Commonplace 206 George & The Curse of the Bohemians PART TWO
With more images from Simeon Solomon.
George probably contracted syphilis in his carefree college days, much as many of the bohemian Artists and writers did back in the time before the disease was fully understood - and curable. To some, syphilis was a badge to be worn with pride; Guy de Maupassant, for example said this: My hair is beginning to grow again and the hair on my arse is sprouting. I've got the pox! ... and I'm proud of it... I don't have to worry about catching it anymore, and I screw the street whores and trollops and afterwards I say to them 'I've got the pox'. Proof, if we needed it, that writers aren't necessarily decent human beings. We can be sure George was less bullish about his - returning home to Wakefield during the first couple of stages of the disease, when the visible signs were rampant and alarming, would have been tricky.
In the academic year 1875/6, George finally moved into accommodation of his own in Manchester - previously, he had been living at his old school in Alderley Edge and doing a daily 30-mile round trip commute. Whatever decided him on this, we can be sure the lure of freedom called. Much has been made of the momentous decision to tackle independence, as if it were a catalyst that kick-started the aberrant behaviour that led to his downfall. In later years, George himself blamed his subsequent criminality on not having any adult supervision when he moved into digs in Grafton Road, Manchester. But, throughout his life, he was fond of not taking responsibility for his bad deeds, and tended to blame others for his mistakes. Lack of backbone was an adult adaptation to adversity, because he hated and feared confrontation. This is why he was so bad at coping with the independent minds of his first two wives. He treated them as if they were seditious deviants - and to him, they were.
Certain biographers assume George was sexless during his adolescence and early manhood. To his main apologist, in between his studies, George ran a one-man socially reforming prostitute-reclaiming task-force without ever experiencing the slightest urge to explore his sexuality or the fragrant charms of his subjects. What do you think? Would a 'normal' 17-year old with no-one supervising his free time, and with reasonable good looks and money to spend, and who was reputed to be a right laugh and a social animal (for the only time in his life haha), turn down the chance to see what it was Shakespeare and Byron had so enjoyed in the complementary gender? Call me old-fashioned (as they say!) but Paleeze! In an age when masturbation was a greater sin than premarital sex, would George have failed to acquaint himself with the joys of female flesh? Not bloomin' likely!
We can assume this was George's first brush with serious illness. Infamously, syphilis was difficult to diagnose because - well, the skills of doctors varied and their experience of chronic illness was often limited to the relatively small pool of patients who called at the consulting rooms and whatever they presented with. However, the physical sings in a young man will have marked it down as a venereal disease. We tend to think of the skin lesions and suppurating sores of syphilis and think of a victim being forced to remain at home until the worst of the visible signs abated. But some patients had less overt signs of the disease, and their lesions were less damaging. An infection could flare up and die down in 3 weeks leaving the patient weak and debilitated, with the immune system reeling from the bacterium spreading throughout the bodily systems. When this, the primary phase, was over, many assumed they had survived the disease, only to be floored by the secondary phase up to a year later.
George's original disease will have remained dormant, but he could have become reinfected at any time, and undergone the same sort of symptoms with a fresh dose of the disease. We are generally expected to assume he was celibate between wives one and two, and then we read that he was driven mad by sexual frustration during this time. This is given as a reason for his sudden decision to hunt for any female who would agree to marry him. There was never any romance in his relationship with Edith. She was, first and for all time, merely a sex receptacle. It's clear she was physically well right up until the point she became pregnant with her first child, and that the antenatal phase and birth left her weak and debilitated. From the birth of Walter (who was born with some very suspicious lesions and followed the typical fretful and failure to thrive signs of a baby born with congenital syphilis), for several months, she was unwell. Then, within a few weeks of the birth, George had to take Edith for dental treatment to London, As they were living in Exeter at that time, this seems like a very long trip for a few fillings or extractions. However, if Edith had been treated with mercury, her teeth may have required treatment as mercury attacks the mucous linings of the soft tissues - such as the mouth. Many treated with mercury lost all their teeth; some were left with teeth permanently blackened. Now, anyone who thinks George might have caught syphilis from his first wife would do well to read his account of seeing her on her deathbed. He made a point of noting that her teeth were perfect, as perfect as they had been her whole life. Anyone who thinks Nell was an alcoholic would do well to read his account of seeing her on her deathbed. People who have chronic alcoholism and/or syphilis do not die with perfect teeth.
Edith ended her days in an asylum, having been abandoned by her husband and his family, and her own. There is no evidence that George ever contacted them with news about their children, her erratic behaviour or her decline. He had stolen her from her family and always made them feel unwelcome on the very rare occasions they sought her out. After several years of institutional care, Edith wrote to George's sister to ask her to agree to write to the medical staff is support of her release - but Ellen did not reply. Ellen was the Gissing most like George.
In June and September
1906 the notes tell us: Patient
has been exceedingly noisy & troublesome on account of her delusions of
persecution & visual & auditory hallucinations and her hallucinations cause
her to be troublesome. No
explanation or description is given of these hallucinations, and so it is
difficult to try and fathom what they meant to Edith. But, she is back to
responding to them - they are interfering in her life. That really is the
definition of mental illness - when your ideas and actions begin to negatively
affect your life, it becomes an illness - until then, it is just you being
eccentric, my friend!
This is one of the most compelling bits of evidence for a diagnosis of general paresis. Why did Edith feel compelled to cover up her hallucinations? Was it a feature of her persecution delusion - she had insight into how the staff would judge them as being more evidence for madness (which is what happened)? Was it because she knew these sensations were real and were associated with the shameful syphilis; that they were never 'hallucinations' at all? Pains in her joints caused by paresis could account for what she is trying to describe - Daudet described his pain using exactly the same thing: 'electricity in the feet'. He writes:
We
know general paresis has spontaneous remissions and exacerbations. In her book
on syphilis click,
Deborah Hayden highlights the tendency for paresis to appear to
spontaneously improve without treatment. Was Edith's more 'settled' (as nurses
might record in their notes) behaviour a sign of such a quiescent phase? When
the worst of the 'psychotic' symptoms eased, insight would return - Edith would
begin to realise what was happening, and have a clearer idea of her situation.
Hallucinations can be the result of transient trauma to the brain, such as
inflammation caused by infection. Inflammation is the process of tissue
swelling, and in such a delicate area as the brain, any form of swelling puts
pressure on vital functions. Those doubting how this could cause all of
Edith's symptoms - have a look here click
By the time George realised he was going to die of syphilis, he had conned Gabrielle Fleury into being wife number three. Edith was in a mental hospital, and all he could offer Gabrielle was a bigamous, living in sin arrangement. This was his ideal set up for a marriage-like partnership - he could leave her whenever he wanted and run back to England if it all went tits up. He would never have sex with Gabrielle, as she will have drawn the line at that - and her mother would have, too! But she was safe - the tertiary stage of syphilis is not contagious, and so she would never have to face what the previous two wives had suffered.
With more images from Simeon Solomon.
George probably contracted syphilis in his carefree college days, much as many of the bohemian Artists and writers did back in the time before the disease was fully understood - and curable. To some, syphilis was a badge to be worn with pride; Guy de Maupassant, for example said this: My hair is beginning to grow again and the hair on my arse is sprouting. I've got the pox! ... and I'm proud of it... I don't have to worry about catching it anymore, and I screw the street whores and trollops and afterwards I say to them 'I've got the pox'. Proof, if we needed it, that writers aren't necessarily decent human beings. We can be sure George was less bullish about his - returning home to Wakefield during the first couple of stages of the disease, when the visible signs were rampant and alarming, would have been tricky.
 |
| Sleepers and One that Watches 1870 |
Certain biographers assume George was sexless during his adolescence and early manhood. To his main apologist, in between his studies, George ran a one-man socially reforming prostitute-reclaiming task-force without ever experiencing the slightest urge to explore his sexuality or the fragrant charms of his subjects. What do you think? Would a 'normal' 17-year old with no-one supervising his free time, and with reasonable good looks and money to spend, and who was reputed to be a right laugh and a social animal (for the only time in his life haha), turn down the chance to see what it was Shakespeare and Byron had so enjoyed in the complementary gender? Call me old-fashioned (as they say!) but Paleeze! In an age when masturbation was a greater sin than premarital sex, would George have failed to acquaint himself with the joys of female flesh? Not bloomin' likely!
 |
| The Evening Star 1871 |
We can assume this was George's first brush with serious illness. Infamously, syphilis was difficult to diagnose because - well, the skills of doctors varied and their experience of chronic illness was often limited to the relatively small pool of patients who called at the consulting rooms and whatever they presented with. However, the physical sings in a young man will have marked it down as a venereal disease. We tend to think of the skin lesions and suppurating sores of syphilis and think of a victim being forced to remain at home until the worst of the visible signs abated. But some patients had less overt signs of the disease, and their lesions were less damaging. An infection could flare up and die down in 3 weeks leaving the patient weak and debilitated, with the immune system reeling from the bacterium spreading throughout the bodily systems. When this, the primary phase, was over, many assumed they had survived the disease, only to be floored by the secondary phase up to a year later.
George's original disease will have remained dormant, but he could have become reinfected at any time, and undergone the same sort of symptoms with a fresh dose of the disease. We are generally expected to assume he was celibate between wives one and two, and then we read that he was driven mad by sexual frustration during this time. This is given as a reason for his sudden decision to hunt for any female who would agree to marry him. There was never any romance in his relationship with Edith. She was, first and for all time, merely a sex receptacle. It's clear she was physically well right up until the point she became pregnant with her first child, and that the antenatal phase and birth left her weak and debilitated. From the birth of Walter (who was born with some very suspicious lesions and followed the typical fretful and failure to thrive signs of a baby born with congenital syphilis), for several months, she was unwell. Then, within a few weeks of the birth, George had to take Edith for dental treatment to London, As they were living in Exeter at that time, this seems like a very long trip for a few fillings or extractions. However, if Edith had been treated with mercury, her teeth may have required treatment as mercury attacks the mucous linings of the soft tissues - such as the mouth. Many treated with mercury lost all their teeth; some were left with teeth permanently blackened. Now, anyone who thinks George might have caught syphilis from his first wife would do well to read his account of seeing her on her deathbed. He made a point of noting that her teeth were perfect, as perfect as they had been her whole life. Anyone who thinks Nell was an alcoholic would do well to read his account of seeing her on her deathbed. People who have chronic alcoholism and/or syphilis do not die with perfect teeth.
Edith ended her days in an asylum, having been abandoned by her husband and his family, and her own. There is no evidence that George ever contacted them with news about their children, her erratic behaviour or her decline. He had stolen her from her family and always made them feel unwelcome on the very rare occasions they sought her out. After several years of institutional care, Edith wrote to George's sister to ask her to agree to write to the medical staff is support of her release - but Ellen did not reply. Ellen was the Gissing most like George.
 |
| The Annunciation 1877 |
We
discover on March 15th 1907 that 'her tactile hallucinations seem to have disappeared...
In June, 1907, she apparently conceals her
hallucinations of touch. Then, in September of that year: complains of electricity in her feet.
This is one of the most compelling bits of evidence for a diagnosis of general paresis. Why did Edith feel compelled to cover up her hallucinations? Was it a feature of her persecution delusion - she had insight into how the staff would judge them as being more evidence for madness (which is what happened)? Was it because she knew these sensations were real and were associated with the shameful syphilis; that they were never 'hallucinations' at all? Pains in her joints caused by paresis could account for what she is trying to describe - Daudet described his pain using exactly the same thing: 'electricity in the feet'. He writes:
Warning
signs going back a long way. Strange aches; great flames of pain furrowing
my body, cutting it to pieces, lighting it up... Also, from that time onwards,
pins and needles in the feet, burning feelings, hyper-sensitivity.
In March 1908, Edith is prescribed potassium
bromide. This was a treatment for a variety of ailments, and was known for its
sedative effects. However, it was also used in cases of insomnia, headaches,
epilepsy. And syphilitic pain. Daudet: Haven't had
recourse to morphine for a long time, not since I've been taking bromide... How
much I suffered last night in my heel... Varieties of pain. Sometimes, on the
sole of the foot, an incision, a thin one, hair-thin...Intolerable pain in the
heel...I spend half the night with my heel clasped in my hand...Flashes of pain
in the foot...Then, Bad night,
woken with a jolt at three; no actual pain, but highly strung and in fear of
pain.
 |
| The Mystery of Faith 1870 |
By the time George realised he was going to die of syphilis, he had conned Gabrielle Fleury into being wife number three. Edith was in a mental hospital, and all he could offer Gabrielle was a bigamous, living in sin arrangement. This was his ideal set up for a marriage-like partnership - he could leave her whenever he wanted and run back to England if it all went tits up. He would never have sex with Gabrielle, as she will have drawn the line at that - and her mother would have, too! But she was safe - the tertiary stage of syphilis is not contagious, and so she would never have to face what the previous two wives had suffered.
No comments:
Post a Comment