We are all familiar with the inspiring story of Helen Keller, the first deaf/blind child to become educated in America. Aided by her teacher, Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller graduated from Radcliffe College and launched a career as an author, speaker and advocate for the disabled.
However, in the mid-19th century, there was another deaf/blind child who was at one time the most famous woman in America. Charles Dickens was one of many dignitaries who came to see Laura. Yet today, she has faded into obscurity. Laura Bridgman lost four of her five senses to scarlet fever at age 2. At age seven, Laura was taken to the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston.
Relying only on her sense of touch, Laura learned language skills and through her own intelligence and will communicated her thoughts on religion, philosophy, sex, and the rights of handicapped people. At the Perkins Institute, Laura was taken in by its founder the educator Samuel Gridley Howe. At times, Howe was her champion. At times, he used her to advance his own priorities. Howe was married to the poet, suffragette, abolitionist and author, Julia Ward Howe.
This first novel is thought-provoking. Peopled with characters from real life such as Charles Sumner, John Brown, Charles Dickens, Dorothea Dix and Julia Ward Howe, this book gives great insight into Victorian era America the author takes a great deal of literary license with Laura's inner thoughts and feelings, bur she explains her reasoning very well. More importantly, it really makes the reader think about the disable and how we treat them. Do we allow handicapped people the human dignity make their own decisions? Can we see past the handicap and see the person inside?
For book discussion groups looking for an historical fiction, this book would be an excellent choice because it would generate a very meaningful discussion.
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