Hiding From Memory: Darlings Of The Asylum By Noel O’Reilly

The Prologue of this gothic-flavoured novel sets a tone: women in a lunatic asylum are marching rhythmically down the stairs when a bird, trapped, tries to escape. It’s a clear metaphor for our protagonist’s situation.

The novel proper begins in Brighton society, 1886, where mothers seek husbands for their daughters; old families with breeding and few assets mingle with new faces and new money. Bridgerton meets Pride and Prejudice as the reader is led along paths of courtship, betrothal and betrayal. The game is on!

We quickly discover that Violet Pring, our heroine, lacks enthusiasm for the plans her mother has for her. She is determined that if she marries at all, it will be for love, ‘not just to gain an establishment’. She has known Felix forever and loves him – as a brother, not as the husband her mother intends.

Headstrong and sure of herself, she will not be railroaded into a marriage she is sure will never work, despite both her mother and, unusually for him, her father, being in favour of an alliance with Felix who is, it has to be said, wholly and sincerely in love with Violet – and happens to be from a particularly wealthy family. She longs to break free from convention and enjoy life on her own terms. Violet cannot accept Felix’s proposal but she has yet to learn, as a young woman of her time, just how powerless she is.

Much is said these days about mental health but the Victorian diagnosis of mental illness was clearly wanting and its treatment was far worse.Violet is an artist whose need to express herself and unleash her vivid imagination is part of her psyche. When she engages in drawing or painting, she can often lose herself for hours in a kind of artistic frenzy. Her paintings, however, are not of the sort young ladies of that time were expected to produce. She refuses to modify her behaviour and wishes above all else, to follow her passion. Wilfred Lilley, an artist of dubious reputation, to whom she is introduced, encourages her, recognising her ‘pure, unspoilt talent’. Being a ‘genteel lady’, however, Violet is hamstrung by society’s expectations. All that is blown away by one rebellious afternoon, spent alone with Mr Lilley, discussing art and drinking wine and cognac. A storm forces her to stay the night and she is undone, returning home the following morning to face the wrath and horror of her mother.

The narrative is not linear and the events leading to her incarceration are only slowly revealed but she wakes, several days later, in a room in Hillwood Grange, under the care of Dr Rastrick. It is the local lunatic asylum, often referred to by its inmates as Hellwood Grange, and she has been placed on the ward for the most serious cases. She has met Dr Rastrick several times; he has been employed previously to care for her mother and, on occasion, Violet herself. He may be thought by some to be a quack but he heads Hillwood Grange, and, in Violet’s eyes, has ‘a quality of pure evil’.

Being a ‘genteel lady’, however, Violet is hamstrung by society’s expectations. All that is blown away by one rebellious afternoon, spent alone with Mr Lilley, discussing art and drinking wine and cognac.Violet discovers she is one of The Darlings of the Asylum, the select few who fall under the intense gaze of Dr Rastrick, who, with the help of his staff - there is nothing gentle nor caring about these nurses - is determined to break her will and grind her down. The treatment to which he subjects the women, including Violet, is disturbing. To him, they are lab rats who may expect to never leave the asylum alive. Much is said these days about mental health but the Victorian diagnosis of mental illness was clearly wanting and its treatment was far worse. It would seem that the ambitious Dr Rastrick is perhaps experimenting with an early form of eugenics and his view of his patients is quite shocking to the modern reader.

We can guess who is responsible for committing Violet to the narrow confines of Hillwood Grange, but it takes time to understand how it came about. Her ‘condition’ is explained and the latter part of the narrative considers how she might escape. She has been abandoned, it seems, by her family, but still has friends who can help and the pace of the last few chapters quickens as the reader flees with her, always fearful of being caught.

The ending is unexpected – I will not say more for fear of spoiling it for you, but it lends itself to a sequel. Whatever shall become of Violet Pring?


Darlings of the Asylum is published by Harper Collins