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Florence Nightingale
Draws on research by army historians to describe the cover-up of disastrous events in the Crimea, and to separate Nightingale's real achievements from her mythical ones.
382 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1951
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About the author
Cecil Woodham-Smith
47 books15 followersCecil Blanche Woodham-Smith (née Fitzgerald) was a British historian and biographer. She wrote four popular history books, each dealing with a different aspect of the Victorian era.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
March 20, 2012
I don't usually write reviews because I feel I can never do the book justice. But for this one I'm going to try.
If I could give this book 10 stars, I would. Incredibly well-written, well organized, and obviously well researched.
I love reading biographies but I've often found the biographer tends to present the subject of the book as not human ( flawed; grey). When it's about someone considered "good" the person is almost portrayed as an angel or a saint; when it's someone "bad", they're always evil and cunning without a single good bone in their bodies. Which is of course, absurd. We all have good bits and bad bits, and this book does an incredible job of showing the reader the many sides of Florence Nightingale.
I didn't know much about her (apart from the "creator of nursing" thing), and I was absolutely blown away by how much of her life was dedicated towards not just nursing, but sanitation reforms ( In England and India), in creating better living and fighting conditions for the soldiers, reforming military - an eventually civilian - hospitals.
The book does an incredible job of showing the pattern and evolution of her work, how she went from a rich girl reading medical books behind her parents' back to being a nurse in the Crimean War, and then eventually revolutionizing the entire concept of sanitation and health.
She sacrificed her life, her health, and sometimes her friend's lives, for the cause. She never stopped, never took no for an answer, she worked and worked and worked, until she changed the world.
I honestly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. Even if you don't necessarily care about nursing, Nightingale's charm and Woodham-Smith's writing will win you over. And it's always worth it to know a little more about someone who - I believe- was one of the greatest human beings to pass this Earth.
If I could give this book 10 stars, I would. Incredibly well-written, well organized, and obviously well researched.
I love reading biographies but I've often found the biographer tends to present the subject of the book as not human ( flawed; grey). When it's about someone considered "good" the person is almost portrayed as an angel or a saint; when it's someone "bad", they're always evil and cunning without a single good bone in their bodies. Which is of course, absurd. We all have good bits and bad bits, and this book does an incredible job of showing the reader the many sides of Florence Nightingale.
I didn't know much about her (apart from the "creator of nursing" thing), and I was absolutely blown away by how much of her life was dedicated towards not just nursing, but sanitation reforms ( In England and India), in creating better living and fighting conditions for the soldiers, reforming military - an eventually civilian - hospitals.
The book does an incredible job of showing the pattern and evolution of her work, how she went from a rich girl reading medical books behind her parents' back to being a nurse in the Crimean War, and then eventually revolutionizing the entire concept of sanitation and health.
She sacrificed her life, her health, and sometimes her friend's lives, for the cause. She never stopped, never took no for an answer, she worked and worked and worked, until she changed the world.
I honestly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. Even if you don't necessarily care about nursing, Nightingale's charm and Woodham-Smith's writing will win you over. And it's always worth it to know a little more about someone who - I believe- was one of the greatest human beings to pass this Earth.
January 18, 2021
Creo que hoy más que nunca estamos valorando como corresponde a todas aquellas personas que se dedican a cuidar la salud. La lectura de la biografía de Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), una enfermera británica, no pudo haber sido más adecuada para este momento.
Cecil Woodham-Smith es una historiadora galesa que accedió a la correspondencia de Nightingale y leyó incontables documentos para armar esta biografía. Se nota su dedicación porque es detallista, pone su atención en lo importante y además narra de una forma amena. No “aburre” haciendo una lista de fechas y sucesos. Y Florence Nightingale, por su parte, es una mujer que en plena época victoriana se dedicó a la enfermería, a mejorar el estado de los hospitales, a formar enfermeras, a armar estadísticas y a cambiar el trato hacia los pacientes. Estuvo en la guerra de Crimea y eso la marcó para siempre.
La biografía deja en claro la resistencia que opusieron los Nightingale a los deseos de su hija. Las familias acomodadas preferían que las mujeres no trabajaran y que se dedicaran al matrimonio y a perpetuar esa mini sociedad privada: la familia. Además, ser enfermera implicaba estar en contacto con hombres y eso provocaba que muchas personas las vieran con malos ojos. Woodham-Smith no saltea estos temas, así como tampoco sortea el anti-feminismo de Nightingale (parece que después se arrepintió de haber sido tan dura) y el comportamiento egoísta que tuvo con mucha gente que la ayudó. Las luces y las sombras de alguien muy capaz y muy obstinada están presentes en el libro y eso me parece fantástico, ya que no pone a Nightingale en un pedestal. Simplemente, se la presenta como fue.
Hacia el final, están las fuentes de la investigación de Woodham-Smith, cosa que no hizo más que aumentar mi interés y mi lista de libros por leer.
Admiré a Nightingale y discutí con ella muchas veces, casi en voz alta. Nunca reaccioné tanto a una biografía y tampoco me extraña: Nightingale vivió en una época que me fascina por los cambios sociales y culturales. Trabajó de lo que quiso, se forjó una reputación y vio (pero ignoró) cómo la lucha de las mujeres se volvía imparable.
Cecil Woodham-Smith es una historiadora galesa que accedió a la correspondencia de Nightingale y leyó incontables documentos para armar esta biografía. Se nota su dedicación porque es detallista, pone su atención en lo importante y además narra de una forma amena. No “aburre” haciendo una lista de fechas y sucesos. Y Florence Nightingale, por su parte, es una mujer que en plena época victoriana se dedicó a la enfermería, a mejorar el estado de los hospitales, a formar enfermeras, a armar estadísticas y a cambiar el trato hacia los pacientes. Estuvo en la guerra de Crimea y eso la marcó para siempre.
La biografía deja en claro la resistencia que opusieron los Nightingale a los deseos de su hija. Las familias acomodadas preferían que las mujeres no trabajaran y que se dedicaran al matrimonio y a perpetuar esa mini sociedad privada: la familia. Además, ser enfermera implicaba estar en contacto con hombres y eso provocaba que muchas personas las vieran con malos ojos. Woodham-Smith no saltea estos temas, así como tampoco sortea el anti-feminismo de Nightingale (parece que después se arrepintió de haber sido tan dura) y el comportamiento egoísta que tuvo con mucha gente que la ayudó. Las luces y las sombras de alguien muy capaz y muy obstinada están presentes en el libro y eso me parece fantástico, ya que no pone a Nightingale en un pedestal. Simplemente, se la presenta como fue.
Hacia el final, están las fuentes de la investigación de Woodham-Smith, cosa que no hizo más que aumentar mi interés y mi lista de libros por leer.
Admiré a Nightingale y discutí con ella muchas veces, casi en voz alta. Nunca reaccioné tanto a una biografía y tampoco me extraña: Nightingale vivió en una época que me fascina por los cambios sociales y culturales. Trabajó de lo que quiso, se forjó una reputación y vio (pero ignoró) cómo la lucha de las mujeres se volvía imparable.
March 30, 2022
Me ha gustado MUCHO. Quiero hacer una reseña en condiciones en el canal, pero vamos, menudo descubrimiento de historia, de mujer y de todo ❤️
4,5⭐️ más que merecidas
4,5⭐️ más que merecidas
November 24, 2021
This 1950 biography was first recommended to me in a conversation seven years ago, and has cropped up with some regularity since. The recommendation has always been accompanied by the comment that this book is hard to get hold of as it is out of print. Copies do now seem to be available on Amazon, but I read a copy from The London Library.
It is astonishingly good.
Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, the subject of this biography was clearly remarkable. I hadn’t previously appreciated the full breadth of Nightingale’s achievements or the strength of her character, and I was blown away.
Secondly, this is brilliantly written. The prose is exact, the subject matter is well-organised and clearly explained, and the depth of the underlying research almost drips off the page. It feels like it could have been published today, and yet is a little over seventy years old. This is one of those biographies that gives real insight into the character of the subject, and draws out clear lessons from their life: it is so much more than a list of facts. I can scarcely believe that this was Woodham-Smith’s first history book: hers was clearly a remarkable talent.
Perhaps those who know a little more about Nightingale’s life would take less from this than I did, but this is one of my favourite books of the year.
Some quotations:
❦
Women don't consider themselves as human beings at all. There is absolutely no God, no country, no duty to them at all, except family . . . I have known a good deal of convents. And of course everyone has talked of the petty grinding tyrannies supposed to be exercised there. But I know nothing like the petty grinding tyranny of a good English family. And the only alleviation is that the tyrannised submits with a heart full of affection.
❦
Beneath the fascination, the sense of fun, the gentle hesitating manner, the demure wit, there was the hard coldness of steel.
“She is so excessively gentle in voice, manner, and movement, that one never feels the unbendableness of her character when one is near her. Her powers are astonishing.”
❦
Her calmness, her resource, her power to take action raised her to the position of a goddess.
❦
She was a haunted woman, but she was pursued not by ghosts but by facts, the facts of preventable disease.
❦
No one appreciated what she was being forced to renounce for the sake of the work. She grew angry and the characteristics which had been so marked in her youth, the benevolence, the patience, the quality which Clarkey described as "Flo's extraordinary bonté" faded. Her astonishing mind developed; her penetration, infinite capacity for taking pains, persistence, iron will to work, scrupulous sense of fair play became still more extraordinary, but the woman of her early years gradually ceased to exist.
❦
In old age an extraordinary atmosphere of peace flowed from her. She was formidable still; she preserved her rule of seeing only one person at a time and bent her whole attention on her visitor, making you feel, it was said, like a sucked orange, but she was animated now by the purest benevolence. To confide in her was irresistible.
It is astonishingly good.
Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, the subject of this biography was clearly remarkable. I hadn’t previously appreciated the full breadth of Nightingale’s achievements or the strength of her character, and I was blown away.
Secondly, this is brilliantly written. The prose is exact, the subject matter is well-organised and clearly explained, and the depth of the underlying research almost drips off the page. It feels like it could have been published today, and yet is a little over seventy years old. This is one of those biographies that gives real insight into the character of the subject, and draws out clear lessons from their life: it is so much more than a list of facts. I can scarcely believe that this was Woodham-Smith’s first history book: hers was clearly a remarkable talent.
Perhaps those who know a little more about Nightingale’s life would take less from this than I did, but this is one of my favourite books of the year.
Some quotations:
❦
Women don't consider themselves as human beings at all. There is absolutely no God, no country, no duty to them at all, except family . . . I have known a good deal of convents. And of course everyone has talked of the petty grinding tyrannies supposed to be exercised there. But I know nothing like the petty grinding tyranny of a good English family. And the only alleviation is that the tyrannised submits with a heart full of affection.
❦
Beneath the fascination, the sense of fun, the gentle hesitating manner, the demure wit, there was the hard coldness of steel.
“She is so excessively gentle in voice, manner, and movement, that one never feels the unbendableness of her character when one is near her. Her powers are astonishing.”
❦
Her calmness, her resource, her power to take action raised her to the position of a goddess.
❦
She was a haunted woman, but she was pursued not by ghosts but by facts, the facts of preventable disease.
❦
No one appreciated what she was being forced to renounce for the sake of the work. She grew angry and the characteristics which had been so marked in her youth, the benevolence, the patience, the quality which Clarkey described as "Flo's extraordinary bonté" faded. Her astonishing mind developed; her penetration, infinite capacity for taking pains, persistence, iron will to work, scrupulous sense of fair play became still more extraordinary, but the woman of her early years gradually ceased to exist.
❦
In old age an extraordinary atmosphere of peace flowed from her. She was formidable still; she preserved her rule of seeing only one person at a time and bent her whole attention on her visitor, making you feel, it was said, like a sucked orange, but she was animated now by the purest benevolence. To confide in her was irresistible.
May 2, 2024
Meticulously researched biography of the famed nurse and humanitarian. Recent historians have leveled much criticism at Florence Nightingale, from her resistance to germ theory and unpleasant personality, which even Woodham-Smith's account doesn't entirely avoid. What emerges is a portrait of a deeply troubled woman possessed of a single-minded nature. Unquestionably, her achievements in the Crimea and afterwards, raising standards of nursing and medical treatment in general, drawing attention to sanitation concerns and reforming military medicine, succeeded because of this. This also informed Nightingale's often vindictive personality, which viewed people as means to an end (read her treatment of Sidney Herbert) and eschewed true friendship. Like so many great personages, what made Nightingale such a force for good made her a frightful person.
April 2, 2023
Florence Nightingale is a very familiar name, but in my 70 years of life I’ve never troubled to learn more about her than that she was a pioneering nurse who began her career in the Crimean War, where she came to be known as ‘the lady with the lamp’. Now that I’ve read this biography, I’m a bit flabbergasted by my own ignorance.
Hers was a life of service and struggle that is nothing less than superhuman. Her efforts to free herself from the bonds of family duty were protracted and difficult, both because of the vehemence of the family’s resistance to her plans and because her own exacting conscience had to be convinced. When she was at last at liberty to learn the business of nursing, there wasn’t much training to be had. Four months of medical training in Germany may have been the extent of her formal instruction. She took on the management of a charity that cared for sick gentlewomen, and proved her competence to certain persons with political influence.
When Britain went to war in the Crimea, she secured backers and recruited nurses for the provision of nursing services for the army. She was ever mindful of the potentially disastrous political consequences for the project if her nurses misbehaved; she placed great stress upon their moral character, and had insisted upon absolute power to dismiss any nurse who didn’t live up to her high expectations. She was never one to be telling the army what should be done, but instead took up opportunities to demonstrate ways in which her nurses could improve the condition of the sick and wounded, such, for instance, as feeding them adequately and appropriately. There was plenty of resistance from members of the medical establishment, but her practical approach won her some important allies. Her cause was greatly assisted by revelations in the radical Times newspaper of the shameful neglect of the wounded. The French army, with more or less adequately resourced medical services and Sisters of Charity to do the nursing, provided a benchmark that put the British army to shame. Public outrage led to the setting up by The Times of an appeal for the benefit for the sick and wounded, and Florence Nightingale as the chief reformer on the spot found herself in control of a vast fund. Often the biggest obstacle to resourcing the work of caring for the sick was hidebound military bureaucracy, and many times sending an agent to Constantinople to obtain supplies with money from the fund was the only viable way to get things done. Her access to resources was a key factor in her growing influence with the army.
When the war was over, she threw herself into the work of lobbying for a Royal Commission to examine the sanitary condition, administration, and organisation of barracks and military hospitals and the organisation, education, and administration of the Army Medical Department. She was able demonstrate with statistics that soldiers in barracks, vetted for good health on entering the service, were, even in England let alone on foreign postings, significantly more likely to die of disease than the general population. She was an early and very persuasive collector and user of statistics. There were years of work in the business of army reform, and in time her health broke down; she became bed-ridden, but she continued working.
From her bed she set about the reform of civilian hospitals, and of workhouse hospitals, and the administration of India, which encompassed sanitation agriculture irrigation and more. She wrote detailed and authoritative submissions to Parliament, on everything from the design of barracks to policy on managing venereal disease in the army. She controlled the training of nurses, and gave advice upon the establishment of district nursing services. Such was her mastery of the subject matter of India, that newly appointed Viceroys and other colonial potentates went to her to be “educated”. Of course she was never able to carry all before her. There were plenty of setbacks, what with the fall from office (or occasionally the death) of individual dedicated colleagues or changes of government. Time and again she wrote to friends claiming that her life’s work had been a failure, without seeming to have noticed that through her efforts reform had become the fundamental issue of the political agenda.
Eventually she started to slow down, I think in her 70s. Her working years had been a time of unremitting and often solitary labour, with very little joy and a great deal of frustration and heartbreak. In later life her natural good spirits returned and, for the first time since her youth, she became conscious that she was happy. She hadn’t appeared in public since she returned from the Crimean War, and though adored for her work on behalf of soldiers she was widely believed to be dead. But among those who knew her, family and friends and colleagues, she was dearly loved.
It is the quality of the mind of Florence Nightingale which I think will remain with me after reading this book; the moral qualities of duty and generosity were married in her to a critical intellect comparable to that of, let us say, a Marie Curie. Just to give a rather left-field example of intellect, her friend the classical scholar Benjamin Jowett, by way of encouraging her to take some time out from business, sought her assistance in revising his translation of the Dialogues of Plato, which she did and provided commentary which he claims to have made use of in his own published commentary. I’ve been chipping away at Latin for years, but if someone asked me to comment on their translation of Cicero’s philosophical writings I’d run away as fast as I could.
I bought my copy of this book at a Lifeline Book Fair. I’m always a little tickled to read a book with a price printed on it in £ s d. It means it has been waiting on a shelf somewhere for over half a century, and this book, it turns out, has never been read: there were uncut pages. It’s a sort of time capsule.
I could go on and on. By the way, Cecil Woodham-Smith is a woman, Cecil Blanche Woodham-Smith. Her account of the Irish potato famine is recommended reading; not the last word on the subject, I’m told, but the foundation upon which later authors usually find it necessary to begin. It’s on my reading list.
You should read Woodham-Smith’s Florence Nightingale. It’s a meticulously documented account of a truly extraordinary life.
Hers was a life of service and struggle that is nothing less than superhuman. Her efforts to free herself from the bonds of family duty were protracted and difficult, both because of the vehemence of the family’s resistance to her plans and because her own exacting conscience had to be convinced. When she was at last at liberty to learn the business of nursing, there wasn’t much training to be had. Four months of medical training in Germany may have been the extent of her formal instruction. She took on the management of a charity that cared for sick gentlewomen, and proved her competence to certain persons with political influence.
When Britain went to war in the Crimea, she secured backers and recruited nurses for the provision of nursing services for the army. She was ever mindful of the potentially disastrous political consequences for the project if her nurses misbehaved; she placed great stress upon their moral character, and had insisted upon absolute power to dismiss any nurse who didn’t live up to her high expectations. She was never one to be telling the army what should be done, but instead took up opportunities to demonstrate ways in which her nurses could improve the condition of the sick and wounded, such, for instance, as feeding them adequately and appropriately. There was plenty of resistance from members of the medical establishment, but her practical approach won her some important allies. Her cause was greatly assisted by revelations in the radical Times newspaper of the shameful neglect of the wounded. The French army, with more or less adequately resourced medical services and Sisters of Charity to do the nursing, provided a benchmark that put the British army to shame. Public outrage led to the setting up by The Times of an appeal for the benefit for the sick and wounded, and Florence Nightingale as the chief reformer on the spot found herself in control of a vast fund. Often the biggest obstacle to resourcing the work of caring for the sick was hidebound military bureaucracy, and many times sending an agent to Constantinople to obtain supplies with money from the fund was the only viable way to get things done. Her access to resources was a key factor in her growing influence with the army.
When the war was over, she threw herself into the work of lobbying for a Royal Commission to examine the sanitary condition, administration, and organisation of barracks and military hospitals and the organisation, education, and administration of the Army Medical Department. She was able demonstrate with statistics that soldiers in barracks, vetted for good health on entering the service, were, even in England let alone on foreign postings, significantly more likely to die of disease than the general population. She was an early and very persuasive collector and user of statistics. There were years of work in the business of army reform, and in time her health broke down; she became bed-ridden, but she continued working.
From her bed she set about the reform of civilian hospitals, and of workhouse hospitals, and the administration of India, which encompassed sanitation agriculture irrigation and more. She wrote detailed and authoritative submissions to Parliament, on everything from the design of barracks to policy on managing venereal disease in the army. She controlled the training of nurses, and gave advice upon the establishment of district nursing services. Such was her mastery of the subject matter of India, that newly appointed Viceroys and other colonial potentates went to her to be “educated”. Of course she was never able to carry all before her. There were plenty of setbacks, what with the fall from office (or occasionally the death) of individual dedicated colleagues or changes of government. Time and again she wrote to friends claiming that her life’s work had been a failure, without seeming to have noticed that through her efforts reform had become the fundamental issue of the political agenda.
Eventually she started to slow down, I think in her 70s. Her working years had been a time of unremitting and often solitary labour, with very little joy and a great deal of frustration and heartbreak. In later life her natural good spirits returned and, for the first time since her youth, she became conscious that she was happy. She hadn’t appeared in public since she returned from the Crimean War, and though adored for her work on behalf of soldiers she was widely believed to be dead. But among those who knew her, family and friends and colleagues, she was dearly loved.
It is the quality of the mind of Florence Nightingale which I think will remain with me after reading this book; the moral qualities of duty and generosity were married in her to a critical intellect comparable to that of, let us say, a Marie Curie. Just to give a rather left-field example of intellect, her friend the classical scholar Benjamin Jowett, by way of encouraging her to take some time out from business, sought her assistance in revising his translation of the Dialogues of Plato, which she did and provided commentary which he claims to have made use of in his own published commentary. I’ve been chipping away at Latin for years, but if someone asked me to comment on their translation of Cicero’s philosophical writings I’d run away as fast as I could.
I bought my copy of this book at a Lifeline Book Fair. I’m always a little tickled to read a book with a price printed on it in £ s d. It means it has been waiting on a shelf somewhere for over half a century, and this book, it turns out, has never been read: there were uncut pages. It’s a sort of time capsule.
I could go on and on. By the way, Cecil Woodham-Smith is a woman, Cecil Blanche Woodham-Smith. Her account of the Irish potato famine is recommended reading; not the last word on the subject, I’m told, but the foundation upon which later authors usually find it necessary to begin. It’s on my reading list.
You should read Woodham-Smith’s Florence Nightingale. It’s a meticulously documented account of a truly extraordinary life.
August 6, 2014
There must be dozens if not hundreds of books written about this woman who is credited with establishing modern nursing, yet it is this one (which I read a dozen years ago) that sticks with me. The author, born 1896, herself a Brit of noble birth and daughter of a British officer and descendant of a leader of the Irish Rebellion (one of them), relates to Nightingale's times and station in life like no modern author could. The details of Nightingale's personal life gave me more appreciation for her achievements, which came about at the cost of her health. The author draws from sources that had gone previously unexamined. Best, she has a wonderful turn of a phrase that makes for enjoyable reading, which is what it is about after all. Anyone studying public health should read this book, not just for its history, but for implications of bureaucratic bumbling to be forsworn. Good luck finding it--librarians seem to have turned it over in favor of more recent publications--but you can get it through ABE books. It won an award when it came out in 1951.
March 24, 2019
Cecil W-S was an independent historian writing in England in the 1950s. She has an unparalleled ability to distill the stupidities of humans in large organizations like the British army and the British government (in genius books like The Reason Why and The Great Hunger). Florence Nightingale, the subject of her first book, seems to have driven sanitary reform in British Army hospitals then in British hospitals generally then in India—founding the profession of nursing led her to the bigger issues almost immediately, and she wasn’t afraid to tackle them—all by working through men, who were the ones able to operate in public life. Also to marshal and communicate enormous amounts of data she seems to have invented a form of the pie chart.
July 11, 2007
Never really had an idea about Flo until I read this book, which was recommended to me by an advisor. I am so impressed with the work this woman did, and who she became. Her story inspired me to work even harder than I already was (ahhh nursing school!). I am not going to lie, there are a lot of boring, ultimately inconsequential information; but in a way, it helps the reader realize the magnitude of work this woman did. Strongly recommended to all nurses.
June 1, 2016
Fascinating!
November 12, 2017
This is an interesting biography that focuses on Nightingale's personal struggles as well as her pioneering work in nursing. Florence was born into a wealthy English Victorian family. Throughout her life, Florence was torn between what was expected of woman born to a well-to-do nineteenth-century family and her strong ties to the Unitarian Church, which demanded community service to those less fortunate in society. Her family's wide travels in Europe allowed her to meet powerful thinkers like Victor Hugo and Alexis De Tocqueville. While her family urged her to marry, Florence resisted. By the time she was thirty-two, Florence had asserted her independence by assuming a role as superintendent of a nursing home even though she received no salary. Her service in the Crimean War revealed the serious flaws in hospital care. More soldiers died from their illnesses than in battle. Nightingale demanded that abuses like poor lighting, sanitation, and ventilation be addressed. She urged proper training for nursing students and hospital sanitation, reflecting the germ theory of illness.
I was not aware of Florence's work in India and the depth of personal struggle she experienced between her convictions and the demands of her family. The fact that she refused to sit on her laurels and accept praise for her accomplishments, but rather be self-critical about her own mistakes and failings impressed me. Her influence on modern healthcare practices cannot be underestimated.
I recommend the book for anyone interested in learning more about the evolution of nursing and modern healthcare or to learn about the life of a remarkable, Victorian woman willing to stand up and be counted. Recommended for ages ten and older.
I was not aware of Florence's work in India and the depth of personal struggle she experienced between her convictions and the demands of her family. The fact that she refused to sit on her laurels and accept praise for her accomplishments, but rather be self-critical about her own mistakes and failings impressed me. Her influence on modern healthcare practices cannot be underestimated.
I recommend the book for anyone interested in learning more about the evolution of nursing and modern healthcare or to learn about the life of a remarkable, Victorian woman willing to stand up and be counted. Recommended for ages ten and older.
May 6, 2025
I read this so long ago it predates my reading journals and I can't really remember when I read it. I think it belonged to my parents and I probably acquired it in about 1990 when they retired to the Gold Coast.
But as soon as I opened it at page one, I remembered the intro... about how in the C19th it was a novelty to name a child Florence after her birthplace, and how her sister was christened for her birthplace, Parthenope... but how the name Florence became commonplace (in the nicest possible way) when thousands of little girls were given that name in her honour, within fifty years of Nightingale's birth. This information about C19th naming became just one of the things I 'knew', from this book. For this reason I feel confident about rating the book with four stars, for its memorable snippets if nothing else.
I resurrected it from our Biography shelves because I'm reading Laura Elvery's fictionalisation Nightingale and of course this bio was one of her sources.
But as soon as I opened it at page one, I remembered the intro... about how in the C19th it was a novelty to name a child Florence after her birthplace, and how her sister was christened for her birthplace, Parthenope... but how the name Florence became commonplace (in the nicest possible way) when thousands of little girls were given that name in her honour, within fifty years of Nightingale's birth. This information about C19th naming became just one of the things I 'knew', from this book. For this reason I feel confident about rating the book with four stars, for its memorable snippets if nothing else.
I resurrected it from our Biography shelves because I'm reading Laura Elvery's fictionalisation Nightingale and of course this bio was one of her sources.
June 13, 2025
I'm glad for being neither genius nor chosen one — the thought has occupied my mind while reading. The god had spoken to her; she had been following his orders, tracing the roads of despair, disappointment, and pain. She never got the chance to breathe life into the ideas crowding her head, forced to swallow the lump of indifference from other people. She was a bird with cut wings, yet she chose to bang herself against the meshes of the system — the saddest tale as old as time. I couldn't bring myself to finish the last hundred pages; maybe someday I will, but this is it for now. She was a heroine whose fate I won't dare to trace with my footprints — the ignorance I'm choosing, putting the ungrateful, unhappy work aside.
April 14, 2022
I have really enjoyed reading about Florence Nightingale. I knew little about her or the time period she lived in. I thought both she and the Crimea War were fascinating. I wasn't sure I would enjoy this book but was pleasantly surprised by just how interesting it was. This evening, I was able to answer a question on Jeopardy about Florence Nightingale which was just another little additional perk to reading this fascinating book. What a selfless person she was and what a mark she left on nursing and on the betterment of mankind in general. A worthy read...
May 2, 2019
This is an excellent biography which is well-researched and gives a detailed picture of the life of the famous nurse. Who hasn't heard of Florence Nightingale? However, I had very little understanding of all that she had accomplished. She reminded me of Mother Theresa in her dedication and daring when it comes to helping the poor and suffering. It may be a bit dry and factual for some, but I learned a great deal about the subject and that is the true purpose of a biography.
October 3, 2021
A workmanlike and thorough biography, slow to start. The book really gets traction, however, once Nightingale's experience in the Crimea begins, then becomes again a bit rudderless chronicling the remainder of her u... [see the rest on my book review site.]
April 19, 2025
This is brilliantly written. Woodham-Smith really brings the Lady with the Lamp to life. He doesn't gloss over her flaws or difficult family history. It was a fascinating read. Sad to note that even over 100 years ago, sensible suggestions for reform which would benefit the majority were ignored by politicians and institutions until passionate advocates got the media to champion the cause.
March 19, 2024
Simply an amazing biography. It should almost be mandatory reading for everyone that wants to become a nurse. It was hard to believe the conditions back in the 1800s and early 1900s. We owe more than we realize to Florence Nightingale.
March 23, 2019
This book is really amazing.
May 21, 2020
Read this for a school project and immediately became a huge fan of Florence Nightingale and her story!
February 25, 2022
wonderful bio, so very complete and such an interestng wonderful person, my 3rd bio of her and by far the best
September 18, 2014
One of the illustrations in this biography is of Florence Nightingale in her youth, next to her pet owl Athena. You see a sketch of an absolutely striking woman possessed of a round, elfin face and knowing eyes. This biography details how that woman both created the idea of the modern nurse and soldier, and broke herself to pieces in doing so.
Florence Nightingale was born to a high society couple who were as different as night and day. The wife was a warm socialite, while the husband a retiring, erudite man. The contrast seems to have been imparted to Florence herself, with the book surprisingly telling us that the young girl was moody, fantasy-filled, a bit of a martyr, and sharing both her mother's care of others and her father's temperament. A recurring theme in the biography is the treatment of her as a real, flawed person instead of a saintly matron, and it makes for engaging reading. You read of her battles with her sister Parthenope, always doomed to be in the shadow of Florence's magnetic personality. One day, she feels a call from God, but it takes years of inner torment before the realization of that call happens.
Her call winds up affecting the world in two profound ways. Her first way was the frustrated desire she had to reform nursing as a profession. Nursing was so bad that nurses themselves were seen as and were select from immoral woman. Cleanliness wasn't even an option, and carelessness to the patient's needs omnipresent. Slowly at first, she began steps to make it a true caring profession, by teaching nurses and reforming hospitals, often spending greatly out of her own pocket.
The other aspect was in reforming an aiding soldiers. After the Crimean war, the wounded were housed in a Turkish hospital that was pure hell on earth. Florence went in to reform it, but also managed to change the conception of and ideas about the modern soldier. No longer would they be seen as brutes; first through caring for their wounds and then by caring for their conditions of living she began to change the public image of them as loyal, courageous human beings. It's striking when you think of how much the modern person venerates those who serve; Florence did a large amount of the work needed to reform these soldiers in the public eye. She even instituted a safe way for them to send their earnings back to their families instead of sickening themselves by spending it all on adulterated liquor.
Her success in these things came at a great personal cost, though. The woman herself by age 40 was a broken invalid, almost killing herself through work several times. She had to deal with heartbreaking pettiness and political intrigue. She turned down several marriage proposals, one very dear to her; she never married at all. The amount of squalor and filth she dealt with broke down the mental conditions of many of the women who accompanied her. It was only in her sixties did it seem some manner of peace came to her. The book is unsparing in detailing the cost of God's call on her life, and she sacrificed her own health in doing so. An image of a woman unable to leave her room, surrounded by bitter cold and doing so much paperwork that she doesn't even sleep mars the image of the young girl with the tender smile in the front of the book. It's a telling detail that the day she begins her calling, her pet owl is found dead.
It's a sober book, portraying a flawed woman who heroically changed so much about society. She was no saint; she was a woman militant in the pursuit of a call and yet caring and authoritarian in equal measures. You understand why her mother opposed her doing so, and her sister fumed and resented her for much of her life. She really embodied the words of Jesus, who said to take up our cross and follow Him; like Him, she was broken in the service of her duty. But the biography works so well at showing how a human does this, faults at all.
Its only flaw is that towards the end, it focuses too much on her condition and her constant frustration by her enemies. It can feel bleak, and some more charming episodes are needed. Despite its realism, there are moments of almost mythic detail; her call coming New Years Day while she sat in a cold room watching rabbits play on her front lawn, and her war spoils of a crippled boy, an orphan, a cat, and a Crimean puppy she took home with her after leaving. You wish there were more of those moments, of the oddities of life.
It's an excellent biography, and well worth reading.
Florence Nightingale was born to a high society couple who were as different as night and day. The wife was a warm socialite, while the husband a retiring, erudite man. The contrast seems to have been imparted to Florence herself, with the book surprisingly telling us that the young girl was moody, fantasy-filled, a bit of a martyr, and sharing both her mother's care of others and her father's temperament. A recurring theme in the biography is the treatment of her as a real, flawed person instead of a saintly matron, and it makes for engaging reading. You read of her battles with her sister Parthenope, always doomed to be in the shadow of Florence's magnetic personality. One day, she feels a call from God, but it takes years of inner torment before the realization of that call happens.
Her call winds up affecting the world in two profound ways. Her first way was the frustrated desire she had to reform nursing as a profession. Nursing was so bad that nurses themselves were seen as and were select from immoral woman. Cleanliness wasn't even an option, and carelessness to the patient's needs omnipresent. Slowly at first, she began steps to make it a true caring profession, by teaching nurses and reforming hospitals, often spending greatly out of her own pocket.
The other aspect was in reforming an aiding soldiers. After the Crimean war, the wounded were housed in a Turkish hospital that was pure hell on earth. Florence went in to reform it, but also managed to change the conception of and ideas about the modern soldier. No longer would they be seen as brutes; first through caring for their wounds and then by caring for their conditions of living she began to change the public image of them as loyal, courageous human beings. It's striking when you think of how much the modern person venerates those who serve; Florence did a large amount of the work needed to reform these soldiers in the public eye. She even instituted a safe way for them to send their earnings back to their families instead of sickening themselves by spending it all on adulterated liquor.
Her success in these things came at a great personal cost, though. The woman herself by age 40 was a broken invalid, almost killing herself through work several times. She had to deal with heartbreaking pettiness and political intrigue. She turned down several marriage proposals, one very dear to her; she never married at all. The amount of squalor and filth she dealt with broke down the mental conditions of many of the women who accompanied her. It was only in her sixties did it seem some manner of peace came to her. The book is unsparing in detailing the cost of God's call on her life, and she sacrificed her own health in doing so. An image of a woman unable to leave her room, surrounded by bitter cold and doing so much paperwork that she doesn't even sleep mars the image of the young girl with the tender smile in the front of the book. It's a telling detail that the day she begins her calling, her pet owl is found dead.
It's a sober book, portraying a flawed woman who heroically changed so much about society. She was no saint; she was a woman militant in the pursuit of a call and yet caring and authoritarian in equal measures. You understand why her mother opposed her doing so, and her sister fumed and resented her for much of her life. She really embodied the words of Jesus, who said to take up our cross and follow Him; like Him, she was broken in the service of her duty. But the biography works so well at showing how a human does this, faults at all.
Its only flaw is that towards the end, it focuses too much on her condition and her constant frustration by her enemies. It can feel bleak, and some more charming episodes are needed. Despite its realism, there are moments of almost mythic detail; her call coming New Years Day while she sat in a cold room watching rabbits play on her front lawn, and her war spoils of a crippled boy, an orphan, a cat, and a Crimean puppy she took home with her after leaving. You wish there were more of those moments, of the oddities of life.
It's an excellent biography, and well worth reading.
May 14, 2018
This is a well researched and well written biography of the woman considered to be the founder of modern nursing.
Nightingale was born into a wealthy British family, but never quite fit the mold of a Victorian Lady. She was well educated but early on refused marriage because she felt she had a calling to serve others. Like Joan of Arc, she had a sense God intended her to do something special in her life and she was bound and determined to complete that mission.
Her family were horrified when she tried to work as a nurse and repeatedly opposed her. At that time, nursing was practiced by drunkards and prostitutes and so her family were even further horrified by her ideas. But she would not submit to their wishes. She trained as a nurse in both Germany and France and then directed The London Home for Distressed Women.
In 1851 she went to the Crimea, recruiting a group of nurses to help her care for the soldiers wounded in battle. There, she not only faced the horrors of filthy and overcrowded barracks, sickness and starvation but also the very blatant resentment of the officers and the surgeons. Undaunted, she worked hard to improve the standards for nutrition and sanitation and the mortality rate dropped dramatically with her efforts. When she became ill visiting soldiers on the front lines and could not seem to recover, she returned to Britain broken in both health and spirit. She never left Britain again.
Back at home, she continued to work hard to reform health care despite being blocked at every turn. She helped to improve health standards in India, served as a consultant on hospital construction, established a nursing school and in middle age retired to a solitary life of writing about health care, public health and nursing. She was one of the first to understand the value of statistics in analyzing public health issues and the first to note the correlation between a high level of infant births and the maternal mortality rate.
She was an interesting lady, who had a great respect for morality and authority. But there are also aspects of her personality which are less well known. Despite her present reputation as the kind and caring “lady with the lamp”, she had a reputation for being bad tempered and dictatorial rather than sweet and gentle. And although she worked towards the professionalization of nursing, she had little use for women rights or the suffrage movement. Another surprise was her dismissal of the germ theory, although she believed cleanliness and good ventilation were important in treating illness. The correspondence and letters of her later years could be funny and witty but they could also be bitter, whiny and full of self pity. However in her last years, before her death at the age of ninety, she grew a little more gracious.
This was this author/historian’s first biography which was published in 1950 and took nine years of meticulous research to complete. It has been praised for its scholarship as well as its readability although it is aimed more at the academic than the casual reader.
Nightingale was born into a wealthy British family, but never quite fit the mold of a Victorian Lady. She was well educated but early on refused marriage because she felt she had a calling to serve others. Like Joan of Arc, she had a sense God intended her to do something special in her life and she was bound and determined to complete that mission.
Her family were horrified when she tried to work as a nurse and repeatedly opposed her. At that time, nursing was practiced by drunkards and prostitutes and so her family were even further horrified by her ideas. But she would not submit to their wishes. She trained as a nurse in both Germany and France and then directed The London Home for Distressed Women.
In 1851 she went to the Crimea, recruiting a group of nurses to help her care for the soldiers wounded in battle. There, she not only faced the horrors of filthy and overcrowded barracks, sickness and starvation but also the very blatant resentment of the officers and the surgeons. Undaunted, she worked hard to improve the standards for nutrition and sanitation and the mortality rate dropped dramatically with her efforts. When she became ill visiting soldiers on the front lines and could not seem to recover, she returned to Britain broken in both health and spirit. She never left Britain again.
Back at home, she continued to work hard to reform health care despite being blocked at every turn. She helped to improve health standards in India, served as a consultant on hospital construction, established a nursing school and in middle age retired to a solitary life of writing about health care, public health and nursing. She was one of the first to understand the value of statistics in analyzing public health issues and the first to note the correlation between a high level of infant births and the maternal mortality rate.
She was an interesting lady, who had a great respect for morality and authority. But there are also aspects of her personality which are less well known. Despite her present reputation as the kind and caring “lady with the lamp”, she had a reputation for being bad tempered and dictatorial rather than sweet and gentle. And although she worked towards the professionalization of nursing, she had little use for women rights or the suffrage movement. Another surprise was her dismissal of the germ theory, although she believed cleanliness and good ventilation were important in treating illness. The correspondence and letters of her later years could be funny and witty but they could also be bitter, whiny and full of self pity. However in her last years, before her death at the age of ninety, she grew a little more gracious.
This was this author/historian’s first biography which was published in 1950 and took nine years of meticulous research to complete. It has been praised for its scholarship as well as its readability although it is aimed more at the academic than the casual reader.
November 8, 2010
If you are doing research on this amazing woman, this is a great book. It is well-researched, well-documented, and thorough. However if, like me, you are just interested in learning a little more about Florence Nightingale's life, this book might be overkill.
I found the first half fascinating - it tells the story of Florence Nightingale's childhood through her experiences in the Crimean War. Then, the book gets repetitive. The thing that made it tedious for me was that the rest of her life seemed to be a continuous cycle of seeing a problem, working herself to death trying to fix it, meeting serious opposition, getting depressed, then either succeeding or failing. It is the same story over and over as she works on world-changing issues like training midwives, improving poor house care center conditions, writing a book on nursing, training nurses, revolutionizing military living conditions, and improving Indian sanitation (among other accomplishments). There is not doubt that Florence Nightingale was an amazing woman that accomplished so many things that improved the world.
One other minor note: the author kept using phrases like "then came a crushing blow" and "what followed was one of the most trying experiences of her life" ... It got depressing!
I found the first half fascinating - it tells the story of Florence Nightingale's childhood through her experiences in the Crimean War. Then, the book gets repetitive. The thing that made it tedious for me was that the rest of her life seemed to be a continuous cycle of seeing a problem, working herself to death trying to fix it, meeting serious opposition, getting depressed, then either succeeding or failing. It is the same story over and over as she works on world-changing issues like training midwives, improving poor house care center conditions, writing a book on nursing, training nurses, revolutionizing military living conditions, and improving Indian sanitation (among other accomplishments). There is not doubt that Florence Nightingale was an amazing woman that accomplished so many things that improved the world.
One other minor note: the author kept using phrases like "then came a crushing blow" and "what followed was one of the most trying experiences of her life" ... It got depressing!
July 26, 2021
After l have read this interesting story, l know more about Florence Nightingale. She was an English social reformer and statistician as well as a British nurse during the wartime. She became the epitome of Victorian womanhood and was called “ The lady with the Lamp” in memorial of her hard work as a nurse looking after wounded soldiers at night. She was born on the 12th of May in the year of 1820 which date was later set to be the International Nurses Day since 1965. She died peacefully in her sleep on the 13th of August, 1910. This story have used many precise vocabulary and taught me a lot. I think her life was great and l really like this story, l really want to share to my friends, thank you!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 8, 2009
One of the most thrilling biographies ever, because its subject is far more thrilling than you could ever imagine. Unbelievable energy, drive, imagination, she ought to be a feminist icon, but in fact she is one of the great heroic figures of modern times. Working around the clock, pestering generals and prime ministers, working her poor assistant Arthur Hugh Clough (the poet) into his grave, inventing - besides the profession of nursing - the use of tables to present statistics, systems of accounting and inventory that were discovered still to be in use in London healthcare institutions in the 1940s, beautiful, scorned, scornful - no wonder Benjamin Jowett fell in love with her.
July 8, 2013
The book was well-written and thoroughly researched, but a lot of days, I had to will myself to pick the book up and continue reading. Much of the book was tedious for me, and frustrating, but I suppose the work was often tedious and frustrating for Miss Nightingale, too. Also, I have no patience for turn of the century views on what was important for women- dancing, looking pretty, hosting parties. Actually, I suppose that's not so bad, but it is so frustrating when women who found those things important impeded the work of women who were doing something with their lives of real importance. Over all, it was interesting to learn about about the life of FN.
November 29, 2015
I started flicking through this book about Florence Nightingale when I first found it in a charity bookshop earlier in the year but never really read it. Now I needed some information from it for a story I started during NaNoWriMo so have read the majority of it. Still dipping in and out for research purposes but it is a real fascinating insight.
However I have discovered some very conflicting information between some of the things happening at the time of the Crimean War from Florence's point of view and the point of views of some of the Nun's that went out there too.
Very interesting may need looking at more deeply?
However I have discovered some very conflicting information between some of the things happening at the time of the Crimean War from Florence's point of view and the point of views of some of the Nun's that went out there too.
Very interesting may need looking at more deeply?
July 17, 2014
Miss Nightingale was an extraordinary person who lived an extraordinary life. This book was very well researched - almost too much so, because by about halfway through all the minute details became kind of a slog to get through. If you're doing a paper on her, this would be a great reference and includes an index - so it's proably worth 4 stars there. As an entertaining biography, it could've used a little editing. Also I'm guessing that's the most appearances of the word 'sanitary' in any book I've ever read.
November 26, 2015
If you don't know anything at all about Florence Nightingale by the time you finish this book you will feel her an old friend and mentor. I have never read an book about anyone with so much detail. The book also gives you a wonderful list of all of the sources the author used. You can find the books that Florence herself wrote on the Gutenberg book site. I think they are a must read for anyone in the medical field. Without this book I would have never known what to look for.
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