# The Illness Lesson

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/clare-beams/the-illness-lesson/9781473578029

![The Illness Lesson](https://quivercdn.com/covers/transworld-digital/clare-beams/the-illness-lesson_978-14-7357-802-9-3f6ac269.webp?v=2026-10-01%2002%3A37%3A12)

- Book: [The Illness Lesson](https://www.bookquiver.com/clare-beams/the-illness-lesson) ([The Illness Lesson.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/clare-beams/the-illness-lesson.md))
- Authors: [Clare Beams](https://www.bookquiver.com/clare-beams)
- Publisher: transworld_digital
- Medium: audio
- Length: 10 h 14 min
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Lee
- ISBN: 978-14-7357-802-9
- Published: 2020-02-06
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Audiobook · 10 h 14 min

## Description

Brought to you by Penguin. " Brilliant, suspenseful, beautifully-executed . With power, subtlety, and keen intelligence, Clare Beams has somehow crafted a tale that feels like both classical ghost story and like a modern (and very timely) scream of female outrage . A masterpiece." Elizabeth Gilbert It is 1871. At the farm of Samuel Hood and his daughter, Caroline, a mysterious flock of red birds has descended. Samuel, whose fame as a philosopher is waning, takes the birds’ appearance as an omen that the time is ripe for his newest venture. He will start a school for young women, guiding their intellectual development as he has so carefully guided his daughter’s. Despite Caroline’s misgivings, Samuel’s vision – revolutionary, as always; noble, as always; full of holes, as always – takes shape. It’s not long before the students begin to manifest bizarre symptoms: rashes, seizures, verbal tics, night wanderings. In desperate, the school turns to the ministering of a sinister physician – just as Caroline’s body, too, begins its betrayal. As the girls’ condition worsens, Caroline must confront the all-male, all-knowing authorities of her world, the ones who insist the voices of the sufferers are unreliable. Written in intensely vivid prose and brimming with insight, The Illness Lesson is a powerful exploration of women’s bodies, women’s minds and the time-honoured tradition of doubting both. © Clare Beams 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020