James Young Simpson pioneered the use of anesthetic during childbirth in the mid 1800’s in Edinburg, Scotland. He was both vilified and adored. Some went so far as to argue that women were commanded by God to feel the pain of childbirth and that taking that suffering away from them was to deny them redemption from the original sin in the Garden of Eden. Victo Dolore “pain conquered” is found on his family’s coat of arms. Here, in this work of fiction, I intend to explore the complicated life of Victorian women by touching on the medicine and morality of the era.
One of my weaknesses is old books. But not just ordinary old books. I love medicine, mourning, religion, and etiquette in particular, specifically from the early Victorian period. I have used this collection as a primary source for my serial novel.
This is a hobby, an outlet for the pain and suffering that I see every day, and I will add to the story as I have time. I appreciate your thoughts and input as this takes shape! I cherish every follow and like.
All photography featured on this site is my own.
What an intriguing project! I look forward to getting to know it a little better. As I am very much into genealogy, I also try to collect information about my ancestors’ lives back in Victorian times. If you’re interested – here’s a post I wrote about Fanny, born in 1827, whom I’m very fascinated with: http://nothingofthekind.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/revealing-fanny/. She died of pneumonia when she was 50 and left behind six children. I often wonder what her life was like and how she suffered and loved.
This blog is so beautiful. And by the way, your photos are true masterpieces!
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You found out my alter-ego! Thank you for the kind words!!!!
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Actually, I was researching psychiatric medicine in the late Victorian Era. My four-times-great-grandfather probably suffered from post-stroke depression and I’ve got loads of medical records still to get through. Also wrote a post about him, if you might be interested: http://nothingofthekind.wordpress.com/2014/04/01/my-dear-hugo/.
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Fascinating! I will check it out, thank you!
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What an intriguing blog, good for you! Thank you for following my blog http://familyanswersfast.wordpress.com/ and I hope you find there my fascination with family and cultural dynamics and how they affect women, in particular. I will send your link to my daughter who is also fascinated by the Victorian Era. I look forward to reading more from you 🙂 #NF
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I look forward to checking out your daughter’s blog! blog, too.
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Interesting! As I type, I’m visiting my daughter as she prepares to birth her first child any day now 🙂 Her husband is wonderful and her care provider is a very experienced midwife. Here’s my daughter’s blog http://dkpope.wordpress.com/ and now we wait…
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Yay! Congrats to her and to you.
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I’m so grateful to be invited to attend. I’ve learned so much through childbirth, mainly, that a women must feel safe in her birthing environment for the most positive outcomes possible. I’m so happy that she wants me to be a part of her environment 🙂 I will give her your well-wishes! Thanks a bunch ❤
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Very cool concept. I’ll start at Chapter 1 🙂
Do you live in Edinburgh? there’s a statue you probably know of of another anesthesiologist on Princes St. I can’t mind his name.
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I do not live in Edinburgh. Sigh. Maybe some day? It is by far my most favorite place to have visited to this point.
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Hi there,
Thank you for taking the time to stop by and check out my little corner of the blogosphere and the follow, your support is greatly appreciated. Looking forward to seeing more from you 🙂
Have a great day,
Eddie
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how wonderful and interesting, thank you for reading and following v, and i look forward to doing the same for you – best, beth
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Thank you! Love your blog.
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Amazing feat here!
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Not as fun as puppy pictures, though! 😉
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“pain conquered”… That struck a profound chord with me. Thank you for sharing how you came to choose the name. Hugs!
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Thanks for reading!
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You have an amazing blog! And what a fascinating approach! I am thoroughly impressed and now I will begin reading your book!
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Well, thank you! 🙂
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Remarkable project! I look forward to starting at the beginning and catching up as I have time! 😀
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Yay! Thanks for reading!
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Being repetitious and unoriginal on a Monday morning, I have to say, like everyone else here, I LOVE your blog!
(My son currently works for a medical device R&D company and my great grandfather helped start the psychology department at our state university just outside the Victorian Era. Your blog makes me curious….)
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Thank you! 🙂
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I have nominated you for the ”One Lovely Blog” award. If you want to participate and accept the award you can check out your official nomination and learn how to accept it at http://writeoutofthedarkness.wordpress.com/2014/10/06/and-the-nominees-are-drumroll-please/
Happy Monday! 🙂
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Oh, yay! Thank you so much!!!
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Victorian era research brought me here. Interesting blog!
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Thank you!
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Was just introduced to your “real life” blog, as well as this one when reading Follow Friday from Grasshopper Girls at http://mylittlegrasshoppers.wordpress.com/2014/10/31/follow-friday-thoughts-from-northern-ireland-a-doctor-and-a-bonus/
Intrigued by both, but especially looking forward to this serial novel- I worked for many years as a childbirth educator and doula, have a strong (and secret) desire to have lived during the Victorian era in a stately mansion, yet am also a feminist who would not have survived long in such an essentially patriarchal time.
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I would love to hear what you think as you read it! 🙂
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Will do 🙂
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Wow I have a lot of catching up to do on this blog, I’m off to start so please forgive me … I may be a while x
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Well, thank you for reading! 🙂
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This is so interesting! I have a lot to catch up on in this story!! I love history and the Victorian period too. Growing up in Jamaica, I do recall lots of women spouting that women must feel the pain of childbirth because “God said so” or whatever. When I came to the US and mentioned to some people that I was going to have an epidural during labor, you thought I’d have said I was going to let someone else have the baby for me. Ooh the outrage! I didn’t really care, since they weren’t sharing my pain 🙂
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Thank heavens for an epidural! You cannot fully appreciate pain control in childbirth until you experience it! 🙂
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This is all manner of awesome!
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Thank you! We will see how you like it after a few chapters. I always tell people it might suck but it IS free… 😉
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Well, I’ll say this. I have several books in my head that I *try* to write. You actually write, and you put it out there. That makes you a real writer and it makes your writing worthy. Thank you for sharing it with us!
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Victo Dolore – Just wanted to drop a note and say thanks for journeying this year with my blog. It’s always great to have fellow (and sister!) companions. -Crystal
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I have enjoyed your lovely posts! 🙂
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The Midwife — The Midwife’s Advise — Flowers In The Blood by Gay Courter, some reading, historically accurate, turn of the century Russia, and Flowers In The Blood is India and opium.
Victo Dolore a beautiful motto you have adopted as part of your soul. Thank you for all you have done
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I will find those! Thank you for the leads. Can’t wait to read them!
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typo – Midwife’s Advice
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You will enjoy them. It is a relief, sometimes, to step into someone else’s life, especially a fictionalized, historical life, that has no possible way for the reader to influence any outcomes. Whew!!
Book purchases do help the author(ess) though 🙂
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Your “About” is heartbreaking. This was not so long ago. That era seems positively barbaric with the suffering unnecessarily inflicted by … well you know. Thank you for your courage in writing, as well as practicing medicine and living and loving, and laughing, too. ❤ ❤ ❤
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Thank you! 🙂
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❤
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re: outdated cures This one is positively Medieval. 🙂 Venus Vina Musica
Adscribes in papyro ferarum
Nomina et ad caput ligabis;
Leo (Leo), Lea (Lea), Taurus (Taurus), Tigris (Tigris),
Corvus Corax( Corvus Corax), Pantera
Dum ligaveris in silentio,
dicis ipsa nomina
[2x]
Leo (Leo), Lea (Lea), Taurus (Taurus), Tigris (Tigris),
Corvus Corax(Corvus Corax), Pantera
[2x]
Venus Vina Musica
Corrupunt Corpora Sana
Et vitam Faciunt
Venus Vina Musica
[2x]
Leo (Leo), Lea (Lea), Taurus (Taurus), Tigris (Tigris),
Corvus Corax (Corvus Corax), Pantera
[2x]
Venus Vina Musica
Corrupunt Corpora Sana
Et vitam Faciunt
Venus Vina Musica
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Nice to meet someone who in informed and informs others of things best not forgotten and as a matter of fact, to renew this things of old that help in the days of new. Thank you for visiting my blog!
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Thank you! 🙂
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Just found out you had a SECOND blog – and such a wonderful one! I have to say, you are one of my favorite bloggers. I am going to mention you and link to your blogs on a post I have planned for this coming Wednesday. I’d like to share your blogs with others – you have great content.
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Thank you! 🙂 Woohoo!
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Pingback: Wednesday Whine: The Brick Wall | Odyssey of a Novice Writer
Awesome! I just found out that you have another blog. I like a lot how you write your ideas, for me it has been like a classroom (awesome post the one I read yesterday – “The Immortal Vagina”). Cheers! 🙂
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Hopefully it is a fun classroom…. 😉
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Excellent! May I play in the classroom? 😉
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Found another book for your reference collection if you don’t have it already 🙂 http://www.amazon.com/Good-Caring-Woman-Nellie-Tallman/dp/1880090309 We were visiting our daughter’s the past couple of days and spotted this book laying around. I’d just read this about page on this blog before taking off on our trip…and when I the back cover of the book, I thought to myself Victo Dolore would LOVE this book! (It combines some medical, w/ a woman’s diary from the Victorian time period, a little religion, and lots of personal stuff. It’s the whole enchilada. Daughter would have let me take it home, but I’m a speed reader and digested 90% of it. (attached is a link to Amazon books)
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Awesome!!!!!! Thank you so much. 🙂
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I have nominated you for the Creative Blogger Award. If blog awards aren’t your thing, or if you have already received this one, please feel free not to pass it on. Simply accept it as a sincere compliment to your work.
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Oops! Here’s the link:
http://sarah-angleton.com/2015/05/07/better-than-a-pulitzer-the-creative-blogger-award/s
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Thank you so, so much!!!! 🙂 I am honored.
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Not sure why it took me so long to find this but now that I have extracted my head from my nether regions I am looking forward to playing catch up!
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Yay! I have not publicized it widely. Soooo glad you found it! 🙂
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Thank you!
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Your site is such an inspiration. I love the beauty you kept on the theme and design, Staying tuned for your posts. Cheers! 🙂
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Thank you! 🙂
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Had I read the “About” first, I could have saved myself time and trouble. But, I blunder through and eventually get there.
I searched for a literal translation of the phrase “Victo Dolore” and then the individual words with no success. I tried a Latin Dictionary online and later found WordReference.com, which is listed as “Free online dictionaries – Spanish, French, Italian, German and more. Conjugations, audio pronunciations and forums for questions.”
The closest I came to finding what I was looking for was a definition of ‘dolor’ in the Portuguese dictionary—both definitions being listed as archaic.
dolor n Archaic (pain)
dolor n archaic (sorrow)
Finding that deeply depressing, I wondered what other sources might give the exact meaning. The search might have been halted there had it not been that the last token given to Evelyn by Dr. Brierly was a lock of his hair and a note with the words: “Victo Dolore.” Where else might I look? Surely the message to Evelyn would be encouraging. Typing the word “Victo” brought up “Victorian” and “Victory.” Was I on the right track?
Later, a simple Google search brought up the information about James Young Simpson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Young_Simpson).
Sir James Young Simpson, 1st Baronet (7 June 1811 – 6 May 1870) was a Scottish obstetrician…. “Sir James Young Simpson: Victo Dolore” (pain conquered) is the inscription of his coat of arms.
Yes, that was a satisfying find.
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Oh, you worked so hard! 🙂
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Some are like that. They do everything the hard way.
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Somehow I didn’t realise you had this site too. Quite the talented doctor. 🙂
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Thank you! I haven’t been doing much on this story lately… 🙂
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Oh.. Looks like I’ve got some catching up to do. Are you intending to publish it?
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No. It was a test of sorts to see if anyone would like it. 🙂
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Thank you for joining the evolution over at my frilly Freudian slip, and will begin the journey of reading your novel.
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Ha! Thank you. 🙂
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Thanks for liking my piece on the plot to blow up Napoleon III… the best bit is yet to come, featuring a Nottingham lacemaker child bride, a stabbing in an Italian restaurant in London’s Soho, Little Bighorn and Pasadena…
And now an invasion of your personal space. It has often occurred to me that either you sleep three hours a night or you have successfully cloned yourself. Come on, which is it?
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I sleep about 5-6 hrs a night. 😉 sometimes less…
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“An outlet for the pain and suffering I see everyday”. I wanted to be a doctor all my life. My bookshelves are filled with books on medicine, for doctors and by doctors. My favourite, and one which I have read and reread hundreds of times is called ‘Matters Grey and White’ by Russell Martin, and since then I decided I wanted to be a neurologist. It didn’t work out for me. I was lazy. I didn’t work hard enough. But I think in a way that was a good thing, because I don’t think I would be able to handle all that pain and suffering. I have deep respect for those who do. And also, your work is deeply interesting! I look forward to reading this novel from the beginning. Happy writing.
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I have not read “Matters Grey and White” but I am going to go purchase it right now. 🙂
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I think you might like it!
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