To: epicure who wrote (63025 ) 11/15/1999 10:48:00 AM From: Ilaine Read Replies (2) | Respond to
I have been reading a lot of stuff on the net, doing name searches on various search engines. Google.com, so far, is the most useful. Lizzie mentioned Madame Lalaurie last week, and that reminded me that I had wanted to write a book about her, so I started playing around, to see what was available on the Internet. And I spent time digging through old files, looking for my old research. I found one folder, but I seem to remember other stuff, which haven't come to light yet. I haven't taken my books out of boxes to put on the bookshelves, and so I can't find my copy of "Strange True Stories of Louisiana," but I think I've recollected everything that was in there. There may be things that are helpful at the Library of Congress or the National Archives. The fascination, for me, isn't the "haunted house" aspect, but the suggestion, I can't recall where, now, that her third husband was actually an orthopedic surgeon, and that he wasn't torturing the slaves, he was treating them or experimenting on them. But if, in fact, she was torturing her slaves, it's very unusual, women don't usually torture, and people high up on the social scale don't, either. Of course, there is plenty of precedent for it, e.g., the Nazis experimenting on Jews, etc., so it could be that she was just evil. At any rate, it does intrigue me.Possession and Angels and Insects too, at least one story, seems like there was another I didn't like, also. I will take a look for Babel Tower , assume it's her latest?
