Florence Nightingale

by Elspeth Huxley

Book Overview

It's been said that the three people who did most to alleviate human suffering in the 19th century were the inventors of antiseptics and chloroform--and Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399114807
• ISBN13: 9780399114809
• Release Date: April 1975
• Publisher: Penguin Adult Hc/Tr
• Length: 254 Pages
• Weight: 2.06 lbs.

Customer Reviews

An Amazing Woman

Before listening to this book on tape, all I knew about Florence Nightingale was that she was a nurse and went around on a battlefield (I mistakenly thought it was on the American Civil War battlefield!) helping wounded men. Now I know that she was so much more! Florence was an incredibly important influence on the health industry which had been sadly neglected in England and wherever British soldiers were stationed. Nurses were considered of poor moral character, and were rather useless, especially since doctors rarely allowed them to participate in the care of patients. Florence, with her inner call to the work and her determination, pushed for patient care reform, nurse training, sanitation improvements and so much more at home and abroad. Her fame began as her influence was felt in the Crimean battlefield, but her work continued in Britain, India, and rippled throughout the world's health industry. She was a proponent of women's equality and suffrage, and reformed her religious ideas to exclude a specific religion, but embraced a universal God. Her work carried on to her death at a late age. Though read in a crisp, stiff English voice which sometimes is tiresome for my American ear to listen to, it's appropriate considering that Florence was English. For anyone curious about the real Florence Nightingale, here is where you can learn all about her amazing life.