Books in Brief: Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale, by Elspeth Huxley (Putnam, 254 pp., illus., $15).

Thank God Florence Nightingale discovered nursing. If she hadn’t, the old girl would have been completely unbearable. As it was, millions of lives were saved, untold agony was spared, and her ordinarily negative streaks of stubbornness, hysteria, and monomania were all put to good use. But Florence was far more than an energetic zealot who happened to hook up with a worthy cause. She was a woman of striking character and intellect with a remarkable gift for inspiring trust, friendship, and reverence in such varied characters as Sidney Herbert, Queen Victoria, Sir Harry Verney, and the Aga Khan. Certainly, whatever else may be said about her, she was one of the most talented and interesting Englishwomen of the nineteenth century. Now, in Elspeth Huxley, she has found her counterpart—a biographer who, as veteran NR readers will know, is a talented and interesting Englishwoman in her own right. Mrs. Huxley’s style, which is sympathetic but never syrupy, strikes just the right balance, and the many period engravings and photos are, for the most part, well-chosen (although a portrait of Gordon of Khartoum in Egyptian uniform is erroneously identified as being in Indian dress). This is a very attractive “cocoa table” volume, about one of England’s most unusual and, in her own way, most liberated women.

AB

About the Author

Aram Bakshian Jr.

Featured Tags

Florence Nightingale, by Elspeth Huxley (Putnam, 254 pp., illus., $15).

Thank God Florence Nightingale discovered nursing. If she hadn’t, the old girl would have been completely unbearable. As it was, millions of lives were saved, untold agony was spared, and her ordinarily negative streaks of stubbornness, hysteria, and monomania were all put to good use. But Florence was far more than an energetic zealot who happened to hook up with a worthy cause. She was a woman of striking character and intellect with a remarkable gift for inspiring trust, friendship, and reverence in such varied characters as Sidney Herbert, Queen Victoria, Sir Harry Verney, and the Aga Khan. Certainly, whatever else may be said about her, she was one of the most talented and interesting Englishwomen of the nineteenth century. Now, in Elspeth Huxley, she has found her counterpart—a biographer who, as veteran NR readers will know, is a talented and interesting Englishwoman in her own right. Mrs. Huxley’s style, which is sympathetic but never syrupy, strikes just the right balance, and the many period engravings and photos are, for the most part, well-chosen (although a portrait of Gordon of Khartoum in Egyptian uniform is erroneously identified as being in Indian dress). This is a very attractive “cocoa table” volume, about one of England’s most unusual and, in her own way, most liberated women.