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The Making of an Icon
by Mark Bostridge
The common soldier's savior, the standard-bearer of modern nursing, a pioneering social reformer: Florence Nightingale belongs to that select band of historical characters who are instantly recognizable. Home-schooled, bound for the life of an educated Victorian lady, Nightingale scandalized her family when she found her calling as a nurse, a thoroughly unsuitable profession for a woman of her class.
As the "Lady with the Lamp," ministering to the wounded and dying of the Crimean War, she offers an enduring image of sentimental appeal. Few individuals in their own lifetime have reached the level of fame and adulation attained by Nightingale as a result of her efforts. Fewer still have the power of continuing to inspire controversy in the way she does almost a century after her death.
In this remarkable book, the first major biography of Florence Nightingale in more than fifty years, Mark Bostridge draws on a wealth of unpublished material, including previously unseen family papers, to throw new light on this extraordinary woman’s life and character. Disentangling elements of myth from the reality, Bostridge has written a vivid and immensely readable account of one of the most iconic figures in modern history.
"Starred Review. Bostridge strips through the myth of the Lady with the Lamp, and his detailed but always compelling prose shows a remarkable woman struggling to overcome prejudice and incompetence to bring health back to soldiers’ broken bodies." - Booklist
"Bostridge is never in awe of his subject and does not shrink from hard examination of historical controversies, such as the cause of Nightingale's withdrawal from society, that other biographies such as Hugh Small's Florence Nightingale: Avenging Angel have raised (with different conclusions)." - Library Journal
"Deeply informative Bostridge probes reverently but with confidence." - Kirkus
"Overall, the picture painted in such greater detail is not dissimilar from Lytton Strachey's vivid sketch. In the end, the legend is historically more significant than the life. Many women and men who have made comparable contributions to public and national affairs have been rewarded with no more than a DNB entry. As the centenary of her death in 1910 approaches, Nightingale, one of the few Victorians with continuing name recognition, is in a league of her own." - The Independent (UK)
"That Nightingale was remarkable and achieved remarkable things is undeniable; but Bostridge never stands back to give the reader the long view.
"These, however, are quibbles. Bostridge's work is a sympathetic and vivid recreation of a life at once secluded and lived in the glare of publicity. It will not be superseded for generations to come." - The Telegraph (UK)
This information about Florence Nightingale was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Mark Bostridge was born in 1961 and was educated at Oxford University. His biography of Vera Brittain, co-authored with Paul Berry, was selected as a book of the year by The Independent. He lives in England.
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