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ISBN:0749005165
Peter Ford Historical English
Author: Peter Ford
ISBN13: 978-0749005160
Title: The True History of the Elephant Man: The Definitive Account of the Tragic and Extraordinary Life of Joseph Carey Merrick
Format: txt lrf lit lrf
ePUB size: 1743 kb
FB2 size: 1715 kb
DJVU size: 1794 kb
Language: English
Category: Historical
Publisher: Allison and Busby (January 22, 2007)
Pages: 247

The True History of the Elephant Man: The Definitive Account of the Tragic and Extraordinary Life of Joseph Carey Merrick by Peter Ford



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The book gives a very good picture of the period in England and Europe durring the period of the late 1800's and early 1900's. The descriptions of the "freak shows" and the living conditions of the poor are the saddest and the worst descriptions of our society I have encountered. Short, yet factually accurate and engrossing, Peter Ford's book lays out the true story of Joseph Carey Merrick, stripped of the fiction and Dickensian caricatures. One person found this helpful.

The subject of several books, a Broadway hit, and a film, Joseph Merrick has become part of popular mythology. Download options: Option 1 (added 9 months ago). Due to horrible physical deformities, he spent much of his life as a fair-ground freak. He was hounded, persecuted, and starving, until his fortune changed and he was rescued, housed, and fed by the distinguished surgeon, Frederick Treves. The subject of several books, a Broadway hit, and a film, Joseph Merrick has become part of popular mythology.

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The previous autumn, while the book was in the press, Bernard Pomerance’s play, The Elephant Man (until then known mainly from ‘art theatre’ productions), was presented on Broadway. There it met with considerable popular success and in due course a Tony award, besides giving David Bowie his first serious stage role when he took over the lead  . The extraordinary concentration of interest in the life of Joseph Carey Merrick that was caused by these treatments, imaginative and documentary, had two main effects. First, it established the story itself as an invariably moving myth in popular consciousness.

Peter Ford, Michael Howell.

English April 1st, 2010 ISBN: 1602397368 240 Pages EPUB . 0MB. In this gripping book he recounts his remarkable life nursing in some of the world's most dangerous and challenging locations, including South Sudan, Yemen, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan. He also details his nursing career in some of Australia's most remote settlements, where anything can be waiting at the end of a long and dusty outback road: a major road accident, a suicide, a broken arm, a stabbing.

In Sons of Cain - a book that fills the gap between dry academic studies and sensationalized true crime - investigative historian Peter Vronsky examines our understanding of serial killing from its prehistoric anthropological evolutionary dimensions in the pre-civilization era (c. 15,000 BC) to today. Delving further back into human history and deeper into the human psyche than Serial Killers - Vronsky's 2004 book, which has been called "the definitive history of the phenomenon of serial murder" - he focuses strictly on sexual serial killers. The Knife Man: The Extraordinary Life and Times of John Hunter, Father of Modern Surgery by Wendy Moore -. This book's story begins some few decades before Merrick's own but also explores early medical history. Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs

By Peter Ford and Michael Howell.

Joseph Carey Merrick, born in England on August 5, 1862, is better known as The Elephant Man. Through horrible physical deformities which were almost impossible to describe, he spent much of his life exhibited as a fairground freak until even nineteenth-century sensibilities could take no more. Hounded, persecuted and starving, he ended up at London’s Liverpool Street Station where he was rescued, housed and fed by the distinguished surgeon Frederick Treves. To Treves’ surprise, he discovered during the course of their friendship that lurking beneath the mass of Merrick's corrupting flesh lived a spirit that was as courageous as it had been tortured, and a nature as gentle and dignified as it had been deprived and tormented. The subject of several books, a Broadway hit, and a film, Joseph Merrick has become part of popular mythology. Here, in this fully revised edition containing new details, are the true and unromantic facts of his life. This is an extraordinary and moving story, set among the brutal realities of the Victorian world, telling of a tragic individual and his survival against overwhelming odds.
Reviews: 7
Freaky Hook
A very well done and thorough story. It was a great read.
Samuhn
TRIPLE EXCELLENT!!!
Whitestone
It took me a long time to get through this book, and afterwards, I can't really tell you much about what I read. My knowledge of Joseph Merrick came from the movie starring Anthony Hopkins. I've watched a lot of documentaries about Merrick, and have been fascinated with the story. I don't know what it was about this book, but I just couldn't get in to it. I stopped reading it halfway through, and didn't pick it back up until months later.
Marirne
I felt so sad when I discovered it was a TRUE story!
Anardred
Fast shipment. Just as described.
VariesWent
John Merrick probably has more heart than the plastic society of Hollywood of today. His only "crime" was to be born in a world without feeling or empathy for suffering. Only a few individuals rise above the crass majority to help the unfortunate, think Father Damien "the leper priest", Mother Teresa "The Blessed Teresa of Calcutta", and Saint Francis of Assisi.

I had been working as a janitor in the University of London, where the skeleton of Joseph Merrick was stored in 1953. It was largely forgotten and a dim-witted assistant nearly threw out the femur because he thought it was "garbage". Insisting that it was an important bone, from where I could not conclude, I argued with him on the point. He got me fired, but not before I told the senior person, I think it was the director of paleontology at the university, of the magnitude of this malformed bone. He was rather busy so he brushed me off, and I said, "Good heavens man, this is a femur of significant worth!" Finally, he relented and it was determined that it was indeed, the femur of Joseph Merrick "The Elephant Man". It had been misplaced in storage.

The skeleton of Joseph Merrick is whole and complete, and you can even see it if you visit London. I take pride in saving this historic article from the rubbish bin. I also wish that his skeleton be put to rest finally and not arouse such idle curiosity. His soul has suffered enough and I don't know what his religious persuasion was, whether he was a believer in some afterlife or an agnostic, I'd like to see him buried, cremated or however it was that he wished to be laid to rest. I've offered to put up a year's worth of my savings to have a stone or burial site, but the authorities adamantly refuse. Any time I visit London from Berlin, I leave a few flowers at the sites of Joseph Merrick's life.

This book is an interesting read on a wonderful person who was born deformed. May you rest in peace, requiescat in pace, Joseph Merrick!
Dianantrius
I was always fascinated with the story of John Merrick. I saw the movie in the 80's about the Elephant Man, and it made a profound impression on me. When I saw this book, I bought it right way in order to learn more about this man and his unfortunate life. I was blown away with the details of this man's story. You put yourself in John's place in the 1800's in London, and can't imagine enduring such a life of misery. You think to yourself that if you were to meet Merrick and learn of his plight, you would help him. You can't help but think that, unless you are heartless. It warmed my soul to read of his kind heart, his gentle spirit, his curiosity, his intelligence. I thought to myself when I was reading this book that I would have loved to meet him, sit down and have a long conversation about various topics. In all his mistreatment, he never lashed out or turned violent. He never blamed anyone, namely God. His doctor/benefactor should be elevated to sainthood for all he did to give John a better quality of life. You will not regret reading this story about John Merrick and the surprising legacy he left.

The only thing I didn't like about the book was the medical descriptions about his condition were kind of boring and hard to understand if you aren't in the medical profession. Also the descriptions of the backgrounds of every person he came into contact with was kind of dry. I wanted to read more about John instead. So feel free to skim past or speed read those parts. By the way, the movie is nothing like the book and is not worth watching.
This book touched my heart. Very few have done that, one other being Long Walk To Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela.

Victorian England was a harsh place. Reminds me of modern day Rio De Janeiro or someplace similar. Merrick had an uphill struggle to carve out a place for himself of peace and quiet in this world. And he did it.

I was most impressed with Merrick's irrepressible spirit, his child-like optimism, the way he never seemed to bare grudges and his love of beauty, friendship and all that is good in the world. it seems to be proven true again in the life of Merrick that pain and suffering have a way of preserving and healing the soul. This would be the view of the Orthodox Church. Creative Suffering and the Wounded Healer: Analytical Psychology and Orthodox Christian Theology.

I was very impressed with the fact that Merrick towards the end of his life sought to return to his Creator. He sought out the Anglican Hospital chaplain, was catechized, baptized and received into the Anglican church, of which he remained a faithful member until his death.

The style of the book may be a little dated and not quite as P.C. as we would like with our 21st century ideologies, but it will not fail to move you I'm sure, as it did me.

BTW: please read the book before you watch the movie if you can. the book is much better and truer to the facts.
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