Advanced
Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for Ten Days in a Mad-House: a Graphic Adaptation by Brad Ricca - Wait list

Ten Days in a Mad-House: a Graphic Adaptation

by Brad Ricca
Courtney Sieh
ebook
0 of 0 copies available
Wait time: Not available
Place a hold Read a sample Read a sample
0 of 0 copies available
Wait time: Not available
AN EISNER AWARD NOMINEE
A NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY "BEST NEW COMIC OF 2022 FOR ADULTS"

Beautifully adapted and rendered through piercing illustrations by acclaimed creators Brad Ricca and Courtney Sieh, Nellie Bly's complete, true-to-life 19th-century investigation of Blackwell Asylum captures a groundbreaking moment in history and reveals a haunting and timely glimpse at the starting point for conversations on mental health.
"I said I could and I would. And I did."

While working for Joseph Pulitzer's newspaper in 1887, Nellie Bly began an undercover investigation into the local Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell Island. Intent on seeing what life was like on the inside, Bly fooled trained physicians into thinking she was insane—a task too easily achieved—and had herself committed. In her ten days at the asylum, Bly witnessed horrifying conditions: the food was inedible, the women were forced into labor for the staff, the nurses and doctors were cruel or indifferent, and many of the women held there had no mental disorder of any kind.

Now adapted into graphic novel form by Brad​ Ricca and vividly rendered with beautiful and haunting illustrations by Courtney Sieh, Bly's bold venture is given new life and meaning. Her fearless investigation into the living conditions at the Blackwell Asylum forever changed the field of journalism. A timely reminder to take notice of forgotten populations, Ten Days in a Mad-House warns us what happens when we look away.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 19, 2022

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781982140663
    Kindle restrictions

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Booklist

      March 15, 2022
      The famous reporting work of Nellie Bly gets a beautifully hand-drawn adaptation in Ten Days in a Mad-House. When readers meet Nellie, she's on the hunt for a reporting job and finds her way to the editor-in-chief of The World to pitch her stories. The editor assigns an investigation of Blackwell's Home for the Insane. Nellie goes to a women's boarding house and puts on an act of insanity that disturbs the house matron and gets her put in the asylum. She learns quickly how unwilling the rest of the world is to extend kindness to someone who appears to be outside of the boundaries of polite society. At Blackwell's, the doctors care very little for the patients and force them to suffer indignities. Sieh's black-and-white drawings heighten the tension of Blackwell's by casting all the doctors and nurses in imperious shadow. Nellie and her fellow patients' wide, expressive eyes communicate the terror they feel within the institution. This graphic adaptation of reportage would appeal to fans of Joe Sacco and Sarah Glidden.

      COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 28, 2022
      Sieh’s detailed ink drawings, reminiscent of 19th-century etchings, coupled with a hard-boiled adaptation by Ricca (Super Boys), retell the groundbreaking journalism of Bly, a reporter who went undercover to expose abuses at Blackwell’s Asylum in 1887. Bly begins feigning paranoia and memory loss at a women’s workhouse and lands in Blackwell’s, where she meets other women condemned for such crimes as “nervous debility,” poverty, and not speaking English. She’s a bit surprised that her ruse works: “I felt sure now that no doctor could tell whether people were insane or not.” Blackwell’s is anything but therapeutic. Women are starved, beaten, subjected to icy baths, forced to sleep without heat, and required to sit in silence for 14 hours at a stretch; if they weren’t mentally ill upon admission, they soon become so. Almost as frustrating is the gaslighting that happens after Bly is sprung from Blackwell’s by her editor and testifies before a grand jury. When officials visit, they find a suddenly clean institution and doctors who blame bad-apple nurses. Nevertheless, Bly’s muckraking advocacy leads to increased funding for treatment of the mentally ill. Though well documented, this history bears repeating. Agent: Scott Mendel, Mendel Media Group.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
Kindle restrictions

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading