Mary Toft; or, The Rabbit Queen

What a strange and uncomfortable story. The weirdest thing about this book is that the central plot is based on a true story. Palmer takes this story, and sets it in a world where science is just beginning to challenge superstition, where there's a public taste for the bizarre and horrific, and where medicine and religion are equally efficacious in treating disease.

He assembles a strong cast of characters - Zachary, the surgeon's apprentice; John Howard, his surgeon master; the London doctors with their different approaches and their different vanities; Mary Toft herself, initially silent. There are some strong women here, too, each one a great character.

Palmer creates a great atmosphere, too. He captures the class system, the exploitation of the poor for the entertainment of the rich, the decadence of London society.

Well worth reading. Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC.

A dark but highly entertaining novel set in the 18th Century. Incredibly well written, attention to detail is stunning and the use of 18th C language is wonderful. The sheer amount of research that is cited is mind blowing and the last time i saw a list of citations as long was for my masters degree. Whilst the books mystery may seem all too obvious now you really get the feel of what people at the time felt about the situation. It's a grim subject but written in such a way that keeps the reader glued to every page and on occasion even made me doubt my common sense and knowledge.

Absolutely superb, thank you so much for the opportunity to review this book. It’s a worthy rival to Sarah Perry, Michel Faber, Frances Hardinge and Ambrose Parry and never strikes a dull note.
The central message is that a delusion or a fraud can grow legs and run fast and far out into the world, dragging normally sensible people with it. How much is the plausibility of the fraud and how much the willingness of the witnesses to believe it is explored in this novel. The society of the time is brought to life, from the lower echelons of society (who may not appear as entirely real or human to the supposedly more educated and privileged) to men who believe they know all there is to know about medical matters.
There is a lot of wry humour, particularly from Alice Howard, the doctor’s wife whose initial doubts are swept aside by her normally pragmatic husband. There is a lot of pathos in the portrayal of not only Mary Toft herself but also the minor characters such as those paraded round with Mr Fox’s freak show. A truly gut wrenching chapter that shows in stark relief how the upper classes use and abuse the lower classes and animals comes near the end, in case the reader is in any doubt as to the motivations of those who salivate over the ‘miracle’ of Mary giving birth to dismembered rabbits. There is also a memorable musing by John Howard on the nature of God’s presence in life and death situations which resonated with me hugely.
It’s a commentary on shared delusions, social inequality in the 18th century and an exploration of what the medical men of the time thought of themselves (in the main, a great deal!).
No mean feat to take my mind off current real world happenings, but over the course of several evenings I was catapulted back into the world the author has brought to life. It never struck a wrong note or threw up irritating anachronisms (no doubt due to the exhaustive research as evidenced by the references at the end).
Thank you once again. I was very sad to reach the end of this book. I would happily have stayed there a while longer.

Darkly entertaining novel about the true story of Mary Tofts and what she did with rabbits. If you're not familiar with the story be prepared to be disturbed. This is an interesting tale. The author sets it against an England where Science is gaining ground on superstition and investigation is taking over from blind faith. There's a lot to unpack here in terms of a woman needing to acquire some agency and power, even attention, after a personal tragedy. So often women are the marginalised voices when it comes to holding value in society that perhaps it shouldn't be at all surprising what Tofts did. Either way, this is well researched and will give you plenty to think about.

What a strange and unusual story. Intriguing. Was there some kind of magic going on in the Toft household or something much less dramatic? Many and varied are the characters that populate this book and they each had their roles to play in the telling of the story of the woman who gave birth to rabbits.
I was kept intrigued right up until the end and the revelations that came. This book is something quite different and a recommended read.

This is not a book I would have chosen off the shelf, however I am glad I did. I am interested in Georgian history and I had heard of Mary Toft. This book brings to life the lot of the ordinary population.. The attitudes towards women. The book has been excellently researched. Love Alice Howard, the doctors wife, very amusing.
My only criticism is that in places the descriptions are a bit repetitive and lengthy. But still a fascinating read.

A true historical happening as a basis for this book brings an interesting and intriguing read, ..... the concept of what Mary Toft does in the book is compelling reading, not just for what she did, but for the reaction of the eminent surgeons in the seventeen hundreds..... How far we have come in the medical profession and how far behind they were......

Mary as the main character gives the impression that she is a simpleton, but for all her reasons she was put into a state of mind that somehow gave her the idea......
John Howard was drawn in to something he couldn't explain and didn't know how to deal with it....as the local doctor he seemed to ride along with what was happening and he seemed to be enthralled by it all as much as everybody else...

I was fully transported to the era and the happenings that were going on.... of the interest of the doctors and for the help of Zachary and Laurence who in training had their eyes opened up to the idea of people and the strangeness of others that may not fall into a label of normal

This is a well worth a read and i would recommend it as it not only gives a good story line but also the difference of how we have developed in medical terms, but of historically how ignorance of others and the perverse ideas for entertainment which will leave you open mouthed and make you cringe.......

But I loved it and i would buy it for friends and family

What a peculiar story - based on the true history of Mary Toft, who really did deliver dead rabbits, and baffled eminent surgeons in the early 18th century...

Of course with common sense we all know the truth of this story, but what a great read discovering what people could believe back then.

Enjoyed this, a thoroughly amusing tale.

In Godalming in the reign of the first King William, a local surgeon is summoned to the home of a local couple and there delivers the woman, Mary Toft, of a rabbit. Mary claims to have dreamt that she was attacked by rabits and they became part of her, and every couple of days she gives birth to another rabbit. The Surgeon informs his peers in London and suddenly Godalming is overrun by the curious. Decaping to London, Mary becomes a sensation but also her strange births seem to stop.
This is a novelisation of a true story and Palmer has managed the truth and fiction incredibly well. He weaves together a story which contrasts the science of the day with the social zeitgeist. The motif of 'freak show' and the venality of society sits well alongside the tale of the naive country doctor and his apprentice. I particularly liked the way that Palmer has used the fable of 'The Emperor's New Clothes' as a device, taking it as a folk tale and using it as a mirror for the gullibility of the main protagonists. This is an impressive working of a sad little story

The premise of this novel is quite unusual, which is what attracted me to it! A woman called Mary Toft frequently gives birth to rabbits in 1726, and this leaves the local doctor stumped. Doctors from London are called in to make their own assessments, meanwhile we follow the life of the local doctor’s apprentice, Zachary. Zachary is a complex character, his apprenticeship binds him to a man of science, whilst at home his father is a member of the clergy. A common theme in the novel is the push and pull between religion and science, with Zachary’s master a frequent reader of David Hume. Another common theme is storytelling, we are often called upon to think about what we consider what the difference is between collective belief and a true story. At one point a character tells a version of The Emperor’s New Clothes, which is not formally published by Anderson for almost another 100 years. I thought this was a very successful and thoughtful novel, that is perfectly in tune with humanity’s constant quest for the truth. Even though it is set 300 years ago it does resonate with our modern society, the populist politicians and cries of fake news do make you wonder if the emperor is wearing any clothes.

I think I was expecting something quite different from this based on my understanding of the historical element, and I was really pleasantly surprised by the vast majority of our story being told by young Zachary Walsh, surgeons apprentice.

I really appreciated all of the characters and the way they interacted. Howard was an honest man, who wanted only the best for everyone around him, and our London surgeons, Lords, Ladies and onlookers all added to the feeling of what is a wonderfully written historical fiction, that is based on one of the more random of English history tales. I especially loved the character of Zachary, and reading the story in his 14 year old voice enabled just a little simplicity in the telling.
He was smart, and kind and curious and I really appreciated the way he was written, as a teenager with a little bit of something about him and also as a young man, heading firmly into adulthood as the time period would have permitted.

The story, despite being about Mary Toft and her rabbit births, while central to the book, was predominately about humanity, about faith and science and how there is often a need to try and balance the two, and about the difficulty that can be had in distinguishing truth from lies.
It explores the depravity of people as a whole, and it forces us to look at the way people behave, when alone, when with others, and how we are affected by every person we interact with, and even though it is set in the 1700's, a great many of the lessons could well be applied even today.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone with a taste for the strange, and for lovers of historical reads.

Having grown up in Godalming I was aware of the story of Mary Tofts, but it was interesting to read this dark retelling of her story, particularly putting it into a historical context, and viewing some of the events through the eyes of a naive 14 year old boy.
I also found the philosophical musings on the need to believe in "miracles" or the unexplained, and the contemporary link with the spreading of fake news well executed and thought provoking.

Thank you to netgalley and little brown for an advance copy of this book

Oh wow! This book was such a treat. Generally I avoid books that mention fantastical things like, well......women giving birth to rabbits but I love historical fiction and I’ve recently started leaving my obsession with realism at the door and broadening my reading horizons.
Set in 18th century Godalming the story is largely told by Zachary an apprentice surgeon aged 14. He and the surgeon John Howard are called to the home of Mary Toft who is in labour. Having previously attended her when she had a miscarriage John is confused as to how she could possibly be in labour so soon afterwards when she wouldn’t be far enough along for a birth. So begins a chapter in Zachary and John’s lives where they become of interest to the London surgical fraternity and even the King himself. Mary is giving birth to parts of dead rabbits and doing so with a strange regularity following the first birth.
The novel deals with two things, first the mystery of Mary Toft and her rabbit births and secondly a challenging debate on the nature of truth; how God features within this truth. How does ‘group thought’ affect what we see as true or not? I found myself challenging my own preconceived ideas on the subject and placing it within the historical context of the novel where ordinary people could not research things and had to rely on their own intuition and wits in order to decide what they believed.
All in all a fantastic story with a thought provoking element that would make it ideal for book groups and by the office water cooler discussion!

I did not realise that the basis for this story was true until I got to the bibliography at the end; and that is the whole theme for Palmer's narrative. He uses a historical tale of fantastical elements - an exhibition of curiosities, a woman giving birth to rabbits and an even worse sideshow in London where a man tries to eat a live cat - to question what we believe to be true and what is fiction.

There is a tale of the Emperor's Clothes that is altered to an outcome where what you believe in makes it real and has consequences. In Covent Garden, a large crowd of Opera fanatics take sides on their favourite singer and becomes a violent mob that influences others, without them even having any knowledge of the argument.
A gathering outside Mary Toft, Rabbit Queen's lodging in London is gradually increased exponentially to become a herd of followers without them having witnessed anything. Here truth is formed by consensus and becomes faith. It brings people together to feel that they are part of something.

At a time when there are people believing that the earth is flat and that phone masts are being attacked and burned down because they think that it is causing the Corona virus, this story is very topical and raises questions about what and why we might chose to believe in something.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. As a resident of Godalming myself it felt all the more personal and believable and it was very easy to picture how this 300:year old hoax could have gathered pace and come to be. The evocative language and steady pace of the dramatised true story was beautifully retold through the real-life participants, as well as some presumably fictional ones too. Admittedly the book felt a little over-long in places as if to stretch out a short story into a long one, but it’s a minor complaint as some of the other curious events of the time are fascinatingly woven into the story to great effect. The original surgeon, John Howard, and his apprentice Zachary, are the main protagonists but I also loved John’s wife Alice too as she looked on knowingly from the sidelines right from the outset. I wondered if Dexter Palmer was a local Godhelmian himself, but was surprised to learn that he’s actually from New Jersey! I’ll definitely be seeking out his two previous books next!