The Strange Case of Mademoiselle P. [Mass Market Paperback]

Brian O'Doherty (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1995

A provocative new novel with the historical density of Patrick Susskind's Perfume and the multilayered elegance of Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. "A dazzling tour de force . . . a fantastic richness of detail and psychological insight . . . steeped in the Vienna of the Hapsburg Empress Maria Theresa. . . ".--Edward Said.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Five monologues constitute this pedantic first novel, which traces the methods of 18th-century physician Franz Anton Mesmer, father of hypnosis.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In the Viennese imperial court at the end of the 18th century, a young blind woman undergoes treatment by Dr. Anton Mesmer, discoverer and promoter of the new science of "animal magnetism" (hypnotism). The patient's father, jealous of Mesmer, sets out to destroy the doctor but in the process ruins his daughter as well. Intriguingly conceived and exceptionally well written, this first novel compares favorably with Allen Kurzweil's A Case of Curiosities ( LJ 11/1/91). Both describe the same period, but they differ in their literary affiliations: Kurzweil's novel is picaresque, stepchild to Diderot and Restif; O'Doherty's is an odd hybrid of gothic romance and Enlightenment memoir. It's also extremely good, filled with strikingly beautiful synesthetic images in which light, memory, reality, imagination, new and old mingle as one domain of experience.
- David Keymer, SUNY Inst. of Technology, Utica
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140179267
• ISBN-13: 978-0140179262
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,657,242 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Aristocracy, the Enlightenment, and Sexy Blind Girl, October 15, 2000

By 

Renee Thorpe (Karangasem, Bali) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Strange Case of Mademoiselle P (Hardcover)

This is an absorbing little tale of an unorthodox doctor treating a blind, aristocratic young lady who possesses considerable musical talents. It takes place in the Austrian royal court at the time of Mozart's own prodigious childhood.

While there are horrific moments highlighting the destructive effects of ill-conceived parental control, O'Doherty sheds light on the mysterious penchant talented people have for falling into the hands of suppressive creeps. The doctor seems sincere enough, but even he cannot keep his hands off the lovely musician.

Chapters told by different characters, the story is a fine exercise in viewpoint and voice. O'Doherty sets his scenes with amazing conservation of adjectives. The language and syntax alone paints vivid pictures of court settings. This reader really got the impression O'Doherty did his research meticulously.

Now that the author's shortlisted for the Booker, we have good reason to snap up this out-of-print novel!

3.0 out of 5 stars Out of Print, but not Out of Sight, November 22, 2001

By 

Rivkah Maccaby "Rivkah Maccaby" (Bloomington, IN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Strange Case of Madamoiselle P. (Paperback)

O'Doherty has researched his Viennese courts well, and his Mozart and Ben Franklin; the descriptions of Anton Mesmer seem so real, I'm pretty sure I've read them before. Not that it's a criticism to say he cribbed from contemporaneous descriptions; the blending of borrowed reportage with fictional text is actually done pretty well.

However, O'Doherty waxes much too purple for my taste when he lapses into streams of consciousness that seem to turn into whirlpools from which he cannot extricate himself. More unfortunately, while he has done tons of research on the details of say, seventeenth century Viennese table legs, he hasn't read too many diaries from the time. His prose seems awfully Victorian to me. Or pseudo-Victorian. Actually, there were times when it reminded me for all the world of Elinor Glyn.

His problem is that the novel isn't a seventeenth century form, and stream of consciousness, moreover, is a twentieth century construction. Still more incongruously, O'Doherty appears to have his eye on eighteenth century fictive diary prose such as Charlotte Bronte writes in Jane Eyre. However, he can't even separate the first person narrative of early novels from the stream of consciousness that readers today are familiar with. In addition, he uses three-point narration (Mlle. P., her father, and Anton Mesmer) and seems to be trying to do something along the lines of The Moonstone, yet another form that didn't exist in the seventeenth century. O'Doherty has set himself up for massive leaps of invention. Sadly, he never quite does what he sets out to do, and the thing shrivels in the bud.

I'm just addressing his prose style, though. If you can stomach it, then you have the pleasure of the devices he uses to work Mesmer, Mozart, Benjamin Franklin, Empress Maria Theresa, and most of the rest of the Hapsburg court, plus the French Revolution into 240 pages. They are actually pretty artful. So if you like that kind of stuff, and aren't fussy about the mode of communication, this might the book for you.

On top of that, there's sex, lots of it, and a blind girl Mesmer is trying to cure, and some neat messages about talent vs. function.

However, if you read for style and rhythm of language as much as plot, this will set your teeth on edge.

This novel may be technically out of print, but you can still buy it in many bookstores...There are probably lots of warehoused copies. Since it's on the Booker shortlist, there's a good chance it'll come back into print. Nonetheless, if you're interested, you ought to grab it while you can.