Resumen
Resumen de Diez días en un manicomio
Para quién es
For readers who love true stories, undercover journalism and social history, and anyone curious about care for the mentally ill, institutional power and the voices of women behind asylum doors.
De qué trata este libro
Ten Days in a Mad-House is a piece of undercover reporting by Nellie Bly, published as a book in 1887. Bly was a young reporter at the New York World, the paper run by Joseph Pulitzer. She took an assignment that few people would have accepted. She was to get herself committed to the women's asylum on Blackwell's Island, in New York's East River, and report what went on behind its doors. She did it, and she stayed ten days before her paper arranged her release.
What you get is a firsthand account of how a woman could be called insane in a matter of minutes, and of how patients lived once the doors closed behind them. It is part adventure story, part exposé and part plea for reform. Bly writes in plain, quick sentences, with her anger held in check and a sharp eye for small, telling details. She wants her readers to feel the cold, the hunger and the fear, and then to ask who is responsible. To understand her daring, you first need to see how she planned it.
En este resumen
- 1A young reporter accepts a risky assignmentFree
- 2Playing mad is easier than it should be
- 3Doctors who did not look closely
- 4Cold, hunger and cruelty behind the doors
- 5Many of the women were not mad
- 6What the exposé changed and how to read it
Idea clave 1 de 6
A young reporter accepts a risky assignment
Nellie Bly was the pen name of a young woman who had already made a mark in newspapers in Pittsburgh. She came to New York and pressed her way into the office of the New York World. Her editors had a job in mind that others might refuse. They wanted someone to be committed to the asylum on Blackwell's Island and to report from the inside.
The risk was plain. Bly would have no way to prove she was a reporter once she was inside. If the plan failed, she might simply vanish into the system she meant to describe. She was not told exactly how she would be got out again, only that she should get inside first. She also knew that doctors and officials might never forgive her for making fools of them.
Before she began, Bly prepared the way an actor might. She practiced the wild, blank looks of a person who has lost her reason, and she tried them out before a mirror. She decided what she would wear and how she would speak. She also resolved to act the part only as far as she needed to get through the door. After that she would behave as the sane woman she was, and she would watch whether anyone noticed.
This opening matters because it sets the test. Bly is asking a simple question that her readers can follow. If a healthy woman walks into the system, will the system find her out? Everything in the book that follows is the answer, and it is not a comforting one.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Nellie Bly
- A young reporter for the New York World, she enters the asylum undercover to investigate the treatment of its patients.
- Asylum patients
- The women confined on Blackwell's Island become Bly's companions, sharing their experiences of institutional neglect and cruelty.
- Asylum staff
- The doctors and nurses control the patients' daily lives and become the subjects of Bly's investigation.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 37,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 2 h 25 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 10 other languages
Questions about Diez días en un manicomio
What is Ten Days in a Mad-House about?
It tells how Nellie Bly pretended to be insane so she could be committed to the women's asylum on Blackwell's Island in New York. She then reported on the conditions and treatment she and the other patients faced.
Is Ten Days in a Mad-House a true story?
Yes. Bly wrote it as a factual account from her own experience in 1887, first as articles for the New York World. It is reporting, though written with a campaigning voice, and some details were disputed at the time.
Who was Nellie Bly?
Nellie Bly was the pen name of Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, a pioneering American reporter. She worked for Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and became known for undercover work and for her trip around the world.
Where is Blackwell's Island?
Blackwell's Island was a narrow island in New York's East River. In the 1800s it held public institutions, including a prison, a hospital and the women's lunatic asylum where Bly was held. It is now called Roosevelt Island.
Is Ten Days in a Mad-House hard to read?
No. It is short, written in plain nineteenth century prose and told as a clear first-person account. Most readers find it quick and easy to follow.