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قراءة كتاب The Life of Florence Nightingale, vol. 1 of 2
تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"
The Life of Florence Nightingale, vol. 1 of 2
portrait which forms the frontispiece to the second volume, and to Mrs. Cunliffe for the frontispiece to the present volume.
To Miss Nightingale's executors I am indebted for the confidence which they have shown in entrusting her Papers to my discretion. A biography is worth nothing unless it is sincere. The aim of the present book has been to tell the truth about the subject of it, and I have done my work under no conscious temptation to suppress, exaggerate, extenuate, or distort. From Miss Nightingale's executors, and from other of her friends and relations, I have received help and information which has been of the greatest assistance. More especially I am indebted to her cousin, Mrs. Vaughan Nash, who has been good enough to read my book, both in manuscript and in proof, and who has favoured me throughout with valuable information, corrections, suggestions, and criticisms. This obligation makes it the more incumbent upon me to add that for any faults in the book, whether of commission or of omission, I alone must bear the blame.
CONTENTS
PAGE | |
Introductory | xxiii |
PART I | |
ASPIRATION (1820–1854) | |
CHAPTER I | |
CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION | |
(1820–1839) | |
Name, ancestry, and parentage. II. Her father's circumstances—Her early homes—Lea Hurst (Derbyshire)—Mrs. Gaskell's description—Embley Park (Hampshire). III. Early years—Country life—Domestic interests—A morbid strain. IV. Mr. Nightingale's education of his daughters—History, the classics, philosophy—Anecdotes of Florence's supposed early vocation to nursing—The date of her “call to God”. (1837). V. The Grand Tour (1837–9)—Interest in social and political conditions—Italian refugees at Geneva—Talks with Sismondi—Visit to Florence—Gaieties and music. VI. A winter in Paris (1838–9)—Friendship with Mary Clarke (Madame Mohl)—Madame Récamier's salon. Social “temptations” | 3 |
CHAPTER II | |
HOME LIFE | |
(1839–1845) | |
A struggle for freedom. Life in London—Music—The Bedchamber Plot. II. Country-house life—The charm of Embley—Contrast between Florence and her sister. III. The family circle—Florence's “boy”—Florence as “Emergency Man”—Her old nurse—Letter to Miss Clarke on the death of M. Fauriel—Theatricals at Waverley Abbey—Florence as stage-manager. IV. Friends and neighbours—Lord Palmerston—Louisa Lady Ashburton—Mrs. Bracebridge. V. Florence's conversation—Social attractiveness—Personal appearance: descriptions by Lady Lovelace and Mrs. Gaskell. VI. Dissatisfaction in social life—Desultoriness of a girl's life at home—The misery of being read aloud to—Housekeeping. VII. Increasing sense of a vocation—Private studies—Thoughts of nursing—A first dash for liberty (1845): failure | 23 |
CHAPTER III | |
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE | |
Dejection. Friendship with Miss Nicholson: religious experiences and speculations—Letters to Miss Nicholson and Miss Clarke. II. The reality of the unseen world—The conviction of sin—The pains of hell—Hunger after righteousness—“All for the Love of God.” III. Independent development of Miss Nightingale's religious thought—The service of God as the service of man—Her testing of religious doctrine by practical results—Her attitude to Roman Catholicism—Desire for a church of works, not doctrines | 46 |
CHAPTER IV | |
DISAPPOINTMENT | |
(1846–1847) | |
“Disappointment's dry and bitter root.” Pursuit of her ideal—Obstacles to her adoption of nursing—Social prejudices—Low esteem of nurses at the time—The Kaiserswerth “Institution for Deaconesses.” II. Increasing distaste for the routine of home life. III. Social distractions (1847)—Jenny Lind—The British Association at Oxford—Marriage of Miss Clarke—Country visits | 59 |
CHAPTER V | |
A WINTER IN ROME; AND AFTER | |
(1847–1849) | |
A tour that confirmed a vocation. Sight-seeing in Rome—Admiration for Michael Angelo—The revelation of the Sistine Chapel—The obsession of Rome. II. Italian politics—Pio Nono as Patriot Hero. III. The convent of the Trinità de' Monti—Study of Roman doctrine and ritual—Friendship with the Madre Sta. Colomba—A retreat in the convent—The secret of devotion. IV. Meeting with Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Herbert and with Manning—The London season—Friendship with Lord Shaftesbury—Self-reproaches. V. A projected visit to Kaiserswerth (1848): disappointment again—Acquaintance with Guizot—Ragged school work in London | 69 |
CHAPTER VI | |
FOREIGN TRAVEL: EGYPT AND GREECE | |
(1849–1850) | |
Another fruitless distraction. A winter in Egypt—Thebes—Condition of the people—Impressions of Egyptian scenery. II. Athens—Doric architecture—Greek scenery. III. Political affairs—The “Don Pacifico” crisis—The Ionian Islands: a day with the High Commissioner. IV. American missionaries at Athens—Dresden—Visit to Kaiserswerth. V. The literary “temptation”—Her view of literary art—Her Letters from Egypt | 84 |