The True History of the Elephant Man: The Definitive Account of the Tragic and Extraordinary Life of Joseph Carey Merrick

by Michael Howell and Peter Ford

Book Overview

A story to strike pity and terror into any heart.--Times [London] Literary Supplement

"Brilliantly researched."--Sunday Telegraph

The subject of a Broadway hit, and a film, Joseph Merrick has become a part of popular mythology. Here, in this revised edition containing much fresh information, are the true and unromanticised facts of his life. An extraordinary and moving story, set amongst the brutal realities...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1602397368
• ISBN13: 9781602397361
• Release Date: April 2010
• Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.1" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

The amazing story of Joseph Merrick.

Very good and in-depth book on the life of not only Joseph Merrick, but also Mr. Treves and many other people who happened into his life. Can you imagine even for one minute being in this guys shoes? I mean can any of us even begin to grasp the sort of life Joseph must of had to deal with? Can you imagine being so utterly repulsive looking (sorry, but he was) that just one glance at your face would make people flee, children cry, and women pass out, I mean think about just how horrible that would have been. He also suffered from chronic pain, and smelled something awful. Yet, beyond that he was such a kind, gentle, shy, caring, lovable and curious individual, who by all accounts would of been completely normal and was highly intelligent. What a life, what a great true story of a very strong determined soul.

Joseph Carey Merrick - the Man, the Soul

'Tis true my form is something oddbut blaming me is blaming God,Could I create myself anewI would not fail in pleasing you.If I could reach from pole to poleor grasp the ocean with a span,I would be measured by the soul -the mind's the standard of the man.I bought this book many years ago, unfortunately I made the mistake of lending it to someone and I never got it back. This is a remarkable book. I was touched by Joseph Merrick years ago. For the past nine years, I have been running the Joseph Carey Merrick Tribute Website. It is a site dedicated to Joseph, the person - not Joseph, the disability. I'm presently heading a London and Leicester (UK) campaign to have a commemorative plaque erected in his honour. He deserves to have a permanent tribute. He has done a great deal to advance medical science, through his skeleton, and thanks to him, there will one day be a cure for Proteus Syndrome. It's time the world said 'thank you'. Please give your moral support by visiting the site. I'm not sure if web addresses can be mentioned here, so simply type the following in your web browser: Joseph Carey Merrick Tribute Website

Soul stirring and heart warming account of a young man

I inherited this book from a deceased family member. I had heard about David Lynch's movie about The Elephant Man, but I never saw it. Reading this book made me cry and empathize with Joseph Carey Merrick for his condition and the ostractize he received from the world based on his looks and not his soul.Joseph Carey Merrick was the real Elephant Man not a fictional character. Joseph had a loving mother that died when he was a child and his father moved and remarried. His step-mother didn't like him and scorned him for his looks and his inability to find work due to his lameness, telling him that what she fed him was more than he earned. Eventually he refused to return home for meals because he didn't want to listen to step-mother barate him anymore. His father stopped looking for him, but did get him a hawker's license to hawk wares on the street. But people were afraid of him and would not buy his wares, and he acquired a gathering of curious people around him. His uncle gave him shelter for a while, but Joseph left there too. He worked in the workhouse a place of refuge and work for the poor and destitute for 3 years, but hated it and left. He ended up being exhibited as a sideshow freak under the name of "The Elephant Man" because his congenital deformity made it so that he resemble that of an elephant (or so the posters showed him to resemble). When he was at Whitechapel Road, across the street from the London Hospital Dr. Treves saw him for the first time and brought him to the hospital to examine him. Over the next few years Joseph was exhibited, his managers robbed him of his life savings and left. Joseph went back to Whitechapel Road and to the care of the only friend he knew . . . Dr. Treves. He spent his remaining years under the friendship and care of the staff at the London Hospital.I loved this story. Michael Howell and Peter Ford told a true and compassionate account of Joseph Merrick's life. A man who was like any other human being with hopes and dreams with one setback.. His congenital deformity that prohibited his ability to be like, and experience and sleep lying down on his back like other people. Through all of years and hardships, Joseph was scared, but kind and kept a calm serenity inside himself about his condition. He had so much gratitude for the staff and his new friends who helped him, he made cardboard models and sent these things to those people who saw to his care in his appreciation for their help. The book also includes pictures how Merrick looked when he was admitted to the London Hospital, and a display of his skeleton after death.

Undeniably human, Unquestioningly Heroic

Joseph Merrick is a personal hero of mine. I picked up this book around ten years ago when I was diagnosed with what was thought to be an inoperable spinal tumour and I was told I had Neurofibromatosis, what was then thought to be the disease attributed to Joseph Merrick's. Not only was it an inspirational story that helped me in my struggle to learn to walk again but I found it (and still do) an intensly readable account of surely one of Britain's most unfortuante son's and one of popular culture's most enduring figure. The story of The Elephant Man is familiar to many from the 1980 Brooksfilms production starring Anthony Hopkins as Sir Frederick Treves and John Hurt as the enigmatic Joseph Merrick. Michael Howell and Peter Ford tell Merrick's story with a rich blend of history giving the reader an insight into late nineteenth century England and the fairground attraction that gripped the European community as well as exploring the medical insight into Neurofibromatosis the disease which, at the time of it's orignal printing, it was widely regarded Merrick did indeed have. This insight proves fascinating without alienating the reader with complicated medical jargon. Whilst Frederick Treves figures prominently, perhaps too much so as other reviewers have suggested, one can't deny that it was this passionate surgeon that was Joseph's salvation in the last years of his life providing a quality of life he surely would never had if there lives had not intertwined. As with the 1980 film The Elephant Man Howell and Ford's book does question Treves motives for rescuing Merrick only to make him a curiosity all over again within the Victorian medical fraternity leaving the reader to ponder those motives, but when one reads the Appendix written by Treves himself shortly before his death in 1923 included in this book one can only admire the special frienship that was forged between these two men. Joseph was a hero on so many levels something that a clear theme throughout the book and it leaves little doubt in my mind why his memory is so enduring even today. There simply hasn't been a human being quite like Joseph Merrick since his death at 27 years in 1890. Howell and Ford's The True History Of The Elephant Man is a compelling account that is as relevant now as it was on it's original release in 1980. And like the film I can only describe as a luminous experience...

Touching, thorough biography of a fascinating Victorian man

Since I was a child the story of the Elephant Man has fascinated me; anyone who has ever felt like an outsider, or not part of the "cool crowd," or somehow physically blemished (in my case, adolescent acne, child's play compared with Merrick's condition) can identify with him. This is one of the earliest books dedicated to uncovering the truth about Joseph Carey Merrick (whose name was for some reason changed to John Merrick by Sir Frederick Treves and thus written that way in the play and movie). We learn such obscure things as: who were his parents? what did they do for a living? how old was he when his disease began to manifest itself? what did he do before becoming a sidehow freak? (answer: as a teen he peddled goods door to door and then rolled cigars in a factory before going to the Leicester Union Workhouse). The only inaccurate thing about this book seems to be a chapter entitled "What was wrong with him?" The authors firmly believe it was neurofibromatosis, but in the early '90s medical researchers began to believe that it was really an ultra-rare condition called Proteus syndrome. No matter, however, for this is the least interesting chapter. Concentrate instead on Merrick's inspiring story. I must warn everyone: the book includes many photographs of Merrick's grotesque body, which will upset young children. I would not let anyone under, say, 12, read or look at this book, because they may get nightmares.