The Mad Women’s Ball

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

The Salpêtrière asylum, 1885. All of Paris is in thrall to Doctor Charcot and his displays of hypnotism on women who have been deemed mad or hysterical, outcasts from society. But the truth is much more complicated - for these women are often simply inconvenient, unwanted wives or strong-willed daughters. Once a year a grand ball is held at the hospital. For the Parisian elite, the Mad Women's Ball is the highlight of the social season; for the women themselves, it is a rare moment of hope.

Geneviève is a senior nurse. After the childhood death of her sister, she has shunned religion and placed her faith in Doctor Charcot and his new science. But everything begins to change when she meets Eugénie, the 19-year-old daughter of a bourgeois family. Because Eugénie has a secret, and she needs Geneviève's help. Their fates will collide on the night of the Mad Women's Ball...

'A darkly sumptuous tale of wicked spectacle, wild injustice and the insuppressible strength of women' EMMA STONEX, Sunday Times bestselling author of THE LAMPLIGHTERS

'In this darkly delightful Gothic treasure, Mas explores grief, trauma and sisterhood behind the walls of Paris' infamous Salpetriere hospital' PAULA HAWKINS, author of A SLOW FIRE BURNING

'A beautifully written debut...I have absolutely no doubt it will be one of my favourite novels of 2021.' AJ PEARCE, author of DEAR MRS BIRD

'Essential reading' COSMOPOLITAN

'A deftly woven tale of hope and pain, judgement and redemption, cruelty and kindness. Utterly captivating and profoundly affecting.' Sunday Times bestseller, MIRANDA DICKENSON

'Enter the dance of this little masterpiece and let yourself be dazzled. Assured of hitting the bestseller lists' THE PARISIAN

'A lovely, moving first novel, a cri de coeur against the condition of women in this world' MARIE FRANCE

'The Mad Women's Ball is as lush on the inside as it is on the outside! It's richly immersive, taking us right into the heart of nineteenth-century Paris.' SHELLEY HARRIS, author of the Sunday Times bestseller JUBILEE

© Victoria Mas 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Critics Review

  • [Victoria Mas’s]… portrait of women who were unfairly banished to asylums often because they did not fit into the straightjacket of 19th-century society is moving… beautifully drawn.

    THE TIMES

  • THE MAD WOMEN’S BALL is a darkly sumptuous tale of wicked spectacle, wild injustice and the insuppressible strength of women. Mas brings the world of La Salpêtrière to life with passion and fury, unveiling a hypnotic theatre that is as moving as it is macabre.

    Emma Stonex, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Lamplighters

  • [An] essential story of women resisting the unjust exertion of male power.

    SUNDAY TIMES

  • In this darkly delightful Gothic treasure, Mas explores grief, trauma and sisterhood behind the walls of Paris’ infamous Salpetriere hospital.

    PAULA HAWKINS, Sunday Times bestselling author of A SLOW FIRE BURNING and THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

  • Elegantly written, Victoria Mas’s slender, potent debut celebrates sisterhood, while also exposing the corrupt powers of the patriarchy at home and in the wider world.

    DAILY MAIL

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