Ten Days in a Mad-House; or, Nellie Bly's Experience on Blackwell's Island
An Undercover Investigation of Asylum Abuse and the Fight for Mental Health ReformBy Nellie Bly
Length3h 54m
About this audiobook
In *Ten Days in a Mad-House*, Nellie Bly presents a first-person account of her voluntary commitment to the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island, where she investigated allegations of neglect, overcrowding, violence, and medical incompetence. Combining vivid observation, dramatic pacing, and documentary precision, Bly transforms personal experience into an indictment of institutional care. Her direct, accessible prose rejects detached sensationalism even as it employs the narrative techniques of popular journalism, making the work a landmark of nineteenth-century investigative reporting. Published in 1887, the book belongs to the emerging tradition of reform literature and anticipates the exposé techniques later associated with American muckraking journalism. Bly, the professional name of Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, was among the era's most audacious journalists. After challenging the gender limitations imposed by the Pittsburgh *Dispatch*, she joined Joseph Pulitzer's *New York World*, where editors encouraged her to pursue immersive assignments. Her decision to feign mental illness arose from a determination to test publicly circulated reports about asylum abuses. The experience demanded considerable personal risk and demonstrated her belief that journalism could function as social investigation and civic advocacy. This concise yet powerful book will reward readers interested in journalism, women's history, psychiatric institutions, and nineteenth-century reform movements. It remains essential for understanding how firsthand testimony can expose systemic injustice and provoke meaningful institutional change.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.0 (51.6K)
Includes Goodreads, StoryGraph, LibraryThing, Amazon
GenreBiography and Memoir
Length3 hrs 54 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateNov 21, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Henry James at Work (Annotated)
2CHAPTER I. A DELICATE MISSION.
3CHAPTER II. PREPARING FOR THE ORDEAL.
4CHAPTER III. IN THE TEMPORARY HOME.
5CHAPTER IV. JUDGE DUFFY AND THE POLICE.
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6CHAPTER V. PRONOUNCED INSANE.
7CHAPTER VI. IN BELLEVUE HOSPITAL.
8CHAPTER VII. THE GOAL IN SIGHT.
9CHAPTER VIII. INSIDE THE MAD-HOUSE.
10CHAPTER IX. AN EXPERT(?) AT WORK.
11CHAPTER X. MY FIRST SUPPER.
12CHAPTER XI. IN THE BATH.
13CHAPTER XII. PROMENADING WITH LUNATICS.
14CHAPTER XIII. CHOKING AND BEATING PATIENTS.
15CHAPTER XIV. SOME UNFORTUNATE STORIES.
16CHAPTER XV. INCIDENTS OF ASYLUM LIFE.
17CHAPTER XVI. THE LAST GOOD-BYE.
18CHAPTER XVII. THE GRAND JURY INVESTIGATION.
19TRYING TO BE A SERVANT. MY STRANGE EXPERIENCE AT TWO EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES.
20Nellie Bly as a White Slave. HER EXPERIENCE IN THE ROLE OF A NEW YORK SHOP-GIRL MAKING PAPER BOXES.
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