New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
Bookpage Best Books of 2014
Woman’s Day “Most Inspirational Book of 2014”
Women’s National Book Association Great Group Reads Pick for 2014
A vividly original literary novel based on the astounding true-life story of Laura Bridgman, the first deaf and blind person who learned language and blazed a trail for Helen Keller.
At age two, Laura Bridgman lost four of her five senses to scarlet fever. At age seven, she was taken to Perkins Institute in Boston to determine if a child so terribly afflicted could be taught. At age twelve, Charles Dickens declared her his prime interest for visiting America. And by age twenty, she was considered the nineteenth century’s second most famous woman, having mastered language and charmed the world with her brilliance. Not since The Diving Bell and the Butterfly has a book proven so profoundly moving in illuminating the challenges of living in a completely unique inner world.
With Laura-by turns mischievous, temperamental, and witty-as the book’s primary narrator, the fascinating kaleidoscope of characters includes the founder of Perkins Institute, Samuel Gridley Howe, with whom she was in love; his wife, the glamorous Julia Ward Howe, a renowned writer, abolitionist, and suffragist; Laura’s beloved teacher, who married a missionary and died insane from syphilis; an Irish orphan with whom Laura had a tumultuous affair; Annie Sullivan; and even the young Helen Keller.
Deeply enthralling and rich with lyricism, WHAT IS VISIBLE chronicles the breathtaking experiment that Laura Bridgman embodied and its links to the great social, philosophical, theological, and educational changes rocking Victorian America. Given Laura’s worldwide fame in the nineteenth century, it is astonishing that she has been virtually erased from history. WHAT IS VISIBLE will set the record straight.
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Sexual Content - 3/5
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Violence - 2/5
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Language - 1/5
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Drugs and Alcohol - 3/5
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Summary
Overall Parts of this story were interesting. I had never heard of Laura Bridgman who lost four of her five senses early in life due to scarlet fever. She preceded
Helen Keller. From my reading of this book, I gathered that Doctor Samuel Gridley Howe took her under his wing as a grand experiment of sorts; he seeing himself as a great benefactor. He was a Unitarian in religious beliefs. Some would call that a Christian belief system, but I beg to differ, as many of the thinking/beliefs that he held were not biblical in the least. He steadfastly arranged to keep any hint of religion or Bible reading from Laura because he was out to prove that humans are born a \"blank slate\" and it is only that which we are exposed to which cause us to become depraved. Ummm . . . I can't say that his plan was successful nor his ideas. At my library, this book is shelved in the Christian book section. In my opinion, just because God is mentioned in the book, does not make this a book that I would consider by any stretch of the imagination as a Christian book. Other parts of this book were very disturbing. There is description of a lesbian relationship which was really quite
sadomasochistic this the author admits to making up. The intimate relationship of Dr. Howe and his close male friend, Sumner, very nearly sounds very homosexual, as well,
though the \"good\" doctor late in the book clearly takes a step away in the relationship which leaves the reader no longer \"wondering\". Dr. Howe's wife, the famous Julia Ward Howe, leaves me not caring much for her character eitheror should I say, lack of character. I don't know if I can ever sing \"The Battle Hymn of the Republic\" again without thinking poorly of her. This book clearly shows the decadence that was introduced with the Victorian Age, the depravity of character, the turning away from
biblical accuracy, as mankind looked at themselves as much too intelligent to believe the Bible in whole. Very humanistic. Really, I could hardly make myself finish the book, because it so disturbed me. Certainly, Laura Bridgman's life was very unusual simply because of her lack of senses. With her sense of touch being the only working
sense, it would make sense that she would seek to satisfy herself through that as much as possible. However, it appears that her lack of moral and religious training left her bereft of what was right and wrong. She was a \"project\" that outlived her usefulness, and when didn't prove the doctor's theory, was basically left to herself.
Sad and disheartening and sickening. I can't recommend, unless to show the futility of humanistic thinking.