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I also felt there were some inconsistencies in the narrative and Violet’s interactions with the doctor and other staff at the asylum. The idea of this story intrigued me, the main character Violet is a strong women, interested in sports and an artist but in a time where women have to marry and can't do 'unlady' like things. She has an offer of marriage but she is determined not to follow that path. After reading Austen and other books about women who get married or don't I have mixed feelings about her decisions. On the one hand I understand that she wants independence and to pursue her dream but on the other she has been offered the chance to do so with money and a home from a man who is her friend.
Brighton, 1886. Violet Pring is a respectable young woman from a relatively well-off household, however, the family’s financial situation has been diminishing steadily over the years. The writing is well-observed but not polished, and at times I found the tone a little confusing. For instance, Violet opines, ‘I thought how fortunate women were that such enlightened men had taken charge of the rigours of childbirth and the duties of motherhood.’ If this is irony, then it would have been nice to have had something similar from Violet in her dialogue, which does remain rather intense and earnest. Or is it perhaps meant as the sincere opinion of any woman in that era when female doctors were unknown? What Violet definitely doesn’t want is to marry as her mother, in particular, is anxious for her to do. Violet fears that, if she does, even to someone as seemingly understanding as her friend Felix, creating art will be viewed as nothing more than a pastime to be fitted in between tedious domestic duties and meaningless social calls. Violet is encouraged in her artistic ambitions by her art tutor, Miss Fanshaw, a woman who has managed to carve out the sort of independent life for herself Violet would like to emulate, and by rakish artist, Wilf Lilley, who praises Violet’s unconventional, unrestrained style of painting. There follows the gradual antagonism of the doctor towards Violet, and her attempts to both help the other inmates and to plan an almost impossible escape, which is fun to read but defies belief.It has that unsettling psychological thriller side to it which works well, especially in a setting like a lunatic asylum. You follow Violet Pring who is sent away to one when she refuses to marry as she would rather be an independent artist. Of course, as this is set in the Victorian period, her family find this idea horrifying and worry about their family reputation. Also they are constantly embarrassed of Violet’s opinionated views, especially when she voices them in social occasions and decide for her own good to send her to Hillwood Grange Lunatic Asylum.
Noel O’Reilly’s lyrical writing brilliantly evokes the struggles of life in such a dramatic setting, as well as the hypocrisy and jealousy of society’ Sunday Express Once she is in the asylum we get more of a sense of the women’s lives and the disturbing focus on mental illness being perceived as part of female physiognomy rather than trauma or life experiences. This is the part of the story which really resonated with me. Is it deleberate that we are left wondering still what is going on inside her head? What her condition is and if she is right about her conclusions concerning the other people? The Darlings of the Asylum joins the list of historical novels I’ve read in which young women are prevented from pursuing their chosen career, displaying their talents or exercising any independence over their lives by the expectations of family or society. In this case, Violet Pring’s ambition is to become a professional artist. Actually, ambition isn’t quite the right word. Violet’s need to express herself and unleash her vivid imagination is part of her psyche. It’s the thing she lives for and when engaged in drawing or painting she can often lose herself for hours on end in a kind of artistic frenzy. And her paintings, full of sexual imagery, are certainly not the sort of thing genteel ladies of that time are expected to produce. Noel O’Reilly’s lyrical writing brilliantly evokes the struggles of life in such a dramatic setting’ Sunday ExpressThe small niggles aside I enjoyed this book. It is interesting but really quite unnerving. When reading books like this where any kind of injustice is taking place I invariably find my nails curling into my palms with frustration as I will the heroine on. Darlings of the Asylum passed that test with flying colours. My only niggle was that I think it has been badly edited. Usually I beg for an axe but this time I wanted more. I found myself completely engrossed throughout, especially when there are a few twists. What I really liked about this book is how Violet is an unreliable narrator and you start to wonder if she really does have some mental health problems.
Other reviewers have critiqued the romance aspect of the book as antithetical to the book's message or Violet's realizations about the damaging effects of the patriarchy, which is fair, but I'm not wholly against the fact that Violet had a relationship with painter dude (whose name I've honestly forgotten) since women are capable of critiquing society and the patriarchy while also having a romantic relationship and/or being taking advantage of by it/men. Unfortunately, women are taken advantage of all of the time, and that doesn't make them lesser or less able to be defiant of societal expectations (not targeting any reviewers here; this is just something I've noticed in some critics of popular media and I wanted to point it out). However, as I mentioned above, the romance just didn't make sense; I only cared about painter dude because of what he did for Violet, and half the time I didn't really know whether she was meant to be "in love" with him or not (needless to say, when they started boning on the asylum floor for some reason while scheming a plan to get her out, I was VERY confused). It felt like he was hardly mentioned anyways, apart from instances when she was trying to figure out an escape plan (which, again, I wasn't a fan of the romance bit, so I'm quite happy that he was almost never mentioned). The more she is pushed into the marriage, the more she rebels until one night she finds herself forced into an engagement party she claims to have no knowledge of. The following morning Violet wakes to find herself incarcerated in a lunatic asylum, which happened (as we now know) to far too many people with mental health problems. The story starts with a young woman Violet, who is under pressure from her over bearing mother to marry an eligible young man who has wealth, and therefore able to help the family financially. But Violet has other idea's, she dreams of becoming an artist's muse and eventually becoming an artist herself. The narrative is strong, and the character of Violet is clearly detailed, but the story is not new as the reader simply waits for the inevitable, which has to be when Violet’s cleverness overcomes the doctor. There are some very good sections that cover the final scenarios, which do keep the reader wondering what the outcome will be, which in fact turns out to be quite unexpected and puzzling. The story begins in Brighton in 1886 with a marriage being arranged between our narrator Violet Pring and the wealthy Felix Skipp-Borlase. Violet is fond of Felix but she knows she doesn’t love him and doesn’t want to marry him – what she really wants is to be free to pursue a career as an artist and she’s not ready to give up on her dream. The more her mother tries to push her into the marriage, the more Violet tries to resist until things finally reach a climax and a tragedy occurs. The next day, with no memory of what happened, Violet wakes up to find herself incarcerated in Hillwood Grange Lunatic Asylum.In her new cage, Violet faces an even greater challenge: she must escape the clutches of a sinister and formidable doctor and set herself free. Furthermore, this book fails to really confront the misogyny inherent in the persecution of "hysterical,"/ free thinking women with its attempt at a twist ending which seems to justify Violet's treatment and imply that women who do not fit the social expectations are mentally ill. In a society where women have almost no autonomy or social standing except in relation to their husband, it is misogyny to disparage women for their ability to thrive in such a patriarchy. I was really hoping that Violet would learn to better understand the other women around her and develop some empathy. She doesn't.
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