REVIEW OF THE PAINTED BRIDGE BY WENDY WALLACE

 

 

 

 

Title: The Painted Bridge

Author: Wendy Wallace

Publisher: Scribner

Publication Date: July 17, 2012.

About the Book:

An elegant, emotionally suspenseful debut, The Painted Bridge is a story of family betrayals, illicit power, and a woman sent to an asylum against her will in Victorian England.  Just outside London, behind a high stone wall, lies Lake House, a private asylum for genteel women of a delicate nature. In the winter of 1859, Anna Palmer becomes its newest patient. To Anna’s dismay, her new husband has declared her in need of treatment and brought her to this shabby asylum. Confused and angry, Anna sets out to prove her sanity, but with her husband and doctors unwilling to listen, her freedom will not be won easily. As the weeks pass, she finds other allies: a visiting physician who believes the new medium of photography may reveal the state of a patient’s mind; a longtime patient named Talitha Batt who seems, to Anna’s surprise, to be as sane as she is; and the proprietor’s bookish daughter, who also yearns to escape.     Yet the longer Anna remains at Lake House, the more she realizes that—like the ethereal bridge over the asylum’s lake—nothing and no one is quite as it appears. Not her fellow patients, her husband, her family—not even herself. Locked alone in her room, driven by the cruel treatments of the time into the recesses of her own mind, she may discover the answers and the freedom she seeks…or how thin the line between madness and sanity truly is.


My thoughts:

What a fantastic debut novel full of wonderful and troubled characters. The novel was well researched and written.  I felt sorry for Anna Palmer who was unjustly dropped off at a "Rest Home/insane Asylum" during the Victorian Era. During that time most women were thought to suffer from an affliction called "Hysteria" and many were sent away because of it. Anna's life was miserable but she was able to prove that she was sane and move on. I really disliked her husband Vincent because he was arrogant and annoying. The ending was great but I do not want to ruin the book for you. So go on out a pick up a copy of the book. You will not be disappointed.  

Disclaimer: I was given a free copy of the novel for my honest review and I was not compensated for my review.