98 Reasons For Being

by Clare Dudman (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $4.37

  In1850s Frankfurt, a Jewish girl named Hannah Meyer entersthe town asylum, rumoured to be suffering from nymphomania.She is treated byDr Heinrich Hoffmann, physician and famed author of the book of children's cautionary tales, Struwwelpeter,whouses everymethodfrom ice packs to electrodesin an effort to cure her. Nothing works, until he resorts to talking -- telling her anecdotes from his youth, revealingthe case historiesof Hannah's fellow patients, confessing to his troubled home life. Only then does Hannah begin to yield herhauntingtale of love, prejudice and transgression.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2004

  $6.58

  Hanna is a German Jewish girl apparently suffering from 'nymphomania', which in 19th-century Germany means she has had a premarital relationship with a man. Assigned to treat her is Dr Heinrich Hoffman, whose efforts to get her to talk about her 'problem' meet with failure - until he starts to tell her about his other patients, like schizophrenic Robert, who hears voices (Flying Robert) and Lise, who cuts herself with scissors (Little Suck-a-thumb). As Hoffman opens up, gradually revealing the unhappiness in his own life, Hanna begins to speak about the love affair that led her to the asylum. But as her confidence grows it is Hoffman who begins to depend emotionally on her, to equate her pain with his grief at the absence of his troubled son, and to question what he has achieved in his life - the only thing that seems to have lasted is a children's book of silly rhymes and pictures - surely that can't count for anything!