The True History of the Elephant Man: The Definitive Account of the Tragic and Extraordinary Life of Joseph Carey Merrick

About this book

Joseph Carey Merrick born in England on August 5 1862 is better known as The Elephant Man. Through horrible physical deformities which were almost impossible to describe he spent much of his life exhibited as a fairground freak until even nineteenth-century sensibilities could take no more. Hounded persecuted and starving he ended up at Londons Liverpool Street Station where he was rescued housed and fed by the distinguished surgeon Frederick Treves. To Treves surprise he discovered during the course of their friendship that lurking beneath the mass of Merricks corrupting flesh lived a spirit that was as courageous as it had been tortured and a nature as gentle and dignified as it had been deprived and tormented. The subject of several books a Broadway hit and a film Joseph Merrick has become part of popular mythology. Here in this fully revised edition containing new details are the true and unromantic facts of his life. This is an extraordinary and moving story set among the brutal realities of the Victorian world telling of a tragic individual and his survival against overwhelming odds.