A White Room
by Stephanie Carroll
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Pub Date Jun 12 2013 | Archive Date Jan 31 2014
Description
At the close of the Victorian Era, society still expected middle-class women to be “the angels of the house,” even as a select few strived to become something more. In this time of change, Emeline Evans dreamed of becoming a nurse. But when her father dies unexpectedly, Emeline sacrifices her ambitions and rescues her family from destitution by marrying John Dorr, a reserved lawyer who can provide for her family.
John moves Emeline to the remote Missouri town of Labellum and into an unusual house where her sorrow and uneasiness edge toward madness. Furniture twists and turns before her eyes, people stare out at her from empty rooms, and the house itself conspires against her. The doctor diagnoses hysteria, but the treatment merely reinforces the house’s grip on her mind.
Emeline only finds solace after pursuing an opportunity to serve the poor as an unlicensed nurse. Yet in order to bring comfort to the needy she must secretly defy her husband, whose employer viciously hunts down and prosecutes unlicensed practitioners. Although women are no longer burned at the stake in 1900, disobedience is a symptom of psychological defect, and hysterical women must be controlled.
A novel of madness and secrets, A White Room presents a fantastical glimpse into the forgotten cult of domesticity, where one’s own home could become a prison and a woman has to be willing to risk everything to be free.
A Note From the Publisher
Print: $14.99 ISBN: 978-0-9888-674-0-6
eBook: $3.99 ISBN: 978-0-9888-674-1-3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013930913
Advance Praise
“A novel of grit, independence, and determination ... An intelligent story, well told.”
—Renée Thompson, author of The Plume Hunter and The Bridge at Valentine
“The best historical fiction makes you forget it’s fiction and forget it’s historical. Reminiscent of The Yellow Wallpaper … the thoughtful, intricate story Carroll relates is absolutely mesmerizing.”
—Eileen Walsh, Ph.D. U.S. Women’s History, University of San Diego
Marketing Plan
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Anita Bihovsky
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Anita@SmithPublicity.com
A White Room
By Stephanie Carroll
Independent or Insane?
GILDED AGE HEROINE RISKS ALL TO SHATTER SHACKLES OF DOMESTICITY
“A novel of grit, independence, and determination… An intelligent story, well told.” –Renée Thompson, author of The Plume Hunter and The Bridge at Valentine
“The thoughtful, intricate story Carroll relates is absolutely mesmerizing.” –Eileen Walsh, Ph.D., U.S. Women’s History, University of San Diego
America’s “Gilded Age” – post Civil War to turn of the 20th Century – was hardly gilded for women, who were virtually caged in households where the husband was lord and master and the wife his obedient servant. Society did not approve of women seeking loftier goals than to settle into the proscribed Cult of Domesticity.
A White Room, Stephanie Carroll’s spellbinding debut novel, explores this complicated era through the eyes of Emeline Evans, a young woman whose dreams of becoming a nurse are extinguished when her father’s sudden death renders her family destitute. To help provide for her mother and siblings, Emeline sacrifices her ambitions to marry lawyer John Dorr, a man she barely knows.
John immediately moves his new bride away from her family in St. Louis to the remote Missouri town of Labellum, where he has purchased a foreboding house that taunts and haunts the sorrowful Emeline. Finding no comfort from her workaholic husband or purpose in domestic life, Emeline edges toward madness; the furniture twists and turns, people stare out from empty rooms, and a wild beast lurks outside. Diagnosed with hysteria, prescribed bed rest, and relegated to seclusion in her white bedroom, she further succumbs to the terrors of the house.
In a moment of desperation, Emeline flees the house and stumbles upon an opportunity to serve the poor as an unlicensed nurse. Although acts of disobedience would seal her fate as a psychologically defective woman, she finds great solace in this secret act of defiance – despite the added danger of John’s employer, who viciously hunts down and prosecutes unlicensed medical practitioners.
“Emeline’s insanity is partially inspired by Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, a semi-autobiographical story of a woman who becomes obsessed with the wallpaper after being secluded to her bedroom,” says Carroll. “At this time women could be diagnosed with hysteria for the slightest thing, including rebellion. I believe the impact of hysteria still lingers in our society, fueling a struggle many women experience to feel secure in their own sanity.”
Carroll did extensive research to stay true to the period. “Although the book’s characters and events are fictional, the house, the furniture, society’s obsession with hysteria, the professionalization of medicine, the eradication of midwifery, and the illegalization of abortion are based in historical fact,” she adds. “Even the brutal methods of interrogation in the book were inspired by actual investigative procedures, including the disturbing use of the ‘dying confession.’”
A novel of secrets and madness, A White Room reveals the cracks in the Gilded Age, when a woman could be a prisoner of her own home and had to risk everything to be free. A White Room will be available this summer.
Stephanie Carroll holds degrees in history and social science and graduated Summa Cum Laude from California State University, Fresno. As a reporter and community editor, she earned first place awards from the National Newspaper Association and the Nevada Press Association. Carroll blogs and writes fiction in California, where her husband is stationed with the U.S. Navy.
Website: www.stephaniecarroll.net
Social Media: Twitter: CarrollBooks; Facebook: CarrollBooks; Pinterest: CarrollBooks; Goodreads: CarrollBooks; LinkedIn: Stephanie Carroll; Google+: Stephanie Carroll
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780988867413 |
| PRICE | $14.99 (USD) |
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