Thanks to the Publisher and Net Gallery for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
In Paris there stands a building that had served different purposes over the centuries. However in 1880 the Salpêtrière is a mental hospital for women prone to “ Hysteria “. Or more accurately: a dumping ground for women who disturb the peace. Women are sent there when they have mental illness, but also when they are epileptic, have had a stroke, or are simply disobedient to the men in their lives. This is the early days of mental healthcare, and famed Professor Charcot gives weekly demonstrations of his experimental treatments to audiences of men who want to see a madwoman and her fits. Even better each year, at Lent the hospital holds a ball that allows the madwomen to dress in costume and mingle with members of high society. For the woman its a chance for one night of normalcy, and for the guests, who are hoping to see depravity, its as if they are in at a zoo, and get to go inside the cage with the animals.

All of the woman are under the care of head nurse Geneviève, who genuinely cares for the well being of the women, to the best of her ability. They are washed and dressed and occupied as best as their abilities will allow. She has dedicated her life to her profession but is still a woman in a mans works. This is a prison, but a pleasant one with walled grounds that can be strolled in good weather. Enter Eugénie.’ A young woman of privilege who unfortunately ( for her) can communicate with ghosts. She quickly gets shuffled of to Salpêtrière as she is either a liar. A madwoman or possessed. Regardless, she is committed to spend the rest of her life imprisoned.
I found the subject matter interesting, and the characters compelling, but for me the story dragged on with minor details, rather than the gripping plot. I found myself skimming chunks of it.

This book is a whirlwind! The Mad Women's Ball focuses mainly on three women and their circumstances at the Salpêtrière Asylum for mad women during a month's span in 1885. This book highlights the sexism of the time, even in Paris, and how women would be betrayed and dumped at the asylum for whatever reason their fathers, husbands, etc. found. Our main storyline is wrapped around Eugenie and Genevieve, a new patient at the home and a nurse there, respectively. Eugenie can see and receive messages from spirits of dead people, but does not consider herself a mad woman, and wants to get out of the asylum. Genevieve has removed herself from caring about the patients, until Eugenie gives her a message from a spirit. The book then spins like a tornado dealing with the after-effects of this.

It was easy to care for all of the female characters in this story. Mas wrote them intricately, even the smaller characters, taking care with details. What makes this book even wilder is that it is based off true events, a true place, and the doctors that worked there. To think that things like this actually occurred is devastating, and could be difficult to read about, but Mas makes sure to allow no sympathy for those who were in the wrong, which I appreciated.

If you are into historical fiction and sort of creepy happenings, then you might like this book!

Thanks to Netgalley and ABRAMS for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ugh, I find myself torn on how much to rate this book. On one hand, I got really annoyed and frustrated by all the asinine fathers and males who thought that the only solution for a wayward woman is to throw her into an asylum, ominously named the Salpêtrière. This asylum hosts a ball where "madwomen" are allowed to dress up and party, which is really just another way to "put them on display". Only at one point in the book did a character catch themselves, and called the women “patients” instead of "madwomen". You see the difference here?

On the other hand, one of the women, Eugénie, is not—surprise suprise—“mad” at all. She can see spirits, which, I suppose, is something that "normal" people would find difficult to accept in this day and age anyway. But to throw her into an asylum in the hopes of "curing" her, from what exactly even the nurses aren't able to determine. And it is with Eugénie that we find salvation... and sacrifice.

I was very drawn in by not just the beautiful cover, but the synopsis as well. I love historical fiction, Historical thrillers and anything 1800s related.

Mad Women's Ball takes places in 1885, Paris at the Salpetriere Asylum.
It is painful to read because of how women have been treated and casually disposed of in asylums and captivating at the same time.

This was a fantastic read and I'm happy to have been given the opportunity to read it!

Thank you Netgalley, the author and publisher.

TW:
mental health, mistreatment, loss of child, women’s rights (or lack of)

When you see a gorgeous cover, you want to jump into the story! And what an intriguing story this is. The Mad Women’s Ball is just that--the story of “mad” women and the annual ball at Salpetriere Asylum in Paris in the year 1885. The famous psychiatrist (true historically) Charcot is treating women who are often placed at the hospital not just for mental health reasons but to dispose of women who are different in any way. This story is about Eugenie, a 19-year-old who has visions of people and begins to believe in the reality of a spiritual life and as a result is taken to the asylum by her father and brother.
But there are so many women. Terese who has spent her life there; Genevieve who is the head nurse; and Louise who is convinced one of the physicians will marry her. We see a community of women taking care of women—even in terrible circumstances. Some adapt, some escape, and some spend their entire life there whether they be patients or nurses.
The story was intriguing to me—I’m a psychologist. We’ve come a long way, thank God. The actual ball scene is dramatic, exciting, and contrasts the have and have nots; shows us the way mentally ill women were treated as how all women were viewed as inconsequential. A must historical read for those interested in mental health or women’s rights.

3.5 stars - an atmospheric tale from post-revolutionary Paris

This is the review for the English translation of Victoria Mas' debut "Le Bal des folles", which was a bestseller and has received numerous awards.

This novel tells the intertwined stories of several women who are connected to the Salpetriere, an institution for mad women (or those considered as such for a variety of reasons).

While in pre-revolutionary France this was the place to lock away anyone deemed undesirable in society, in the 19th century it has become a place of science or at least what was considered science in those times. The Salpetriere is where women ended up if they were "hysteric" or "melancholy" or just inconvenient to their families or husbands. There they are examined by doctors and students with little regard for respecting their privacy, presented at lectures where they are put unter hypnosis to provoke seizures (so fascinating for the many visitors) and treated with ether or chloroform if they are too difficult to handle.

It is definitely not a good time to be a woman and at the mercy of men, but that can be said about many eras of the past (and present).

This is the background that Mas uses to weave together the stories of Eugenie, Genevieve and Louise into an intricate portrait of these times and she does it masterfully. The narration is atmospheric and it is not easy to almost physically feel the bleak prospects of those who end up in such a place. The different personalities of the protagonists are also worked out very well, they are all distinct and very realistic in how they deal with situations.

This is obviously a feminist book and connected to it is the one aspect I found to be just a bit too much: the social structures in those times and the situations really do speak for themselves but Mas has a tendency to hammer the point home about women being mistreated in all the obvious and also subtle ways. I do wish she had relied more on the intelligence of her readers instead of spelling everything out so explicitly.

Other than that I am sure that anyone who enjoys historical fiction with a feminist twist and can handle dark themes will enjoy this one as well!

(I wish I could judge the translation properly, but even without having read the original I can still say that the prose is rich and beautiful and I suspect that it is a good one!)

Sheerly excellent and captivating, I couldn't put this copy down. When it was finished, I wanted more. Mas has a way of luring her audience in and holding them captive with her writing style and her beautiful imagery. I highly recommend!

I enjoyed The Mad Women’s Ball. The story is concise and well paced, and the characters are engaging. Genevieve’s character arc was especially compelling, and very believably written. The short length of the novel meant that it had to be very tightly plotted, which I though worked in its favor. Overall, a good read.

‘The Mad Women’s Ball’ is the debut novel by Victoria Mas, the story delves into the lives of “Mad women” as it takes us inside the walls of The Salpêtrière Asylum.

The novel explores the trauma, pain and suffering of the female patients, both past and present, as we learn about their lives and the reasons they were sent to the asylum. This was one part of the narrative I thought was necessary in order for Mas’s characters to feel developed and layered - I definitely think Mas succeeded at this! Not only were the characters individually fascinating, reading their dynamics and interactions were also captivating, their companionships and sisterhood made my heart ache for them.

I love the historical fiction genre and this book definitely did not let me down, Mas’s exploration of Paris’s infamous Salpêtrière hospital, was poignant and shocking. I learnt about real-life physicians and patients, alongside Mas’s inclusion of historical facts and events such as the French Revolution and the French spiritualist movement.

Though I did feel that the ending was a bit rushed, I overall really enjoyed this book and found it a thought-provoking and powerful read. Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC in return for my honest review.

The Mad Women’s Ball.

I am/was already familiar with this concept of a ‘lunatic ball’ - they were quite common in Victorian asylums at the time, however, mostly would be held at Christmas, then known as the patients’ Christmas dance. 'Lunatics', were dressed up and tickets were sold so that folks from ‘outside’ could spend an evening with these crazy, yet fascinating creatures.
In fact, Charles Dickens would attend such balls, and write about them.

In school I had to read the psychological novels 'De kleine Johannes' (Little Johannes), and the psychological novel 'Van de Koele Meren des Doods' (The Deeps of Deliverance), https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4... by Frederik van Eeden (1860-1932) late 19th-century and early 20th-century Dutch writer and psychiatrist. (corresponded with Hesse and met & introduced Freud in the Netherlands. Van Eeden is still part of the Dutch school curriculum today.

The novel is about a young, aristocratic women struggling in an unhappy marriage, ending up in the Salpêtrière, with what we would now call postpartum psychosis after the dead of her child.


Well, back to the novel then.

The Mad Women’s Ball starts with the description of one of the most famous painting in medical history: A clinical Lesson by André Brouillet.
In this painting, we see some of the scientists who gave their name to the disease or condition, e.g. Babinski (sign), Gilles de la Tourette (syndrome), and Charcot (diabetic foot), Duchenne (atrophy) and others; and we also meet one of the most well-known hysteria patients treated by Dr. Chacot. ‘Louise’ - who is hospitalized for hysteria.

The story is told from various perspectives;, there is Genevieve, a nurse, who has been in Salpêtrière for years, and spends her spare time writing letters and notes, Therese, that we only get to know as the knitting old lady, and Eugene Clery, daughter of an upper class bourgeois family, who has the ability to see dead people, and Louise, a patient, who has been in Salpêtrière for many years, treated by Dr. Charcot for hysteria.

Through short intervals we gain insight into the backgrounds of these women and the problems they encountered before they ended up in Salpêtrière, we learn about their secrets, their lives, their emotions, their loses.
What didn’t work for me in the end, however, was the omnipresent third person narrator (the author herself?) continually spilling information about persons or situations. It may well have been intentional, but I found it annoying, it felt like being lectured.

Various references in the novel are made involving aspects (or more the lack of) liberty, inequality, fraternity, restrictions (‘pantalons' & corsets - ‘Polaire’ waist) knitting away a revolution (Tricoteuses - popularized by Charles Dickens in his Tale of Two Cities), social etiquette, double standards, et&

Although this novel is a work of fiction, it doesn’t do justice to the real women of Salpêtrière.
The women in this novel are not merely a fantasy, there are as real as you and me, and some of the names in this book are still frequented and popular today. (Père Lachaise) . I think the author could have made more out if it, and I was rather disappointed it ended after a mere 148 pages.
Why not eleborate on Polaire - Emilie Marie Bouchaud & Jane Avril, the world back then, (Belle Epoque), instead it is just a novel about the misery of being born as a women in those days.

The ex-patient, who Genevieve visits to find some answers when she starts to question the approach to the Salpêtrière girls is none other Jane Avril, an epileptic who became the figure head of the Moulin Rouge as a can-can dancer, and then there is Genevieve Gleizes, aka Louise Augustine Gleizes, known as A, (Augustine) and ‘Louise” ,with her paralized right arm, who is none other than Marie ‘Blanche’ Witmann, later to become Mme Curie’s assistant, and despite her tragic ending, Curie never left her, - a woman herself rejected and who was almost passed for a second Nobel Prize because being born a women, she had not the same rights to love as her male counterpart.

These were the real women of Salpêtrière, whose stories still resound through European literature even after more than a century. The author mixed up some of the details of these real women, and used these details for the fictional characters of resp. Genevieve, Louise, and Eugene in the Mad Women’s Ball. Despite giving them a 'voice' I think their suffering should have been given more attention.

I look forward to the film, and hope attention is given to what did not come out well in this novel.
*** 3 stars.

The Mad Women's Ball by Victoria Mas is a historical fiction tale set in 1800s France. The Lenton Ball is scheduled to happen in a few months. The host is the notorious Salpetriere asylum. What could go wrong?

Genevieve, a senior nurse, is the pillar of the Salpetriere asylum. The girls look to her for stability. When Eugenie shows up, everything changes.

Eugenie is the 19-year-old daughter of a bourgeois family. She tells her grandmother a secret in confidence, but she is betrayed. Eugenie's father has his daughter committed to the Salpetriere asylum.

Eugenie must prove that she isn't mad. It's all true. Will Genevieve believe her?

There are other interesting characters in the book: other girls in the asylum, Dr. Charcot, and such. Most of them in a minor role.

The story kind of skims over Genevieve's and Eugenie's issues. There wasn't too much action or excitement besides a few events. I feel like the read was so-so.

I can definitely see why this is being turned into a movie. The way the author wrote this was very atmospheric in a way that I feel will translate well into film. Idk if that sentence makes sense but I loved the way the author described everything. The writing was definitely the highest point in this novel. The rest felt a little flat for me, sadly. The premise was very good, but this book was too short. Salpetriere was interesting, and I would have loved to learn a lot more about the place, it's history, and the rest of the patients, but there wasn't much to it. I wish the author expanded on it a bit more. The story mainly revolves around Genevieve and Eugenie, and there relationship and everything that surrounded them was something that also felt lacking. Aside from the getting Eugenie out of the asylum plot (and there wasn't even much of it to be honest) there wasn't a lot actually happening. Dr. Charcot and the doctors' roles were also disappointing. There were like only two scenes with them in it and we didn't really learn that much. The Spiritualism aspect also felt like a missed opportunity. It was a plot device picked up when it suited the plot and then put down when it wasn't. Still, I appreciated the message of this novel and what it was trying to show, even if it did feel too preachy and too direct to the point. Overall, what saved this book was it's beautiful writing, which I enjoyed and I feel that it really carried the book through.

DNF'd at 20%.

I was interested in this book because the premise sounded super cool. A Parisian insane asylum in the 1800s has a ball where people come gawk at the patients, and mental health issues are approached with Spiritualist treatment.
Given the setting, I assumed this text would deal with the horrible treatment of the mentally ill, and how asylums were used as kind of a dumping ground for problematic women, a role that had previously been filled by the church. While this aspect of the setting isn't what drew me to the piece, I was even interested to see how it was handled.
Unfortunately, the entire first 20% of the book reads like a social issues book. Now, a reader who picked this up for social issues would probably love that, but it just wasn't for me. I would've liked some other aspect of the story set up to balance it out.
In terms of the writing, I also found a lot of "telling" instead of "showing," and the dialogue often devolved into two talking heads. That said, the pacing of the writing was strong, and both the telling and dialogue issues may come from the translation.

May is mental health awareness month, a subject in which I have a vested interest. There is no doubt that the treatment of mental health has improved but there is also little doubt that access to treatment is not available to everyone in need. Also, the stigma of having a mental health issue is very much alive. Still, things have changed albeit slowly. The treatment of women in the past became very much an issue with husbands, fathers, and others could inter women in a mental health institute for disobedience, for being different, for being rebellious and many other issues that had nothing to do with insanity. And so may I present, The Madwomen's Ball.

Paris France, 1885, The Salpetriere, an institute for the insane. It is here the famous Dr. Charcot will make his reputation, giving live examples on various women, showcasing hypnosis. This book features four women, one who works as a nurse at the Institute, two who are patients and a young woman from a wealthy family whose father brings her to the Institute after learning she can communicate with the dead.

We learn of life, treatment inside the Institute walls, get to know these four women with very different motives and feelings about being placed here. It is a novel of friendship, misjudgements, mistreatment and sisterhood. It emphasizes the strength of women, and the unfairness of society. It is a good story that has won many literary prizes in France and is being made into a movie by Amazon.

ARC from Netgalley.

A haunting read with a feminist edge! I found the story line intriguing and the women heartbreaking as this story unfolded and the characters revealed more of themselves. A slight twist of a piece of historical fiction that I think many will enjoy. I wished that I was able to get a bit more from the ending, maybe a detailed afterward of Eugeinie's new life but overall a satisfying read!

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

Immediately drawn into the story that moves along at a fast pace. Although some of the women seemed “mad” many were just victims of male domination and societal views of how a woman should behave. I spent a few minutes trying to find out if these balls really occurred but was unsuccessful. I think the book, some called it a novella, was the perfect length. It was enough to develop the characters and play out the events, without adding lots of words that were not needed. I thought the ending was excellent and felt so appropriate based on the characters. Excellent book!

I'm part of the many who are morbidly intrigued by the history of mental health asylums, of which, Salpêtrière. These usually have a lot to tell about history of women, not only in France but throughout Europe. So, even if historical fiction is not usually my preferred genre, I wanted to read this book as soon as I learned of it.

In 1885, the "bal des folles" is coming up, a masked ball whose guests were the Paris' high society men, in which they could mingle with several of the Salpêtrière inpatients. This sounds entirely fiction, but no: Dr. Charcot, an undeniable figure in neurology, psichiatry and Salpêtrière history) did arrange those. According to this book, these balls were regarded by the women as the one evening in which they could get a glimpse of normalcy in their lives.

"Every year, the excitement is the same. The Lenten Ball - or 'the Madwomen's Ball', as the Parisian bourgeoisie called it - is the highlight of March, the highlight of the year. In the weeks that precede it, no one can think of anything else. The women begin to dream of gowns and finery, of orchestras and waltzes, of twinkling lights, furtive glances, swelling hearts and applause (...)"

But Dr Charcot and the ball are only a context for this narrative. There are four main characters in this book, all women; Geneviève, Louise, Thérèse, Eugénie, each of them tells us something about what life for women would be like in the end of the XIX century. How those who went outside the norm, who didn't want the role society (men) had for them, were often named mad or sick and then placed in an asylum from which they had meager chances of getting out, in which they were forgotten. Women who wanted to take back their dignity, their lives, who were victims of violence.

"Sleep makes it possible not to fret over what is past, not to worry about what is to come. Sleep has been her only respite since the events of three year ago that led her to be in this place."

Yet, however, life inside Salpêtrière could be much better than whatever was waiting for those women in the "outside world".

"Dr Charcot gave another public demonstration today. Young Louise was his subject once again. The poor girl imagines she is already as famous as Augustine. Perhaps I should remind her that Augustine so enjoyed the success that she ran away from the hospital - and dressed in men's clothing, no less!"

The Mad Women's Ball is amazing in its contex (the physical place whose history is briefly mentioned, the way mental health was treated, the questioning of women in late XIX century's society); this book is very addicting and keeps the reader on the edge, but the ending is a bit limited and quick.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Mad Women's Ball by Victoria Mas is an innovative novella that blends historical fiction with fantasy - namely ghosts. Notice that I said novella, because this book is only 150 pages long, which I was not expecting. Even though the book is short, it is nice to be able to finish a book within a few hours. I like that this book gets right to the point of the plot and doesn't spend time dallying around with unnecessary subplots. In fact, it's even more taxing for a genius writer to fit an entire story in 1/2 of 1/3 of the usual amount of pages for a novel. Bravo to the author for an engaging, interesting read!

The story revolves around several women living in the Salpetriere Asylum in Paris at the end of the Victorian era. Genevieve is the head nurse and in charge of looking after patients. Louise is a "star patient" who has been modeling the effectiveness of the hypotism-therapy demonstrated by Dr. Charcot, the proprietor of the asylum. Eugenie has just been involuntarily committed by her father after she claims that she can talk to spirits. But can Eugenie actually talk to spirits? Are these women actually mad? Or are they simply acting in ways that are unwanted by the powerful men in their lives? And can Dr. Charcot actually cure them?

Speaking of Dr. Charcot, here an excerpt from an opening chapter that describes his character:

"With his imposing stature and serious expression, Charcot has little difficulty commanding the attention of this rapt audience. The tall figure evokes the elegance and dignity of a Greek statue. He has the penetrating yet inscrutable gaze of a doctor who, for years, has been studying women at their most vulnerable, women who have been rejected by their families and by society. He knows the hope he occasions in his patients. He knows that all Paris knows his name. Authority has been conferred on him, an authority he wields in the belief that he has been given it for one reason: so that his talent might further the cause of medicine."

Tasked with curing the mad women in Paris, Dr. Charcot utilizes a form of hypnotism therapy. He does live demonstrations on his patients for audiences to see the value of his work. In the following quote, he speaks to an audience (of men) before he conducts hypnosis on Louise:

"‘Good morning, gentlemen. Thank you for attending. What will follow is a demonstration of hypnosis on a patient afflicted with acute hysteria. She is sixteen years old. In the three years since her arrival at La Salpêtrière, we have documented more than two hundred attacks of hysteria. By means of hypnosis, we can recreate these crises and study the symptoms. In turn, these symptoms will teach us something about the physiological process of hysteria. It is thanks to patients like Louise that science and medicine are able to progress.’"

Overall, The Mad Women's Ball is an engrossing novella that tells the story of mad women, women thought to be mad, and the mysoginist, patriarchal society of late 19th century France. I typically don't enjoy historical fiction, so this book really surprised me with how much I enjoyed it. I am giving it 5 stars, which I have never done for a historical novel before. If anything, I wish the book had been longer so that I could have spent more time at the Mad Women's Ball mentioned in the title. That part felt too short for me, considering how much the description hypes it up. In addition, according to the description, this novella will be turned into a movie from Amazon Studios soon! If you're intrigued by the excerpts above or just want to get in on the hype before everyone is talking about it, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in September!

This fell short for me. I powered through but didn't exactly enjoy it. I'm not sure if it was lost in translation or what but I wouldn't recommend this to my followers.

Best book I've read so far. It was emotional, heart breaking, educational, and nothing in the book was there for shock value. I appreciate that in a book that covers trauma, rape and mental health abuse. Each woman has a story to tell. And each story was told in a way where even though her voice and autonomy where taken against her will, her story was told in the most truthful, respectful and sincere way. Eugenie and Genevieve will both learn that in the end they only have each other to free themselves both inside and outside the Salpetriere Hospital. I found and highlighted so many deep quotes in this book which I haven't done so in a very long time.
Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for my copy.