3.5 stars. This was an easy read, the writing is a little simplistic and it's a very short book that reads more like a short story than a novel. I enjoyed the themes but I didn't think this offered much compared to similar books I've read.

What an incredibly powerful and moving story offering an insight into the horrific cruelties suffered by women in asylums. My heart ached for all the female characters so utterly and violently and repeatedly betrayed by the men in their lives and the patriarchal society of late 19th century France.

This was an interesting read and i really liked it for the most part. The spooky element was done well but there were places it could have been pushed further. The characters of Geneviève and Eugenine were interesting and i like the amount of detail they were explored in. This had some interesting moments in this but the anti corset narrative is kinda boring at this point.

Gothic Salpetriere Asylum in Paris. "A prison for women guilty of possessing an opinion."
Once again the history of psychiatry reveals the dominance of men in white coats diagnosing outspoken women, victims of abuse and sexual exploitation and those on the fringes of life and beauty locked away from a society that wishes to distance itself from those who to them are 'not normal'
The author has deftly used real characters from the mid nineteenth century such as Dr Charcot and the Clery family who were involved with the asylum to encompass fictional women either already incarcerated or who, again at the whim of an upset man (husband or father usually) finds a way to put their feisty females out of sight.
There is a hint (and even a contextual mention) of Victor Hugo in the plot and the book very much reflects Paris at that time of such classics as Les Miserables.
I was intrigued by the link to spiritualism and how yet again women who 'hear voices' or 'see ghosts' could only possibly be witches or mad. There is tenderness between siblings and the growing depth of concern for a great character Genevieve, who has lost love, lived loneliness with the asylum then also in love lost life again.
Perhaps Eugenie is the most contrived character but she grows as the plot develops and I did wonder when and how the Ball in the title would appear to make its vital contribution to the story. I was not disappointed.

“Because Madwomen could now evoke desire. Their allure was paradoxical; they aroused both fear and fantasy, horror and sensuality. A fit of hysteria suffered by a hypnotised patient before a rapt audience looked less like a neurological dysfunction than a frantic erotic dance.”
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If a book can be described as visually stunning, then that’s how I would describe The Madwoman’s Ball, something that made sense when I learn that the author has worked in the US film industry for some years. I read this book is one glorious sitting and it’s the imagery that has stayed with me; the snow falling outside the Salpêtrière, Eugénie being dragged into the asylum by her father and brother, the patients parading into the ballroom for the Lenten Ball.

Alongside this is the memory of the astonishing cruelties dealt out to the women unfortunate enough to be imprisoned in the asylum, ovarian pressure during a “fit” and worse. The male doctors, many of whom were to become famous off the back of their study of their female patients, seemed to focus on female anatomy as a source of “madness” - it seems that the supposed sins of Eve were still being punished.

A novel which has stuck in my imagination and I can see why it is such a lauded debut.

TW: Mental health, including historical medical treatments and abuse.

Set in Paris in 1885, The Mad Women’s ball is a multi point of view novel which mainly follows two protagonists whose stories intertwine in unexpected ways in the halls of Salpêtrière asylum.

All of Paris is in thrall to Doctor Charcot. Within the walls of the asylum, he performs displays of hypnotism on women who have been deemed mad or hysterical. These displays have made him famous and even the women themselves revel in being chosen to take part in his research. But, as was often the case in the past, many of these women were shut away for being too bold, too outspoken, too strong-willed, simply unwanted and inconvenient to the men in their lives.

After the childhood death of her sister, Geneviève has shunned religion and instead has placed her faith in Doctor Charcot and his new science. She is a stern senior nurse but cares greatly for the patients who reside within the walls of the asylum, truly believing in the work of the good doctor.

Eugénie is just 19 years old and is a fiery spirit, too loud for a woman of her time. That, combined with the fact she can converse with the dead, sees her shunned by her parents, forcibly sent to the asylum to live out the rest of her days.

She arrives just in time for the event of the season. The Madwomen’s Ball brings together the Parisian elite and the patients for one magnificent night of the year. This spectacle is not just to please the masses. You see, it is also a moment of hope for the women shunned by society, a ray of something better and bigger than the walls of their confinement.

When Geneviève and Eugénie collide, faith is tested, loyalties change and Geneviève must put her own life on the line to decide whether her new patient can truly see into the great beyond.

I must say that this novel was a surprise. From my initial reading of the synopsis, I had no idea on the supernatural element. Eugénie’s connection to the dead brings an interesting twist to the story, weaving history with something more. The plot was captivating in parts but fell a little flat in some areas. The pacing was rather slow to start with and then everything happened at once. I must admit it also took a while for me to warm to our protagonists, especially Geneviève.

This novel contains an array of characters, some naive, others wise, but all with a purpose within the story. As a multi point of view novel, we dip in and out of their lives but there is a focus on Geneviève and Eugénie. I enjoyed Eugénie’s point of view the most. She had the most depth to me and her fierce personality made me smile. On the other hand, Geneviève didn’t excite me as much and her charatcer felt forced in places which, in my opinion, let the novel down.

There are many background characters within the story and each woman holds their own past, many having been locked away for simply existing or showing emotion. It is sad to think that this was a true scenario for so many women of the past, with the term ‘hysteria’ being used as a diagnosis for those who threatened the perfect patriarchal society.

I loved the themes of this novel. The exploration of the forgotten women who were wronged by a male dominated society was interesting to me. The supernatural element, though a surprise, was not unwelcome.

Overall it just felt a little underwhelming and I kept waiting for something big to happen but it never did. At the end of the day, despite its faults, The Madwomen’s Ball is a feminist story with truly applaudable themes at its core.

The Salpêtrière asylum, 1885. All of Paris is in thrall to Doctor Charcot and his displays of hypnotism on women who have been deemed mad or hysterical, outcasts from society. But the truth is much more complicated - for these women are often simply inconvenient, unwanted wives or strong-willed daughters. Once a year a grand ball is held at the hospital. For the Parisian elite, the Mad Women's Ball is the highlight of the social season; for the women themselves, it is a rare moment of hope.

Geneviève is a senior nurse. After the childhood death of her sister, she has shunned religion and placed her faith in Doctor Charcot and his new science. But everything begins to change when she meets Eugénie, the 19-year-old daughter of a bourgeois family. Because Eugénie has a secret, and she needs Geneviève's help. Their fates will collide on the night of the Mad Women's Ball...

There are definitely some interesting women living in the asylum at Saltpiétre, under the care of Dr Charcot. We are introduced to Eugénie first, who lives with her parents, brother and grandmother in Paris. While she seems like an archetypal society young lady, there’s something more to Eugénie. Since she was an adolescent she has been seeing and communicating with dead people. This isn’t something she wanted and she’s been keeping it a secret for many years. Not even her brother Théophile or her grandmother know what’s been happening. She finds herself having strange physical symptoms like her limbs feeling heavy, then someone might come to her. One evening while attending to her grandmother before bed, her grandfather appears and starts to tell her that something precious, thought lost forever, is caught under the drawers of her dressing table. Sure enough, as Eugénie takes the drawers out she finds a sentimental piece of jewellery that her grandmother never imagined she’d see again. She trusts her grandmother, so out pours the story that she can communicate with dead people. Eugénie trusts that her secret is safe and never suspects that she could be betrayed by those she loves the most.

This novel’s strength lies in the portrayal of it’s women and the shocking truth of how easy it is for a man to have a woman placed in an asylum. Even more horrifying for me was how the women became objects: a father’s cold decision to choose his reputation and offload her like a defective belonging; a doctor using the women in his performance as an expert in his field; the grotesque spectacle of dressing up the women in costumes to be paraded around in front of Paris society at the ball. The interesting relationship between Geneviève and Eugénie kept me reading, but there was also a fascinating role for the older woman Therése. She seems to be quietly knitting in the corner, but there’s a lot more going on with this woman and she is vital to the smooth running of the ward. This is a fascinating piece of historical fiction, with a feminist perspective and the added bonus of a supernatural element. It questions what makes us ‘mad’ - is someone who believes in spiritualism any more mentally ill than someone who believes in God and the events of the Bible? I definitely recommend this and have to mention the absolutely stunning cover too.

This is an incredibly powerful and moving story set in the World famous Salpetriere Asylum in Paris in the 1800s. The novel creates the perfect gothic atmosphere for its time. This novel is more powerful than any modern dystopian feminist novel to me because it is true and that it is why it’s scary and its impact is so much more. It brings home just how much power men had over women for so long that at the whim of a man any women could be considered mad and institutionalised for the rest of their lives. This book is a brilliant debut and a brilliant and powerful historical novel.

The Mad Women’s Ball, originally published in France as Le Bal de Folles, is a debut novel by Victoria Mas which earned its author rave reviews, literary prizes and critical accolades. It is now being published in an English translation by Frank Wynne, bringing the work to a wider audience.

The novel is set in Paris in the mid-1880s and presents us with two strong female protagonists. On the one hand there’s Genevieve, senior nurse at the Salpetriere, an asylum which houses various madwomen, hysterics and outcasts. Its director, Dr Charcot, experiments with hypnotism on some of his high-profile cases during public lectures which feed the public’s thirst for voyeurism. Genevieve, is a firm believer in the power of science, personified in Charcot and his associates in whom she has full and unconditional faith.

However, Genevieve’s beliefs are challenged when she meets Eugenie, an independent-minded young woman from a bourgeois family, who has been conveniently locked away at the Salpetriere after claiming to converse with ghosts. Is Eugenie delusional, or is she the victim of a patriarchal society, a society which wants to get rid of uncomfortable women?

The “Mad Women’s Ball” of the title is a yearly event held at the asylum during the Lenten period: a costumed ball which gives a rare opportunity to high class society to mingle with the dangerous females of the asylum. Besides becoming itself a metaphor for the abuse suffered by the Salpetriere patients, the ball provides the perfect set-piece for the novel’s denouement.

The Mad Woman’s Ball is an atmospheric work which combines fictional and historical elements (Charcot, as well as some other characters in the book did exist), and its Gothic and supernatural overtones add some frisson to the plot. However, I must admit that I was disappointed overall, and that I expected more from a worked dubbed as a “literary sensation”. While the two protagonists are well drawn and there are some interesting figures in the “supporting cast”, most of the other characters, particularly the male ones, are there merely to serve the plot or to highlight the general nefariousness of the male sex. Indeed, one of the problems of this novel is that it seems to be continuously underlining and highlighting its “message”. Here’s a typical paragraph:

The sole purpose of the corset was clearly to immobilize a woman’s body in a posture considered desirable – it was certainly not intended to allow her free movement. As if intellectual constraints wee not sufficient, women had to be hobbled physically. One might almost think that, in imposing such restrictions, men did not so much scorn women as fear them.

Don’t get me wrong. The novel’s feminist message is laudable, but I think readers should be expected to be intelligent enough to get the point without it having to be explained to them.

Perhaps the real problem is that there are several very good, and some great, works of feminist Gothic and historical fiction available in English – by the likes of Evie Wyld, Sarah Waters, Alison Littlewood, Sarah Perry and Susan Fletcher, to name but a few – which cover the same territory. The Mad Women’s Ball faces stiff competition and while an entertaining and interesting read, I do not feel it is original enough to make it memorable.

I completely enjoyed this lovely novel. Really well written (and translated), it offered an insight into an unusual and interesting subject - the treatment of mental health in the 1800's.
The treatment of women was shocking and the power that male family members legally had over women who did not fit the 'norm' was dreadful. The book highlights this issue sensitively and without drama.
Both of the main characters were relatable and likeable in their own ways. I didn't want to put it down and the story has stayed with me.
I highly recommend this book and I am really excited to see it may be made into a film. It will be fabulous. I would recommend it to young adult readers as well as to grown-ups.
Thank you for the opportunity to read and review an early copy @NetGalley

In the name of medical advancement, the women endured. Mid-nineteenth century "victims of decisions that were taken without their consent". Figures of fascination; those psychologically scarred by rape and torture, or merely medically ill, dismissed as madwomen.

Inside Paris' Salpêtrière, with its separate wings for "hysterics, epileptics, melancholiacs and dotards", head nurse, Geneviève, escorts the incarcerated to the daily public lectures. Here they are poked and prodded by medical men keen to advance their neurological knowledge: "ovarian compressors were used to calm hysterical fits; a hot iron inserted into the vagina reduced clinical symptoms". And it is on one of the wide wards of this hospital that Eugénie finds herself. She has been cast out by her wealthy family because she can hear and see things that others cannot. And her secret is known.

But, when all is said and done, whose behaviour is mad? And who decides? All comes to a head under the watchful eyes of the privileged Parisian elite, eager to ogle the dysfunctional and the grotesque at the swirling, whirling, dance circles of the annual Madwoman's Ball

What a fascinating but also sad read!
It is unbelievable to think how bad women were treated in years gone by and in some instances still today. Women were not allowed to speak their minds or have an opinion on things. It was frown upon and they were seen as mentally unstable and locked up in mental institutions. Well, then I am VERY unstable!!
This story focuses on two women. On the 1 hand, we have Geneviève who has been working as a nurse at La Salpêtrière with the renowned Dr Charcot and who believes in what he is doing.
On the other hand, we have Eugénie whose family writes her off when it comes out she can see and hear dead people and has her committed.
Will these 2 women be able to help each other? I loved all the different characters in the book and my heart was breaking for poor Louise.
I will definitely be reading up about this part of the French history and can see why this book has already won a few prizes.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House UK and Transworld for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Mad Women's Ball was an interesting read. Touching on dark themes using beautiful language and a muted tone, it follows a few short weeks in the lives of several women committed to the infamous (and real) Salpetriere in 1885 in the lead up to the annual ball.

The concept of the ball itself is disturbing enough - each year 400 physically and/or mentally ill women are dressed up and presented to the Paris (male) elite to gawk at.

But when Eugenie arrives at the asylum, committed by her father for claiming to speak with the dead, the asylum's delicate balance is disrupted.

The Mad Women's Ball is similar in theme and setting to Greer Macallister's 2019 novel, "Woman 99", except that Macallister's novel was set in an asylum in London (rather than Paris), it was a sister (rather than a brother) trying to liberate the woman and there were no paranormal elements.

Asylums were horrific places to be in the nineteenth century. Women's asylums were commonly places where girls and women who didn't behave as men wanted them to were locked up.

Some women were genuinely too ill to be cared for elsewhere at the time - in catatonic states, severely mentally ill or with epilepsy (which was little understood in 1885).

Others, however, were incarcerated for decades for simply reacting to their circumstances.

Beautiful Louise was committed at age 13 after her uncle raped her. Displaying clear signs of what we would today consider PTSD, she's instead been locked up for 3 years and hypnotised regularly for the entertainment/"education" of medical interns.

Therese was committed after pushing her unfaithful lover into the Seine. This was the same lover who forced her into prostitution for 10 years. She was beaten regularly by her customers, then by her lover/pimp if she didn't bring enough money back home.

Though by no means insane, Therese found a certain peace in the asylum. She felt safer there than she ever did outside the asylum.

Largely unable to seek financial independence, and valued only for what they can do for men outside of the asylum, it's truly an indictment on society when women feel safer and more at peace in an institution.

It's a reminder that, although we have a long way to go to achieving true equality, we have also come a very, very long way. And we have a very long way to fall back down if we don't keep pushing.

Prix Renaudot des lycéens 2019
The topic of Mas' debut novel is interesting and important: Set in 1880s, it tells the story of the women who were declared mad and committed to the Salpêtrière - mostly, these were perfectly healthy females who refused to play the roles society expected them to and women their families (mainly their husbands) wanted to get rid off for various reasons. There, the patients a.k.a. hysterics were kept like in a prison and treated as research objects by doctors like Jean-Martin Charcot who hypnotised women suffering from trauma and nervous conditions, thus inducing seizures, as a public spectacle. Charcot, his colleague Joseph Babinski and other historic personalities figure, and this could have been an excellent examination (haha, sorry) of the treatment of women, if it wasn't oh so clumsily crafted.

Our main characters are Eugénie, a young woman who can see dead people (this is presented as a fact), reads Le Livre des Esprits (one of the first works on spiritism) and is committed by her father, and Geneviève, a nurse who starts to doubt whether what happens at the Salpêtrière is right. While these two join forces, the yearly "Mad Women's Ball" is approaching, an event where "normal" Parisians can enter the ward and dance, so thus another entertainment spectacle that entails staring at suffering women.

So what's the problem here? Unfortunately, Mas spells out everything: Why every character does what, how everything is connected, why what happens is bad. All characters are stock characters, meant to educate the readers - and it's tedious. There is a fantastic story buried in this undercomplex melodrama, and I hope Mélanie Laurent's movie version will bring it out.

Extra points for the translation though, as it was done by the wonderful Frank Wynne!

Centered around Genevieve a nurse at the Salpêtrière asylum, Paris in the late 1800's and Eugenie a patient, The Mad Women;'s Ball is a tale that fully absorbs you until the very last sentence.

Genevieve is a respected nurse who works closely with the renowned Dr. Charcot. The Dr. uses the patients as test subjects, claiming to be able to resolve and cure their hysteria and 'madness', and Genevieve has no reason to distrust the practice.
Eugenie is committed to the asylum by her father after admitting her secret to him and it is this secret that breaks Genevieve's misplaced perceptions.

The story unfolds slowly, each chapter revealing further information which leaves the reader shocked at the events being played out on the pages. We learn that the inpatients have been committed to the asylum as they are either unwanted wives, prostitutes, or inconvenient females.

The story comes to its climax at the Mad Women's Ball, it is the highlight of the upper-class social season, whereas, for the inpatients, it is a rare moment of misplaced freedom.

Exceptionally rich and detailed characters with an astounding plotline.

The Mad Women's Ball was an interesting and engaging piece of historical fiction with a feminist edge. At a little over 200 pages it was a quick and easy read, yet the story is well paced and the characters well presented, especially Genevieve. Once or twice I wondered if I would have liked something more from it, though I couldn't tell you what, but overall I found it an enjoyable read that looked at the place of women in the late nineteenth century and packed some emotional punch. Recommended for fans of historical fiction.

This felt incredibly short. As if I'd only just got into the story before it finished.
I liked the idea of the story,but due to its length,it felt it needed fleshing out.
For me it all felt like I skim read it.