The Two-Headed Boy, and Other Medical Marvels [Hardcover]

Jan Bondeson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0801437679 | ISBN-13: 978-0801437670 | Publication Date: June 1, 2000 | Edition: 1

...illustrates various anomalies of human development, the lives of the remarkable individuals concerned, and social reactions to their extraordinary bodies

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Please, don't stare. Dr. Jan Bondeson, author of The Two-Headed Boy and Other Medical Marvels, aims to humanize his subjects and move beyond the standard exploitation of people with extremely visible medical anomalies. Though one might say that he benefits from our undeniable fascination with the extraordinarily different, he writes brief but thorough biographies that show real, three-dimensional people underneath the hair and horns. His medical understanding rivals his historical acuity, and the reader will find the interwoven threads of science and culture breathtaking.

Perhaps most intriguing is Bondeson's analysis of eccentric tales with little or no physical documentary evidence, such as the egg-laying Scotsman or the Irish gentlelady who was said to have given birth to 365 babies at once. He finds many convincing after stripping them of contemporary superstition and embellishment; this should motivate greater interest in seeking out nonmedical anomalies for deeper research. Fans of good, old-fashioned freak shows will enjoy the profuse, often charming illustrations and the final chapter on men and women reputed to eat such delicacies as stones and live animals long before Ozzy Osbourne made headlines. The Two-Headed Boy and Other Medical Marvels will surprise those looking strictly for cheap thrills, though--the subjects are too human to treat lightly. --Rob Lightner

From Publishers Weekly

To this day, human fascination with so-called freaks, those unexplainable "jokes of nature," as Bondeson calls them, has not abated. Not only supermarket tabloids but, according to the author, even the Internet is "a mine of misinformation and bigoted nonsense on these matters." Here is Bondeson once again (after Cabinet of Medical Curiosities) aiming to historicize this fascination. Unlike his previous study, Bondeson's new work attempts to offer more than a collection of marvels. He roams with intriguing results, from literary and cultural history to medical science and back again, focusing on the development of a scientific approach to these cases. As Bondeson looks at the cases of the so-called "hog-faced women," "dog-faced boys," and "people with horns" throughout history, he shows an acute sensitivity to the nuances of historical interpretation and for the humanity of those whose lives and conditions he chronicles. The story of the medieval woman who supposedly gave birth to 365 children in one day is a gem of historical reasoning and exposition. The book makes an important contribution to the histories of both science and popular culture. 85 b&w photos. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 295 pages
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr; 1 edition (June 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801437679
• ISBN-13: 978-0801437670
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,351,087 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars another great book from Jan Bondeson, March 21, 2002

By 

Mangy Fox "dreadlock goddess" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Two-Headed Boy, and Other Medical Marvels (Hardcover)

although we are taught that our interests in "freaks" is wrong and twisted, Jan Bondeson challenges this idea and takes us back to a time when such curiosity was normal and accepted, and some freaks were like rock stars. This book is intelligent, well written, insightful and very interesting. With excellent research Mr. Bondeson shows us how these people lived, some of their joys and many of their sorrows. He deconstructs some of the mythology that surronds these people and their stories. He shows us formost that they are simply people. I highly recomment it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Guilty pleasures justified, March 11, 2007

By 

Harry Eagar (Maui) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Two-Headed Boy, and Other Medical Marvels (Paperback)

Jan Bondeson, a prolific, multilingual medical lecturer, has made a career of popularizing medical curiosities, but unlike other popularizers, he has also published technical studies of the same subjects -- some famous, some unearthed from ancient libraries -- in professional journals.

Thus, he brings a dose of medical sophistication and historical rigor to a topic that is, understandably, often treated shallowly.

As it turns out, not all the curiosities in "The Two-headed Boy" are medical. At least two are psychological only -- fakes.

The history of how fakes were understood before they were understood to be fakes has its own interest. Although the reader interested only in sensational freaks will find plenty of them here, lavishly illustrated, too, the presentation is likely to be offputting for the casual gawker. Bondeson himself has little use for such, whether rude yokels or elegant townies.

Well, it is a dangerous thing to delve into such a field without finding scoffers to point out that the writer and/or the reviewer may be deluding himself about his higher motives.

Nevertheless, as human beings with just one head (if that), our fascination for those with more than one is both very human and, if deftly handled, a legitimate exploration of social understanding as much as of organic pathology.

Bondeson is deft.

While it can never have been socially fashionable to grow up with two heads or covered with hair or sprouting horns, it was arguably worse to do so in premodern Europe. Almost all of Bondeson's examples come from Europe, although many of the older ones from regions where few English-speakers can navigate the libraries as well as Bondeson, a Swede, can.

In the old days of isolated villages, the life of a freak could be more or less tolerable or a hell on earth depending on the attitude of those who spread the news -- whether vicious gossips, humane farmers, greedy doctors or -- probably worst of all -- preachers. Bad enough to be born disfigured without some priest deciding you (or perhaps your mother) have sinned.

That we moderns are not always any more advanced is revealed in Bondeson's discussion of separating Siamese twins, the part of the book that can most easily claim the high ground.

Although "The Two-headed Boy" was published as recently as 2000, it is refreshingly free of po-mo claptrap. It is a surprise, a good one, not to have to endure trivial and shallow explanations that freaks are "others" whose social status is "gendered" or colonized or whatnot. In other words, Bondeson is an old-fashioned scholar, in the best sense of the word.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well-researched, intersting topics, July 17, 2009

By 

Yolanda S. Bean (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Two-Headed Boy, and Other Medical Marvels (Paperback)

This was certainly a fascinating book! Each chapter focused on a different medical abnormality. Some chapters were quite disgusting - particularly the explanation of the 365 children born at once to one woman. While the book was meticulously researched, it lost some of its credibility with the author's own opinions sprinkled throughout. Had he been less opinionated, I would have liked the book more - his own views just really contrasted with the rest of the book.