Clare Beams was nominated for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for her short story collection We Show What We Have Learned. The Illness Lesson is her debut novel which was published on 11th February 2020. The novel examines the dark side of the idealism of the Transcendentalist movement, the moral ambiguity of reformers, and the struggle between progress and tradition.
The central characters Caroline and her father are set in relief against a backdrop of fear and ignorance, as well as courage and insight. When Caroline's father, Samuel, inherits a failing utopian community, he decides to create a school for girls on the site. But when a mysterious illness starts to spread throughout the students, he turns to Hawkins, who prescribes a strange and questionable medical treatment. Caroline is horrified by this treatment and she struggles to understand the illness and its effects on the girls. Her discoveries force her to confront the power of medicine, the limits of science, and the mysterious power of faith and belief in healing. Along the way, she learns to trust her intuition and finds her strength.
As the novel progresses, the school’s reality proves to have little in common with Samuel’s vision. The students are malnourished and overworked, and the staff is more concerned with financial gain than intellectual development. As Caroline and David grapple with the ethical implications of their involvement in the school, the novel examines the power dynamics and human costs of 19th-century education.
