Customer Reviews

Nightingales: The Extraordinary Upbringing and Curious Life of Miss Florence Nightingale

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

NIGHTINGALES: THE EXTRAORDINARY UPBRINGING AND CURIOUS LIFE OF MISS FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE BY GILLIAN GILL

By all accounts, Florence Nightingale was a saint although she belonged to a church that did not make such claim. A privileged Victorian family of sister, mother and father nurtured this enigma. A woman from the British upper classes ventured beyond the drawing rooms, beyond the nurseries, to find vermin and rats and sewage infesting Scutari and the Crimea where she nursed soldiers at war. To read of hospital conditions during the Crimean War is one thing, to see the organization, the singleness of purpose and the dedication that manifested a turnaround in those conditions, is perhaps difficult to fathom given current medical practices. Gillian Gill portrays an ambitious if eccentric Nightingale clan whose reach extended to 10 Downing Street and Buckingham Palace. Sibling rivalry between Florence and young Parthenope was staggering. The development of relationships within the family and those working for them is fully realized. This is a fine book. Let it not be forgotten that Florence's superiors in the Crimea were all male and they watched (and fumed) while a tiny woman succeeded where they had failed. Namely in the care of the wartime solider.

Judith Janone
Burlington, Vt.

Florence Nightingale's life holds a fascination for me. This is an extremely detailed read and Miss Gill's vocabulary is so extensive that one may desire a dictionary by one's side at times. The lifestyles of the families of privilege during the Victorian era painted a new portrait of a true hero, and opened windows to how those times still effect us today! The descriptions of hospital life during the Crimean War were eye-opening, as were the the illnesses in the Nightingale family were thought provoking from a medical and psycological standpoint. As a nurse myself, I am sorry I have not adequately appreciated "Flo"! Not easy reading, but worth the effort.

This book is what it says it is: its about the Nightengales, in particular Florence Nightengale. The important aspect of this book is giving a full and clear surrounding social context of Florence. So not only does one get an better understanding of her temperament and character, but more importantly the intricate sociology of upper-class Englishmen (and women) in the 19th century european society.

This broad biography helps illustrate both the importance of temperament (inborn nature of the person) and character (the developed habits of an individual based on the interaction of temperament and environment).

This book was wonderful in that it focused on the real person of Florence Nightingale and how she was a product of her unique upbringing and family background. Most biographies of her tend to paint her as a modern-day Teresa of Avila, but this one covers her warts and all. You come away realizing that although she accomplished amazing things in her life, she was still a real person with all kinds of challenges to overcome and a temperament that often worked against her in her efforts to accomplish her goals. That a woman like her would just retreat to a bedroom and live as an invalid for fifty year astounds me. I wonder what she might have accomplished if she had remained active & involved in society in a personal way rather than through letters and personal interviews. I've always admired her, but it's nice to see that she really had foibles and temper tantrums and wasn't the lily-white paragon that some people try to convince women to become.

What I love about Gillian Gill's biographies is the obvious extensive research of her subject. I had finished reading Gill's second biography on Mary Baker Eddy and was so impressed I knew in the Florence Nightingale biography I would find a well-researched and well-written history of a very complex woman. Gill's subjects are not always easy to understand, but through Gill's research you gain at least a clearer idea of the woman behind the "Lady with the Lamp". A wonderful biography worth reading. I especially enjoyed learning more about Nightingale's family and how important they were in creating Florence Nightingale.

I was looking forward to reading this because of the good reviews I had read about it, but frankly, I couldn't get past about page 50. I will perhaps try to get into it again, but the narrative did not hold my interest and was rather dry & academic in my opinion.

It's been a century and a half since the Crimean war where one English young lady changed the way hospitals in general and military hospitals in particular were operated. She was at once nurse (before there were nurses), administrator, politician, lobbyist and more. Her famous chart showing the causes of mortality for soldiers (reproduced in the book) that she devised in 1857 launched a radical reform in the housing and medical treatment of soldiers.

And she got most of this done before becoming ill at age 37 and for all intents and purposes confined to her bedroom for the final fifty years of her life.

As a book, this one sets a new standard for biographies. It reads almost as a novel, yet it is exhaustively researched and documented. The notes at the end of the book take up more than fifty pages.

Engrossing, enthralling, a finely limned psychological portrait of a family as well as of Nightingale herself, a matchless look at the murky motives that governed women's conduct in the Victorian era. The bulk of the book builds up to and ends with the Crimean War. But Nightingale lived on for many decades after that pivotal event. This is a pattern I have seen with many biographies of famous women: apparently nothing much of interest happens after they turn 50 or so ...

I enjoyed this book a lot! If you're into the 19th century, the Nightingales are so well-connected that this book reads like a who's who. In the family tree, you can even figure out how Helena Bonham Carter is related to Florence Nightingale! Gill paints a lively, sympathetic picture of the often dysfunctional family. Loved her pacing and touches of humor. Is it worse to be a living legend or the sister/father/mother/cousin/niece of a living legend? The scenes in the Crimea are not for the faint of heart or stomach. Meaning, I loved them.

I struggled between giving this book four stars or five stars. I considered giving it four stars for two reasons:

1.) The book starts a little slow and can be confusing with the flurry of names and families that the author presents. I read the first forty pages or so and gave up on the book for a few weeks. I am glad I picked it back up again, though.

2.) I was a little disappointed that we didn't get a lot of detail about Florence Nightingale after the Crimean War. We got so much detail about her life before and during the war, but the last part of the book sort of flies through her life after the war (i.e. her lengthy convalescence).

However, I decided to give the book five stars anyway because once I got into it, I couldn't put it down. I read it on the subway while commuting to and from work, and I would get disappointed when I'd get to my stop and have to put the book away. For me, the fact that it kept me entertained overrides the two complaints I mentioned earlier.

I also appreciate that the author gets a lot of her information from primary sources. She does interpret those documents (i.e. letters) to some extent , but not so much that she totally shapes your opinion of Florence Nightingale. It would've been easy for the author to say, "Florence Nightingale probably had 'X' psychological condition," but she didn't. She lets the reader develop his/her own opinions on Nightingale's personality and mind.

Another reviewer mentioned that you should keep a dictionary handy. Excellent tip. I kept Post-It flags in my pocket to flag all the words I'd never seen before (and there were a lot), and then I looked them up later. You'd think that this would make the writing seem pretentious, but it really didn't, strangely enough.

Another tip: Buy it on the Kindle if you have one and if you tend to carry your books with you. The paperback is kind of a beast to haul around.

Overall, great book!!!