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Clare Dudman
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98 Reasons for Being Hardcover – 2 Aug. 2004

by Clare Dudman (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars 3 ratings
Hanna is a German Jewish girl apparently suffering from 'nymphomania', which in 19th-century Germany means she has had a premarital relationship with a man. Assigned to treat her is Dr Heinrich Hoffman, whose efforts to get her to talk about her 'problem' meet with failure - until he starts to tell her about his other patients, like schizophrenic Robert, who hears voices (Flying Robert) and Lise, who cuts herself with scissors (Little Suck-a-thumb). As Hoffman opens up, gradually revealing the unhappiness in his own life, Hanna begins to speak about the love affair that led her to the asylum. But as her confidence grows it is Hoffman who begins to depend emotionally on her, to equate her pain with his grief at the absence of his troubled son, and to question what he has achieved in his life - the only thing that seems to have lasted is a children's book of silly rhymes and pictures - surely that can't count for anything?
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  1. Print length
    347 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Sceptre
  4. Publication date
    2 Aug. 2004
  5. Dimensions
    14.2 x 22.4 x 3.1 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    0340823062
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0340823064
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Product description

Review

Gripping ... the plot gradually unravels in a most absorbing manner, clues and hints subtly weaving their way into the book ... a new voice in original, entertaining and challenging fiction. (Cathryn Scott, Big Issue)

An unsettling, weirdly evocative novel, evidently superbly researched ... the novel's images of the dawn of modern psychiatry and its portrait of doctor and patient struggling together towards the light remain memorably poignant. (Jon Barnes, Times Literary Supplement)

[An] interesting, elegant tale (Jessica Mann, Sunday Telegraph)

Hannah's inner thoughts are delicately handled ... and her story is touching. (Eva Figes, Guardian)

"As might be guessed, its a deeply thoughful novel, beautifully constructed, written with clarity and understanding of the human situation...she has a dedicated gift for the genre!" (Jim Howie, Chester Chronicle)

"Dudman is the new voice in original, entertaining and challenging fiction" (The Big Issue)

Book Description

A startlingly original and shocking tale set in a 19th-century asylum, imaginatively recreating the real stories behind Hoffman's enduringly popular children's fables, SHOCKHEADED PETER

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sceptre
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ 2 Aug. 2004
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ 1st Paperback Edition
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 347 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0340823062
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0340823064
  • Item weight ‏ : ‎ 537 g
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 14.2 x 22.4 x 3.1 cm
  • Best Sellers Rank: 4,564,696 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • Customer reviews:
    4.0 out of 5 stars 3 ratings

About the author

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Clare Dudman

Clare Dudman

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Clare Dudman is the author of four novels: EDGE OF DANGER (winner of the Kathleen Fidler award); ONE DAY THE ICE WILL REVEAL ALL ITS DEAD (in the US) /WEGENER'S JIGSAW (in the UK) (with the help of an Arts Council of England Writers Award); 98 REASONS FOR BEING and A PLACE OF MEADOWS AND TALL TREES.

She has also contributed to various anthologies including LIKE CANUTE in 'Beacons: Stories For Our Not Too Distant Future'; THE DREADFUL STORY OF HARRIET AND THE MATCHES in 'Prize Flights' (winner of the Cheshire Prize For Literature); THERE'S A GHOST IN MY HOUSE in 'Perverted by Language' and ECZEMA in 'Logorrhea'.

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
3 global ratings

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Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Registrar
    3.0 out of 5 stars Bit disappointed after getting a 5 star rating from some
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 March 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Bit disappointed after getting a 5 star rating from some, not in my opinion. Find it a bit slow and whilst the characters are well drawn I found the whole thing rather implausable.
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  • Gary Selikow
    5.0 out of 5 stars A moving and richly human novel of depth and understanding
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 May 2009
    A moving and richly human novel of depth and understanding, at once a psychological and a historical novel.
    Claire Dudman offers an original and offbeat perspective of life in a Frankfurt assylum in the 1850s.

    A Jewish girl, Hannah Meyer, labelled as a nymphomaniac, is admitted to a Frankfurt insane assylum , in a deep and extremely debilitating state of melancholia. Dr Heinrich Hoffman, a Frankfurt physician who runs the sanatorium, and also the well known author of the book of children's poems known as Sturmwetpeter, undertakes to treat her, all treatments fail until Dr Hoffman patiently talks to her about his own life and patiently coaxes, slowly coaxes her out of her crippling melancholic state and teaches her to talk and respond again.

    Her own inner thoughts and recounting of her own inner thoughts are recounted in italics, used in an intelligent and pertinent way.
    Deeply in love with a German gentile who woos her and secretly marries her, and then cruelly spurns her, with strong anti-Semitic words, this incident has brought on her depressive state. The novel also focuses on the staff and other inmates of the asylum.
    The novel also focuses on the staff and other inamtes of the assylum.

    It is at once a window into 19th century Germany, the progressive thinking of Dr Hoffman, the inner world of the mentally ill and the anti-Semitism of the time.

    An evocative novel despair and hope, love and cruelty, and ultimately the search for purpose and the reason for being, hence the name 98 reasons for being.
    4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Debra Hamel
    5.0 out of 5 stars Spellbinding
    Reviewed in the United States on 30 September 2016
    Verified Purchase
    I wrote of Clare Dudman's novel One Day the Ice Will Reveal All Its Dead that it is "equal parts science and poetry." Something similar could be said of her book 98 Reasons for Being, which tells the story of the historical Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann. He was the author of Struwwelpeter, or Shockheaded Peter, a German children's book of rhymed stories about, usually, naughty children and the horrible consequences of their misbehavior. Struwwelpeter was a big deal, wildly popular and much translated, but the Hoffmann on these pages, at least, was more concerned with his true calling in life: he served as doctor at Frankfurt's lunatic asylum in the mid-19th century. Dudman brings Hoffmann to life in these pages as he becomes obsessed with curing a new arrival at the asylum, a young Jewish woman, Hannah, who does not speak initially and seems mired in an overwhelming sadness. After the usual cures prove ineffective--and here the horrors of pre-modern psychiatric treatment are on display--Hoffmann adopts a radical approach: talking. His story, and then hers, slowly drip out during his sessions with the patient, so that the source of her misery is finally revealed while his trials and character are likewise laid bare. At the same time, the lives of the other residents of the asylum are explored, both the inmates and the attendants, who live on-site for extended periods. These are all fleshed out characters, very real in their faults and sorrows. It's all deeply moving and sad, in large part, and beautifully written throughout. Every time I opened the book I was spellbound by it. It is an added treat that some of Hoffmann's stories are featured in the book, fit between the chapters, and they are surprisingly relevant to the surrounding story.
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