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    Mary Toft; or, the Rabbit Queen: A Novel
    Mary Toft; or, the Rabbit Queen: A Novel
    Mary Toft; or, the Rabbit Queen: A Novel
    Audiobook13 hours

    Mary Toft; or, the Rabbit Queen: A Novel

    Written by Dexter Palmer

    Narrated by Susan Lyons

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    In 1726, in the town of Godalming, England, a woman confounded the nation’s medical community by giving birth to seventeen rabbits. This astonishing true story is the basis for Dexter Palmer’s stunning, powerfully evocative new novel.

    Surgeon’s apprentice Zachary Walsh knows that his master, John Howard, prides himself on his rationality. But John cannot explain how or why Mary Toft, the wife of a local journeyman, has managed to give birth to a dead rabbit. When this singular event be¬comes a regular occurrence, John and Zach¬ary realize that nothing in their experience as rural physicians has prepared them to deal with a situation like this—strange, troubling, and possibly miraculous. John contacts sev¬eral of London’s finest surgeons, three of whom soon arrive in Godalming to observe, argue, and perhaps use the case to cultivate their own fame.

    When King George I learns of Mary’s plight, she and her doctors are summoned to London, where Zachary experiences a world far removed from his small-town ex¬istence and is exposed to some of the dark¬est corners of the human soul. All the while Mary lies in bed, as doubts begin to blossom among her caretakers and a growing group of onlookers waits with impatience for an¬other birth, another miracle.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateNov 19, 2019
    ISBN9781980055693
    Mary Toft; or, the Rabbit Queen: A Novel

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    Reviews for Mary Toft; or, the Rabbit Queen

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      In 1726, in a small town in England, a physician is called to the bedside of a woman who is giving birth... to a rabbit. A dead rabbit. A dead, grotesquely dismembered rabbit. What could possibly be going on here? Is it the greatest medical discovery of the ages? A miracle sent by God? Something the woman must have brought on herself, somehow, with her thoughts or her actions? Those are the only reasonable possibilities, right?Bizarrely, this is actually based on a true story. Although "true story" may be something of a slippery concept, and that is in fact the main theme of the novel: the ways in which human beings convince ourselves to believe things that may not be true, the ways those beliefs can take on an independent reality of their own once they're at large in the world, and the ways in which people with the power to do so project and impose those beliefs onto the lives and the bodies of others.One might possibly complain that the novel ends up getting a bit heavy-handed with those themes, or that it seems to promise to be a very different kind of story at the beginning than the philosophical meditation it basically turns into. But for me, it worked quite well, and the ideas it's examining feel at once like universals of human experience and as if they've very, very specifically relevant to the world we're living in right this moment.
    • 5/5
      This book--coupled with another I had read earlier this year, Bunny--led me to muse on rabbits, and how they are associated with the grotesque. There are not only these two novels, but the infamous rabbit-boiling scene in Fatal Attraction, and the human-sized rabbit in Donnie Darko, and probably some other examples I am forgetting. What is it about rabbits, associated as they are with innocence and cuteness, but also promiscuity and out-of-control breeding, that lends so well to horror? There's a whole essay there, probably, if I could be bothered to write it.The rabbits in this story were not, strictly speaking, fictional, as this was based on a true story of a woman in 1726 rural England who suddenly began giving birth to rabbits, which convinced many people for a little while that she was miraculous. It's an interesting story, and Palmer dramatizes it well, but he also elevates it well above just a strange-but-true retelling. There is one chapter, midway through, written in Mary's voice, and it was there I realized that Palmer was really talking about the battle over ownership of women's bodies, particularly their reproductive organs, that is still ongoing:"That need of his to occupy the space inside me, claim it as his own. ... The rule of men: all spaces must be filled." The story of a woman giving birth to rabbits is truly an argument for bodily autonomy. And Palmer carries it further than just women's rights to own their own bodies, but extends that idea to everyone who has been dehumanized because their bodies do not conform to what is considered the norm. He populates his story with other freaks of the day, who nevertheless do not see themselves as freaks but as human: a woman with a facial birthmark, conjoined twins, a black man. In contrast, there are the idle rich who revel in the grotesque and the dehumanization of others, who dress themselves up ridiculously but see themselves as beautiful. This novel is all about how we perceive others and the reality we weave for ourselves as we tell ourselves the story of who we are and who everyone else is, and what is acceptable and what is freakish, and who has the rights of humanity and who does not. And also about how those perceptions can, and should, change--how we can rewrite our own story of our collective humanity.When I got to the end, to the conversation that Mary's doctor, John Howard (a wonderfully drawn character) has with her alone about belief, about choosing what is true, and about what happens when God is brought into the room--it's amazing writing, and it gave me so much more to think about than I bargained for when I picked up this slim novel. So far, I have read all three of Palmer's novels, and each one has surpassed the last.
    • 5/5
      I loved this weird book based on a true event in the 1700s where a woman gave birth to 17 rabbits to the astonishment of her male doctors. Palmer takes this story and turns it into a dive into fiction vs. reality, weirdness vs. normality, and male voices silencing women. I highly recommend it. I didn't know what to expect and was thrilled with what I got.
    • 4/5
      Palmer's third novel confirms that the author likely intends to show some range throughout his bibliography. Each of his novels is wildly different from the next, and I personally love and respect that. In the same way that a writer such as Kazuo Ishiguro can pen half a dozen novels that resemble one another only in their themes of identity and acceptance, Palmer addresses the power of belief, the wonder of magic, and the role technology plays; and he does this whether he's penning a steampunk-influenced retelling of Shakespeare, or a physics-laden exploration of time travel. This time, Palmer steers the reader into the lane of historical fiction.Have you heard of Mary Toft, the woman who gave birth to rabbits? I hadn't, but I could already tell you how this story would end. And it amazes me that the experts spent so much time looking for an explanation when the answer was so obvious. Dexter Palmer does an amazing job of shaping these characters in a way that makes their assumptions believable. In hindsight, it's maybe too easy to say, "well, duh," but after reading this novel, whether it accurately depicts the doctors' true opinions and feelings at the time or not, I can see a different perspective.Palmer's larger points about humanity's need to believe were spot on, though they may have dominated the story at times. Even with these asides, Mary Toft is strangely riveting. That said, Mary Toft has several horrific moments, a few which are revolting enough to distance some readers. Readers weary of seeing the worst in people may want avoid this one.
    • 3/5
      kind of disappointing but interesting enough I guess, based on a true story but lacking any insight into the "why" of the situation. it's a good story about groupthink and corruption and misogyny though and the ending was fairly powerful.
    • 4/5
      I'm a fan of Dexter Palmer's 'Version Control' so I'll probably delve into whatever he writes from now on. With this one, I'm glad to know his books will be vastly different! Rather than the book of the near future and technology (and time travel) of 'Version Control', Mary Toft goes to the past with a fictional account of the real woman giving birth to many rabbits. Already, based on the topics, 'Version Control' is this universal, prescient, necessary book of where humans are heading, while 'Mary Toft' heads back to the past of 1726 with this very niche event. NOW, I really don't want to compare these books, as it's like comparing rabbits to self-driving cars. It's certainly not fair to the books to compare! But I can't help but love one of the books more than the other. (Palmer also wrote a third book first 'The Dream of Perpetual Motion', which I also can't wait to eventually read!)Following Zachary, a young surgeon's apprentice, the mystery of a woman giving birth to rabbits every couple of days, stuns a small town in England in 1726. I was waiting to hear Mary's side of the story. I know Mr. Palmer is too smart of a writer not to withhold Mary's side for a reason. At one point, one character asks Zachary how Mary feels, and he is surprised that he doesn't know. I was glad that we hear a bit of Mary's perspective in the middle of the book, though it would have made more sense of the times to leave her perspective out completely. Mary's voice might even be the more interesting portion of the book, even though she is considered "stupid" and no one really listens to her.While this book is a marvel of seemingly being torn right from 1726 (maybe Mr. Palmer really does have a time machine), I did have trouble delving into the book and was distracted. Possibly this is just wrong book/ wrong time for me and completely my own fault as Mr. Palmer certainly knows what he is doing. He does say a lot about truth and public delusion. What I think really makes this book special: there is a character in 'Version Control' that is told that he can only write books about his race as a black person, and it broke my heart that this happened to this character, and I was really really hoping something like this didn't actually happen to Dexter Palmer or any other writer. (Note: this is almost like the reverse of 'ownvoices' where writers are told they can ONLY write about race and their race.) So I'm just happy that Mr. Palmer writes about whatever the hell he damn well pleases.
    • 5/5
      "Consider," Fox said, "the woman with child who reads. Who seeks to occupy her mind with matters of art and science at a time when she is intended to to embrace the role assigned to her by God, that of a wife, and of a mother. Who spends her days in the company of imaginary folk such as Moll Flanders and Roxana the Fortunate Mistress, while her belly swells and her needle goes neglected. Who fails to meditate on her responsibility to the new life that grows inside her. Such a woman's thought is torn in two directions--is it no surprise that if she were to give birth to a child in such an afflicted state of mind, that it would assume the most hideous of manifestations?""Behold," Fox said, "the woman with two heads."This is the story of the extraordinary story of Mary Toft, a woman in Godalming, England who, in the early eighteenth century, gave birth to rabbits. Told from the point of view of the local surgeon and man-midwife's apprentice, the story begins with a traveling "Exhibition of Medical Curiosities" that comes to town and amazes Zachary, even as his father, the local clergyman and John Howard, the local doctor, differ in what they find extraordinary about the spectacle. Soon after, John Howard and Zachary are called to assist a woman in labor. The woman, Mary Toft, gives birth to pieces of rabbit. She will continue to give birth to rabbit parts a few times a week and it isn't long before people from London become involved, and things become ever more confusing and complicated. Dexter Palmer's novel is a wonderfully written historical novel that subtly explores ideas about perception and truth, while delivering a hugely enjoyable look at England in the eighteenth century. I especially liked how Palmer explored how women were thought of and treated and how that affected them. These themes never get in the way of what is an entertaining story and they remain on my mind days after finishing. Palmer's previous novel was set in the near future and explored concepts arising from time travel. It seems that he is an author who can tackle any genre successfully. I'm now hugely curious as to what his next novel will be.And I will tell you this about God--that despite his presumed omnipresence he often arrives in the company of men; that men fear to interpret the world on their own authority when they are aware of his presence, because his senses are complete and perfect and his experiences are unlimited; that the standards for proof are much higher when God is involved, especially proof of life, or of what goes on inside a woman's body; that weighed against God's displeasure, or against a man's feeling that God is displeased by his actions, the life of one woman is no great thing.
    • 5/5
      2020 TOB--I'm not sure I would have read this book if it hadn't been part of the Tournament of Books. What a pleasant surprise.I hadn't heard the story of Mary Toft before. If you haven't don't look it up until you're almost through with the book. This quite simply put is the story of a village woman in the early 1700's who births rabbits. The village doctor and his apprentice tend to her but feel they need help so several doctors from London come to check out the situation. They take Mary to London along with the village doctor and his apprentice where everything unfolds.While in London, the doctor's apprentice gets to experience the city for the first time. (This was the only part of the book that dragged a little for me.)While the story is interesting, what is really great is the author's, Dexter Palmer's, telling of it. His introspective thoughts on reality and perception (including as those relate to God) are stellar.
    • 5/5
      This is one of the most interesting, bizarre, and readable books I've read in a long time. A totally weird story based on real facts from Eighteenth Century England -- a woman gives birth to dismembered rabbit parts. Mainly told from the perspective of a young apprentice to a well respected country doctor, this story touches on so many issues that are just as relevant today. What to believe is true when you haven't seen it yourself - or even if you have seen it? Do we just believe what we want to believe? Does not taking a side on an issue really reinforce it? The story says a lot about love between husband and wife even when they are on two sides of an issue. It portrays class struggles in England with great detail and often humor. Loved this book; will definitely look for more by this author.