Nightingales: The Extraordinary Upbringing and Curious Life of Miss Florence Nightingale

What I love about Gillian Gill's biographies is the obvious extensive research of her subject. I had finished reading Gill's second biography on Mary Baker Eddy and was so impressed I knew in the Florence Nightingale biography I would find a well-researched and well-written history of a very complex woman. Gill's subjects are not always easy to understand, but through Gill's research you gain at least a clearer idea of the woman behind the "Lady with the Lamp". A wonderful biography worth reading. I especially enjoyed learning more about Nightingale's family and how important they were in creating Florence Nightingale.

Florence Nightingale's life holds a fascination for me. This is an extremely detailed read and Miss Gill's vocabulary is so extensive that one may desire a dictionary by one's side at times. The lifestyles of the families of privilege during the Victorian era painted a new portrait of a true hero, and opened windows to how those times still effect us today! The descriptions of hospital life during the Crimean War were eye-opening, as were the the illnesses in the Nightingale family were thought provoking from a medical and psycological standpoint. As a nurse myself, I am sorry I have not adequately appreciated "Flo"! Not easy reading, but worth the effort.

This book was wonderful in that it focused on the real person of Florence Nightingale and how she was a product of her unique upbringing and family background. Most biographies of her tend to paint her as a modern-day Teresa of Avila, but this one covers her warts and all. You come away realizing that although she accomplished amazing things in her life, she was still a real person with all kinds of challenges to overcome and a temperament that often worked against her in her efforts to accomplish her goals. That a woman like her would just retreat to a bedroom and live as an invalid for fifty year astounds me. I wonder what she might have accomplished if she had remained active & involved in society in a personal way rather than through letters and personal interviews. I've always admired her, but it's nice to see that she really had foibles and temper tantrums and wasn't the lily-white paragon that some people try to convince women to become.

This book is what it says it is: its about the Nightengales, in particular Florence Nightengale. The important aspect of this book is giving a full and clear surrounding social context of Florence. So not only does one get an better understanding of her temperament and character, but more importantly the intricate sociology of upper-class Englishmen (and women) in the 19th century european society. This broad biography helps illustrate both the importance of temperament (inborn nature of the person) and character (the developed habits of an individual based on the interaction of temperament and environment).

NIGHTINGALES: THE EXTRAORDINARY UPBRINGING AND CURIOUS LIFE OF MISS FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE BY GILLIAN GILL By all accounts, Florence Nightingale was a saint although she belonged to a church that did not make such claim. A privileged Victorian family of sister, mother and father nurtured this enigma. A woman from the British upper classes ventured beyond the drawing rooms, beyond the nurseries, to find vermin and rats and sewage infesting Scutari and the Crimea where she nursed soldiers at war. To read of hospital conditions during the Crimean War is one thing, to see the organization, the singleness of purpose and the dedication that manifested a turnaround in those conditions, is perhaps difficult to fathom given current medical practices. Gillian Gill portrays an ambitious if eccentric Nightingale clan whose reach extended to 10 Downing Street and Buckingham Palace. Sibling rivalry between Florence and young Parthenope was staggering. The development of relationships within the family and those working for them is fully realized. This is a fine book. Let it not be forgotten that Florence's superiors in the Crimea were all male and they watched (and fumed) while a tiny woman succeeded where they had failed. Namely in the care of the wartime solider. Judith Janone Burlington, Vt.