BOOK REVIEW: Flowers from the Storm

The downsizing of my library is complete. I now have a better understanding of Hercules and the Augean Stables. The difference is that he probably did not find some hidden gems nor have I ever heard that he hid those gems under his bed.One of the gems that I found is FLOWERS FROM THE STORM by Laura Kinsale. Kinsale has taken the Regency Romance to a slightly different level.

Maddy Timms is a quiet Quaker living with her blind father. Her only contact with the Duke of Jervaulx is when she delivers her father's mathematical paper to the Duke's home. The brilliant duke and Mr. Timms have been working on proof of an obscure mathematical solution with hopes of presenting the paper to the Analytical Society of the  Royal Institution on Albemarle Street.

Unfortunately, before this important meeting, the Duke, while leaving the bedroom of his present mistress, feels an unpleasant tingling and numbness in his right hand and a weird overall feeling. As he descends the staircase in his mistress' home he meets her husband at the foot of the stairs.

The next time Maddy goes to the home of the Duke, she finds the place in an uproar. The Duke has become a dangerous lunatic and is being taken to an institution for the insane. What follows is Maddy's attempts to save Jervaulx against his family's insistence that he be found incompetent so that his vast wealth can be turned over to them. So far, we have the makings of a typical romance novel.

What made this book so fascinating was the Duke's illness and how it was treated. Naturally, it was never stated that he had suffered a stroke. Little would have been known of aneurysms or hemorrhaging of the brain during the early 1800's.  All that the people around him could see was that he had lost his ability to communicate and that he became violent when his attempts were frustrating.

The conditions of the "hospital" where Jervaulx was institutionalized was probably better than most, but still filled with what a modern reader would only see as inhumane treatment. The fact that a duke would expect very special privileges did not help his relationships with his caretakers.

It also was to the author's credit to be able to keep Maddy true to her Quaker beliefs. Her conflict of her attraction to Jervaulx, her horror of his life style, and her loyalty to her father and the Society of Friends were never glossed over. Instead, we worried for her and her Calling to help this man who was so far out of her experience.

FLOWERS FROM THE STORM appeared on my nightstand at the perfect time. I needed a read that was not too deep of a medical study and yet, not too fluffy. Thanks to author Laura Kinsale, I found a little gem.