POX: Genius, Madness, and the Mysteries of Syphilis

READER REVIEWS

Pox on you if you don't read this book!, March 2, 2003

Reviewer: A reader from Las Vegas, NV USA

This is the best book I have read this year, and probably the best book I have read in five years. Not only is the information critical for understanding a number of historical personages, but Hayden's writing is stimulating. Her words work their way through your system the same compelling way syphilis worked its way through such a huge portion of the population until the development of penicillin. That is, her message can't be ignored. The need for society to put syphilis in the closet is surely as strong a statement as the impact of the infection itself on genius, madness, and creativity. Given its unusual subject matter, this is a detective book that is hard to put down once you start it.

Fascinating history and mystery, January 29, 2003

Reviewer: A reader from Del Mar, CA United States

This fascinating book combines social history and medical mystery. Hayden presents an abundance of evidence that some of the great thinkers and creators of Western Civilization (and Hitler, too) had syphilis. Yet, she never forces her point of view. One wonders how this terrible disease (and she demonstrates how debilitating it really was)changed the history of the world. Intriguing.

Syphilis and creativity, January 14, 2003

Reviewer: Robert Busko from Laurinburg, North Carolina

This is a profoundly interesting book. Well written and well researched, Pox: Genius, Madness, and the Mysteries of Syphilis is a great study in how disease can alter one's perspective about the environment and how one interacts with those around them. Deborah Hayden spares no one from her magnifying glass. Abraham and Mary Lincoln, Adolf Hitler, James Joyce, Karen Blixen (Of Out of Africa fame), Beethoven are just a few of those investigated. Hayden also does a good job in looking at the connection between creativity, madness and the disease. I found myself skipping a head in places because the topic dragged but then an hour later flying along from page to page because the story grew intense. This is a good read. The scholarship certainly speaks well of the author.

Madness and Genius, January 9, 2003

Reviewer: Steve Hancock from Snellville, GA USA
I just happened to see this book in the store as I was walking through but I stayed up all night reading it. It discusses the mostly hidden impact of syphillis on a number of famous individuals and through them, and with them, the world. There have been other attempts of this sort, but I've never picked up one so compulsively readable. It reminded me of the fact that except for the breif period between World War Two and the advent of AIDS, sex has always been tied into a tight knot with death. Anyone interested in history or disease, should read this.

a must read, January 7, 2003

Reviewer: A reader from San Francisco

Pox is an astounding book. a superb book of medical detection in which the author -both sleuth and scholar at the highest level- uncovers how syphilis has laid low some of the greatest figures of the last two centuries including many of our greatest creators (Joyce, Van Gogh, Beethoven, Schumann, Flaubert), statesmen (Abraham Lincoln) Explorers (Columbus) as well as our greatest destroyer - Adolf Hitler. Will change forever about how you think about so many towering figures of the last two centuries. And Hitler - one has to be astounded that so many many scholars missed or concealed his syphilis. Well researched, engaging, and superbly written. A must read. from a San Francisco reader