Under Observation [Paperback]

Amalie Skram (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1992

2 classic "asylum novels", tr Hanson & Messick

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the late 19th century, Norwegian writer Skram had a nervous breakdown and entered a mental hospital for what she thought would be a brief respite from creative stress. Instead she found herself caught in a tug-of-war with a tyrannical doctor. This hefty novel is a slightly fictionalized version of that experience. Else Kant is a painter who agrees to be hospitalized for treatment of depression and insomnia. Every action and statement she makes is misinterpreted, and when she reacts to these misdiagnoses, she is branded irrational and hostile. Disappointed that her husband has not come to visit, she refuses to read his letters, and he is informed that she is furious with him and does not wish to see him. The evil Professor Hieronimus antagonizes and taunts her, and eventually transfers her to a second hospital, whose superintendent refuses to release her because of her open and venomous hatred for the professor. A smooth and natural translation conveys the frustration of these experiences and the creepy atmosphere at both hospitals. Elaine Showalter ( The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture 1830-1980 ) contributes a brief introduction that places the "rest cure" in its historical context.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Norwegian

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Women in Translation; 1st edition (January 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1879679035
• ISBN-13: 978-1879679030
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,552,537 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars nightmarish insight into an asylum, May 7, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Under Observation (Paperback)

Hanson and Messick have done a fine job of translating these two linked novels about a woman artist at the turn of the century and the destructiveness of the mental health care system that is supposedly there to help her. The basic premise is simple: put a stressed-out but fundamentally sane person in an oppressive and prison-like asylum and it will drive her to the brink of madness and possibly beyond. Skram is the Scandinavian master of Naturalism, and her descriptions of the mentally disturbed are chilling, the doctors downright terrifying!