Dexter Palmer

From the highly acclaimed author of Version Control comes a stunning, powerfully evocative new novel based on a true story--in 1726 in the small town of Godalming, England, a young woman confounds the medical community by giving birth to dead rabbits. When this singular event becomes a regular occurrence, a local surgeon realizes that nothing in his experience as a village physician has prepared him to deal with a situation as disturbing as this.this.

A Novel

Mary Toft; Or, the Rabbit Queen

Nica

he found himself wondering if Zachary wanted to become a surgeon not merely because he wanted to do good, but because he wanted to witness the evil done to human bodies by disease, chance, or the willful malice of others. But the Lord uses all people for his instruments.

he thought all that professed love of man's unique ability to reason was an excuse to smuggle atheism into the public discourse

"Beware the sentiment that a man's thoughts alone are enough to let him understand the world"

"It is a fraudulent idea, the product of the devil himself, who wishes us to cover our own eyes rather than behold the wondrous sight of the Lord."

When I look out at you, I cannot help but envy your innocence. For those of us who are no longer young, who've become jaded by the sight of ten thousand sunsets, is it not the rarest of pleasures to find oneself once again on the edge of the unknown? To truly encounter the new?

"But is it not true that not all is worth knowing? Are there not many mysteries best left as such? Are there not certain truths that live in the black spaces of your mind that you would claw out of your own head if you could?

a principal influence on the shape of a newborn child was the state of mind of its mother during the months of her pregnancy

"Every woman is a wonder," Fox said, "and every woman carries within her the capacity to be the conduit for one of God's miracles. For what else is the birth of a human being but the sure confirmation of God's grace and power? But a woman who does not take care of her own mind during the time of her pregnancy, who does not fully accept the role with which God has chosen to favor her, presents a danger; not merely to herself, or to her offspring, but to the public.

the public's burden, even as they are outcast from society; they are forbidden to darken the doors of those of us who are not malformed, and yet they have no homes of their own.

"If it were fully true that the bodies of children are shaped by their mother's minds, what about the children of mothers who are more innocent than most? Shouldn't the daughters of sinless women sport angel's wings, or possess eyes that sparkle in darkness?"

If all of us believed in her, would not her existence be a matter of fact, and not a fraud?

"The truth of the matter. Is it a thing that exists outside of our minds, wanting for us to perceive it and know it as true? Or is truth a thing that collectively resides within the minds of all men, a matter of consensus, subject to debate, subject to alteration? The world outside our minds neither true nor false, but merely there?"

our world has some secret horror that I cannot fathom if so, controlling the minds of men though it is impossible to perceive with our senses alone.

Leave the patient's mind to the patient; leave the king's beliefs to the king, and leave God's thoughts to God.

"Fire's not the only means of heat that families resort to in winter."

"October is when women pay the bill for January's warmth."

"It is easy enough for a man to follow God's precepts in days of clear skies and sunlight."

"A man is most likely to strive to enter heaven if he feels he already has one foot through its gates. But in times of darkness, the fear of damnation is a more useful means of keeping the flock on its proper path than the promise of salvation. Summer days call for the carrot; winter days warrant the stick."

At times, it seemed to Zachary as if his father's God was constituted entirely of the commands that he had given, or that he had created humans solely in order to give himself beings over which he could exercise control.

Mary Toft; Or, the Rabbit Queen quotes

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