Book club: Fifteen Wild Decembers by Karen Powell

WUTHERING HEIGHTS, by Emily Brontë, is said to have been the 20th century’s favourite Victorian novel. Yet, in 1847, its sophisticated "Chinese box" narrative structure, its radical investigation of the primitive and the pagan, and its use of Yorkshire dialect baffled the reviewers, most of whom were metrocentric men.Writing in our post-feminist culture, Karen Powell has her own version of Emily narrated in the first person, as in Charlotte’s Jane Eyre and Anne’s Agnes Grey. This gives a shar...

Anesthesia and Queen Victoria

Anesthesia and Queen VictoriaHow did the son of a laborer from York end up as a physician in London among the most prominent members of British society, and be asked to administer chloroform on two occasions to Queen Victoria? The answer appears here. REMARKABLE JOURNEY Following his working-class start in life, John Snow toiled long and hard to become a physician. Early during his illustrious career he developed a lasting interest in anesthetic agents. ...