SO19 REVIEWS: Jennifer Higgie's BEDLAM

"Perhaps it is the story that chooses the man and wraps him in it until he suffocates," Higgie's extraordinary novel opens. The speaker, Richard Dadd, was 25 in 1843 when he "discovered another realm, a place inhabiting a truth that is, I have been told, no more than an elaborate fiction." The voices of that realm, a territory of his own mind, told him that his father was the devil and prompted him to stab Robert Dadd to death. Richard spent the rest of his life in British mental institutions, first the titular "Bedlam" (officially, Bethlem Hospital) and later the newly completed Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Much of his art, though not all, was created in those settings.

Higgie's story opens in 1885, a year before Dadd's death, and chronicles the experiences, both actual and imagined, that shaped his life. He is, he admits from the start, an unreliable narrator: "Where have I come from to arrive at this place? My recollection changes with every retelling. For the moment, this is the story that slips from me." He's also a mesmerizing one. For example, his chronicle of 1842 begins, "I have heard the heat there is so great it inhibits the singing of birds. I have not slept for days. My head is filled with infinite lists. Sir Thomas speaks as if he were eating boiled eggs....Something must account for the way he forms his words. They meet resistance at every word and wobble into silence." Higgie's striking prose and brief, taut chapters capture Dadd's inner life before and after the patricide he describes as "the fulcrum of my life."

I love Higgie's two previous books, nonfiction studies exploring art, inspiration, and identity (The Mirror and the Palette, Pegasus 2021, and The Other Side, Pegasus 2025). Her focus in both was often-marginalized women artists, and Bedlam displays the same interest in art and culture's edges; here, however, it's mental illness rather than gender that pushes—in this case, explosively propels—her subject out of the "mainstream." Much of what Bedlam depicts is tragic, yet—like Higgie's previous books—the novel is ultimately affirmative. Treated unjustly by others or, like Dadd, by their own brain chemistry, Higgie's subjects nevertheless make art. Bedlam is a depiction of the mind's fragility, but it is also a story about the strength of the imagination and the sometimes ferocious will to create.

Purchase Bedlam by Jennifer Higgie on Bookshop or Amazon. Published by Verso, July 2026. 

Society 19 Reviews: EMILY FRANKLIN'S Love and Other Monsters

Like her excellent previous novel, The Lionness of Boston, Franklin’s latest explores the life of a woman who doesn’t quite fit in with those around her. Love and Other Monsters (David R. Godine, April 2026)  is narrated by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s half-sister, Claire Claremont, an often-overlooked member of the famous group that produced Frankenstein in the summer of 1816. The neglect of her perspective isn’t surprising; unlike the other habitués of the Villa Diodati, she wasn’t touched with literary genius. This is the story an “ordinary” young woman whose trajectory is shaped by the extraordinary people and events around her as well as her own, sometimes blind, struggles for significance. Passionate; energetic; smart and yet (like most young women her age) often unwise; searching for impact and identity: Claire is vividly portrayed and instantly relatable. Franklin’s rich prose captures Claire’s inner life, her complex relationships with those around her, the texture of her world, and her slow, unsteady maturation with equal insight. Love and Other Monsters is a compelling, poignant read and a resonant addition to the literature exploring a fascinating group at a fascinating moment. Find out more about the book and author at www.emilyfranklin.com. 

Claire Clairmont in a
portrait by Amelia Curran, 1819

So19 Interviews: JULIE DOBROW on LOVE AND LOSS AFTER WOUNDED KNEE

I'm delighted to be able to speak with Julie Dobrow about her new book, Love and Loss After Wounded Knee: A Biography of an Extraordinary Interracial Marriage, which appeared from the New York University Press on November 4. Some of you will know Julie from So19's interview with her about her last volume, After Emily: Two Remarkable Women—And the Legacy of America's Greatest Poet. Julie is the director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies at Tufts University, where she also holds faculty positions in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development, the Film and Media Studies Program and the Civic Studies Program. She's also one of the creators of Half The History, which aims to change the under-representation of women (particularly but not exclusively women of color and those from marginalized groups) in biographies and other stories. You can visit Julie's website for more about the author and her work, including links to some of the articles she's published about this book, which appear at the bottom of the site's book page.  Love and Loss After Wounded Knee is out and available for sale on all major platforms, including Amazon.com and Bookshop.org; you can also order it directly from the NYU Press. All that said, here's our chat. —SF

So19: Charles Eastman and Elaine Goodale, the subjects of your book, are fascinating figures, but neither is well known today. Tell us when and how you first learned of them and also how that awareness led to this book.

Dobrow: I first learned about Elaine and Charles the summer after my junior year of college. I had a job in the Sophia Smith women’s history archive where they had received a new tranche of papers from the Goodale-Eastman-Dayton family. My job was to start organizing these papers. And from the yellowed newspaper clippings, old letters and faded photographs, this remarkable story literally sprang off the pages. I was fascinated! During my senior year, I wrote a thesis about the life of Elaine Goodale Eastman, who I viewed, somewhat naively, as this amazing woman who learned the language of the Native American students she taught, traveled to the Dakota Territory in the 1880s, and seemed to have such progressive ideas about race, education, and gender roles. At the time I felt that I knew something about Elaine, but very little about Charles, and I thought he was intriguing, too.

After college, I wrote a couple of articles about Elaine but then moved on to other topics. And yet I felt I wasn’t done with this story. Not yet.

The Nineteen List, Halloween Edition: FRANKENSTEIN illustrated and reinvented

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, or, A Modern Prometheus became a much discussed and adapted cultural icon surprisingly soon after its initial anonymous publication in 1818. Here, in no particular order, I've gathered some reinventions of the novel ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous.

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1. The 1831 edition of Mary Shelley's novel was printed with illustrations and published under her name for the first time. The artist (uncredited, as far as I can tell) who created this frontispiece has given the Monster an impressive six-pack and Frankenstein a lovely leaded window.

The Internet Archive

2. This 1843 lithograph by John Doyle, who published his art as HB., is titled "A New Illustration of the Story: Frankenstein" and conveys the supposed dangers of Daniel O'Connell's efforts to repeal the 1800 Act of Union, which united the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. O'Connell is depicted hovering on the brink of a precipice in the face of an advancing giant brandishing a Phrygian cap with the banners "repeal," "separation," and "anarchy." 

Wellcome Collection

So19 Interviews: CHRIS NICKSON on A RAGE OF SOULS

With the publication of A Rage of Souls, British historical mystery writer and friend of So19 brings his Simon Westow mystery series to a close. Kirkus Reviews gives the novel deservedly high praise, calling it a “first-rate, complex mystery that delves deeply into the many social injustices of the time.” Here, So19 talks with Nickson about bring the Westow novels to a close, the harsh realities of life in the period they depict, and his new books to come. Find out more about Nickson on his website, Facebook page, and Instagram, and buy the book on Bookshop.org, Amazon.com, and Amazon.co.uk.

Q. With this eighth Simon Westow novel, you’re ending this series. How did you choose the mystery after which he departs—what about this particular plot felt like it would offer Simon, readers and you yourself a fitting close?

A. It wasn't my intention to make this the final book in the series. I had another in mind as a finale. But when I tried to write it, I couldn't make it work. It didn't come alive. Plenty of attempts later, I decided the universe was trying to tell me something. This might not have the epic conclusion, but it does round things out quite satisfactorily, I feel. 

Re-Reading: MAUD CASEY'S CITY OF INCURABLE WOMEN

Interweaving material from hospital case notes with fictional invention, Casey illuminates the mistreated “madwomen” of late 19th century Paris’s Salpêtrière asylum. Casey’s precise, luminous prose is supplemented by telling period documents and images. Every novel from Casey is a haunting, immersive treat. You can read our interview with the author on her previous book, The Man Who Walked Away, here. Buy this one on Amazon and Bookshop and visit the author's website for more.

Favorite Films: ITV's EMMA, 1996

Though without the spectacular and showy visuals of Autumn De Wilde’s 2020 adaptation of the novel, to my mind this 1996 adaptation from Britain’s ITV better captures the warmth of heart behind the story’s intricate ironies. Andrew Davies adapts the text with his usual skill, brilliant British actors give stellar performances throughout (I’m forgiving Prunella Scales for making the already over-the-top character of Miss Bates even a little more extra), Jenny Beavan’s costumes are lovely, and the story’s themes of growth and community—as well as its comedy—resonate throughout. Ignore the over-feminine pink of the poster and the fact that Kate Beckinsale isn't blond; this is a strong adaptation of Austen's classic.