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This is a story set in the England of the 1760s, a time of rigid class distinctions, where the rich idle their days away in magnificent mansions, while hungry children beg, steal and prostitute themselves on the streets. An era on the cusp of revolution in America and France; a land where outward wealth and display hide simmering political and social tensions; a country which had faced intermittent war for the past fifty years and would need to survive a series of world-wide conflicts in the fifty years ahead.
Faced with no less than three murders, occurring from the aristocracy to the seeming senseless professional assassination of a homeless vagrant, Ashmole Foxe must call on all his skill and intelligence to uncover the sickness which appears to be infecting his city’s very soul.
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Category Archives: Medicine & Science
Melancholy and the Romantic Movement
How did the concept of melancholy came to be seen as especially associated with Romanticism and creativity in the arts? In the 18th century, the concept of sensibility—a refined feeling of emotion and delicacy of perception—was synonymous with social refinement … Continue reading
Melancholy and Madness
In the eighteenth century, melancholia was thought of not as a curable mental affliction, but as one of the primary forms of madness. Melancholia means ‘black bile’, one of the four bodily humours recognised by the Hippocratic and Galenic systems … Continue reading
Was Melancholy THE English Malady of the 18th Century?
“Mine, you are to know, is a white Melancholy, or rather Leucocholy… which though it seldom laughs or dances, nor ever amounts to what one calls Joy or Pleasure, yet is a good easy sort of a state … But … Continue reading
Some Georgian Medicine (from the archives)
Elizabeth Postlethwaite in 1777 (© Copyright National Portrait Gallery, London) A little while ago, rummaging in a secondhand bookshop as I often do, I found a small, locally-published book containing extracts from the correspondence of two Norfolk sisters, Elizabeth and … Continue reading
The 18th-century Apothecary
Those of you who have read any of my Georgian murder-mystery books featuring Dr Adam Bascom will know that one of the important series characters is Peter Lassimer, an apothecary. I was therefore fascinated to find an article in a … Continue reading
“Cunning Folk”: Witchcraft, Healing and Superstition
It’s easy to forget that “Cunning Folk” had been a normal part of society from the Middle Ages and continued right through until the start of the 20th century. They included men and women, some practising as healers, some as … Continue reading
The ‘Bluestockings’ and Society
Today the term ‘bluestocking’ is applied to women who do not conform to the supposed feminine stereotype. In the eighteenth century, it had not yet gained that automatic sneer and referred to any woman distinguished by learning and intelligence. So … Continue reading
