and facts.

There are many parts of this book that I felt gave well formed information and I sites of the lives of the people admitted and working there. However I did fine large sections that because quite tedious and although interesting did not have to be as long as there were.

If you are looking for a lighter read into the history that will give you a keen I site and facts then I would recoment this book.

I want to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and author Mark Stevens for providing me with an ARC of this novel!

What a fascinating read! I have always had a morbid curiosity about mental asylums. You never get to learn too much about them, and most of the details are kept under wraps. This was so, so informative and I really appreciate the work and research that the author put into this.

The biggest part of this book was laid out almost like a patient manual, like you yourself were being checked in to the Victorian asylum. This took a little bit to get into, but once you do it's eye-opening and full of information. After you complete your "intake," you start to learn about some of the staff members that worked in these places. Some were actually admitted as patients later on in their lives! You then get a look at some case studies of actual patients, and these blew the book out of the park. I loved reading these and wish there would've been more.

You can tell the author really enjoyed what he was writing about, it shines through on every page. I finished this super quick, and recommend it to anyone with any interest in this topic.

Thank you to those named above for the chance to read and review this novel!

Mark Stevens' book LIFE IN THE VICTORIAN ASYLUM is a great companion piece to his previous book BROADMOOR REVEALED, as both explore mental health care in the Victorian Age. While BROADMOOR highlights care by highlighting different patient case histories, LIFE IN THE VICTORIAN ASYLUM is much of a technical history of how an asylum was set up and run. The first section of book is written as almost an introduction to the aslyum that a patient may get as s/he is admitted. Stevens goes into detail about all the different roles of staff at the aslyum, as well as what day to day care is like (e.g., food, treatment, accommodations, etc.) It is quite detailed, so the reader will need to be quite interested in the subject matter prior to reading this. What was especially fascinating to me was when treatment options were discussed, and how it was highlighted how less barbaric they were than in previous days. Of course treatments done in the Victorian Age could be seen in a similar light in the present day. The again, now mental health care for emergency cases is often short-term and patients do not necessarily receive the time needed to treat as they may have in the Victorian Age. It is a bit thought provoking.

Informative overview of life in a Victorian era asylum but a book that is marred by its rather gimmicky first half. Not a straightforward social history but instead takes the form of a “user’s manual” as if one is about to become a patient in a place like Broadmore. Well researched in hospital archives but can’t overcome its flawed and poorly executed approach.

Received eARC on netgalley.

historical-places-events, historical-research, historical-setting, nonfiction

My only exposure to British lunatic asylums has been through historical novels written by both good researchers and lax ones. Of course, I have also read Nellie Bly's account "10 Days in a Madhouse" regarding similar issues in America. It appears as a pamphlet written in the style of a Madison Avenue promotional promising a positive experience and accommodations for those whose families can pay as well as those from the poor house or the work house. As one who graduated as a Registered Nurse in 1968, I have had cause to observe abandoned places of that era, worked through the development of medicinal treatments, and can attest to the current placement of too many mentally ill in jails. I thought that this was an excellent read!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Pen & Sword/Pen & Sword History via NetGalley. Thank you! I plan to purchase a copy for my shelves.

Author Mark Stevens is an expert on Victorian-era asylums and knows his topic well. This is a clearly well-researched volume. However, I wasn't a fan of how he chose to present the information. Most of this book is written in the form of a patient manual, as if you yourself were being admitted to a Victorian asylum and this guide is being given to you upon admission. It makes it harder to take the facts seriously presented in this way.

This was much different from what I was expecting. The first couple of chapters were like a welcoming brochure, taking you through the procedure of admittance of an Asylum in the nineteenth century. After the atrocities from the previous century, the nineteenth century asylum’s approach to a more humane system for the mentally challenged. I imagine that a lot of the atrocities did not fade away like they are saying but it wasn’t documented. The last few chapters of the book just indicate some case files. Thanks to the publisher for a peek and these are my thoughts and opinions.

I liked how this book was framed. The different sections were all accessible and interesting and even though I know a lot about the period, this book still offered something new. Mark Stevens makes the topic interesting and this kept me hooked the whole way through.

Wow this was a heart-breaking book. Patients were put in asylums because they seemed to be losing their mind. If this was happening today there would be no one left in the world. Interesting book very deep in places. My dad was a bricklayer and worked in Broadmoor and he did say it was very frightening

Meticulously researched, it's obvious the author cares a great deal about the subject matter and wrote it out here in an easy to follow, interesting format. I thought I understood quite a bit about Victorian mental health care but this book quickly disabused me of that notion, I was surprised by a lot of the information I gathered from this book. I found the most interesting part of the book the case studies and wish there had been more of those.