Head back in time to 19th Century Paris in R.w. Meek's fabulous novel - The Dream Collector (Sabrine & Sigmund Freud - Book On)

 

The Dream Collector
(Sabrine & Sigmund Freud - Book On)

By R.w. Meek

Publication Date: December 19th, 2023

Publisher: Historium Books

Page Length: 723 Pages

Genre: Literary Historical Fiction

The Dream Collector immerses the reader into the exciting milieu of late 19th Century Paris when art and medicine were in the throes of revolution, art turning to Impressionism, medicine turning to psychology. In 1885, Julie Forette, a self-educated woman from Marseilles, finds employment at the infamous Salpêtrière, hospital and asylum to over five thousand disabled, demented and abandoned women, a walled city ruled by the famed neurologist and arrogant director, Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot.  

Julie Forette forms a friendship with the young, visiting intern Sigmund Freud who introduces her to the altering-conscious power of cocaine. Together they pursue the hidden potential of hypnotism and dream interpretation. After Freud receives the baffling case of the star hysteric, Sabrine Weiss, he is encouraged by Julie to experiment with different modes of treatment, including “talking sessions.” Their urgent quest is to find a cure for Sabrine, Princess of the Hysterics, before Dr. Charcot resorts to the radical removal of her ovaries.  

In Paris, Julie finds a passion for the new art emerging, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, and forms friendships with the major artists of the period, including Pissarro, Monet, and Degas. Julie becomes intimately involved with the reclusive Cezanne only to be seduced by the “Peruvian Savage” Paul Gauguin.  Julie is the eponymous ‘Dream Collector’ collecting the one unforgettable, soul-defining dream of the major historical figures of the period. 

Praise

"Meek never fails to stun and impress with his evocation of scenes and events, of sights and dialogue, and of peoples' reactions to them."

HFC Reviews

"Tribute must be paid to the obvious and clear literary skills of the author R.w. Meek and to his ability to invoke historic personages and the Belle Époque he so evidently adores."

 Julian de la Motte, award-winning author of Senlac

Excerpt

Tour of the Temple of Science

           

The first door we entered brought us to stunned confusion; instantly engulfed in dense swirls of mist, we became lost to each other. Dr. Charcot, as well, disappeared into a thick miasma of steam. The disembodied voice of our leader called out a warning: “Do not wander, stay close!” 

Everyone invisible, immersed in a white fog, our ears were filled with the strident shouts and shrill screams of unseen women. It was such a frightful cacophony of tortured shrieks that my heart chilled. I imagined myself in a vaporous netherworld where bands of spectral harpies were in dreadful flight. 

 Through the rolling clouds came Charcot’s assurance: “Be patient.”

I strained to see. There were vague shapes ghostly walking and as the white veils began to lift, the steam shredding, they became Salpêtrière’s nursing assistants, male and female. We were in an enormous room, a hippodrome, amidst a vast scattering of iron tubs. Charcot emerged, distinct in the dark suit and chimney hat, as though etched in ink upon vellum. 

“Salpêtrière's Hydrotherapy Department!” he thundered. 

Submerged in the hundreds of tubs were women, glisteningly naked, madly screaming or struggling to escape the waters, but burly male attendants forcibly held them down. Some in the tubs simply wept or whimpered, some behaved like playful children, slapping the water and jabbering gentle nonsense. 

 

I waited with Freud and every other intern for Charcot to make sense of the chaos spread before us

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R.w. Meek

R.w. Meek has a Master’s degree in Art History from the American University in Washington, D.C., his areas of expertise are Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, with a particular interest in Vincent van Gogh.  He has interned and conducted tours at the National Museum of American and the National Gallery of Art. In 2022 and 2023 five of his chapter excerpts from his soon to be published novel “The Dream Collector” were either finalists or published in various literary journals. The author has also won the Palm Beach Book Festival Competition for “Best Writer in Palm Beach’ his manuscript judged by a panel of NYT Best Selling authors. “The Dream Collector” also received gold and silver medals in the Historical Fiction Company literary contest and earned runner-up for the “Best Historical Fiction Novel’ of 2022. 

The author was born in Baltimore, adventured in Europe for many years, and recently moved from Delray Beach, Florida to Santa Clarita, California.  His wife is a psychologist, sculptress, playwright and stand-up story teller.  His daughter Nora is a story board artist in the animation world and resides in Hollywood, California. His favorite writers are Dostoevsky, John Fowles, and Antoine de Saint-Exupery. 

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