Review: 'The Mad Women's Ball' by Victoria Mas, trans. by Frank Wynne
Pub. Date: 9/14/2021
Publisher: ABRAMS; Overlook Press
The Salpêtrière Asylum: Paris, 1885. Dr. Charcot holds all of Paris in thrall with his displays of hypnotism on women who have been deemed mad and cast out from society. But the truth is much more complicated—these women are often simply inconvenient, unwanted wives, those who have lost something precious, wayward daughters, or girls born from adulterous relationships. For Parisian society, the highlight of the year is the Lenten ball—the Mad Women’s Ball—when the great and good come to gawk at the patients of the Salpêtrière dressed up in their finery for one night only. For the women themselves, it is a rare moment of hope.
Genevieve is a senior nurse. After the childhood death of her sister Blandine, she shunned religion and placed her faith in both the celebrated psychiatrist Dr. Charcot and science. But everything begins to change when she meets Eugenie, the 19-year-old daughter of a bourgeois family that has locked her away in the asylum. Because Eugenie has a secret: she sees spirits. Inspired by the scandalous, banned work that all of Paris is talking about, The Book of Spirits, Eugenie is determined to escape from the asylum—and the bonds of her gender—and seek out those who will believe in her. And for that she will need Genevieve’ help . . .
As some of you know, one of the themes on which my research focuses is female anger. Alongside this topic, I do also find myself very interested in madness, how it was conceptualised and understood, and how it (or the accusation of madness) affected women specifically. This has led me to many very interesting books, among which The Snake Pit by Mary Jane Ward, a fictionalised account of her own time in an asylum, and Audrey Clare Farley's Girls and Their Monsters, a non-fiction deep-dive into the "making of madness in America". Each of these books, despite their differences, opened my eyes anew to the plight of women in asylumns and the way in which madness is used to Other and to denigrate. I hoped for something similar with The Mad Women's Ball, which picked a fascinating time and place to set its scene. The Salpêtrière Asylum, especially under Dr. Charcot. He is a fascinating figure, a pioneer in the field of neurology who worked on a new understanding of Parkinson's disease, and also a man who hypnotized his female patients in front of (mostly male) crowds to display symptoms of their hysteria. While much of his work was beneficial, including his strong claims that hysteria wasn't a "female only" issue, his reputation nowadays mostly focuses on the latter aspect and the way in which he potentially abused the power he held over his female patients by making them "perform". I give this background to show how interesting the Salpêtrière Asylum is, how excellent a setting it makes for a nuanced discussion about madness, abuse of power, but also medical exploration and potential healing. Unfortunately, The Mad Women's Ball wasn't as nuanced as I would have liked.
Eugenie is a young woman, daughter of a well-to-do middle class father who thinks she should really focus on remaining quiet and getting married. Eugenie has a secret, however, which is that she can see ghosts. Upon revealing this to her grandmother, the older woman betrays her to her father and Eugenie is whisked off to Salpêtrière Asylum by her father. Either she is lying, and therefore mad, or she is talking to the dead, and therefore mad and doomed. Alongside Eugenie's tale, the novel is also narrated from the perspectives of Genevieve and Louise. Genevieve is a nurse at the Asylum and has been for decades. She is a devout believer in the science of medicine and in Dr. Charcot. Louise, meanwhile, is a patient at the asylum who occasionally takes part in Dr. Charcot's lectures, where he hypnotises her and she is kind of torn between enjoying the attention and popularity and feeling exposed. Their stories come together as the Asylum prepares itself for the annual "mad women's ball".
Through the eyes of these three women we get three different perspectives on life in the Asylum. Out of the three, quite honestly, I found Genevieve the most interesting. There is something Javert-like about the journey she goes through and out of the three characters, she is the only one who really grows and develops. Other characters, including those drawn from history like Dr. Charcot, feel a bit flat. Dr. Charcot specifically is much more of a villain, a real patriarchal man who dismisses women out of hand, which feels a little harsh considering some of his work. In some ways The Mad Women's Ball feels a little lost, to me. At just over 200 pages, it is not a long book and yet one can see that Mas wanted to tell a variety of stories. She wants to address gender, the patriarchy, class, the study of medicine, Othering, and the female experience. On top of that she brings in spiritualism. I could have done without the ghosts. Or rather, I could have done without the heavy confirmation that Eugenie can actually see ghosts. It is one of the instances in the book where I feel Mas could have created some nuance, by leaving it just open enough whether Eugenie is speaking the truth or somehow imagining it, perhaps indeed suffering from something. I appreciate that then other elements of the plot would have had to be moved about, but the fact that it is an undeniable truth means that the novel loses some of its potential.
What I hadn't expected about The Mad Women's Ball was for it to feel quite so fairy tale-like. That is the only real descriptor I can attach to Mas' writing style. From Genevieve's little apartment, which somehow comes across as cozy despite its starkness, to the sunlight dappling in through the asylum windows, everything somehow feels a little unreal, in the fairy tale sense. Fairy tales, in their original form at least, are quite violent, and so are some of the things that occur in The Mad Women's Ball, from the discussion of sexual assault to isolation and self harm. But there is also somehow this softness to much of it that meant I was never really struck by it. Part of this, I think, is due to the idea that, in an unjust and cruel world, women can find sanctuary in insanity. This is something which has been part of Feminist discourse since at least 'The Yellow Wall-Paper', in which arguably the narrator is liberated by utterly disconnecting from her patriarchal reality. The women of the Asylum find a certain comfort behind its walls, despite its deprivations, which the outside world isn't providing them with. I don't think this is wrong, it is in fact very understandable, but, again, I would have wished for Mas to provide a little more nuance to this. The sheen of the fairy tale-like also extends further to the writing, in the sense that Mas is very quick to provide you with explanations of why something is happening. In this sense there is a lot of "telling" which the novel could have done without. By having motivations, feelings, etc. explained so quickly, there is no need for the reader to really connect to the characters and dive into their personalities. However, that fairy tale-like tone does also make the novel a smooth read and it does allow for some very beautiful descriptions. Frank Wynne therefore has also done an excellent job translating.
I give this novel
2.5 Universes (don't have a graphic for that, so here's a three)
The Mad Women's Ball wasn't really what I was looking for. I had hoped for something that dove a little deeper, that showed a little more nuance. However, the themes Mas addresses are important and the book could be a good starting point for any reader interested in the treatment of mental illness in the past.
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