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Making the fur fly: Mary and the Rabbit Dream, by Noémi Kiss-Deáki

When a poor peasant named Mary Toft claimed to have given birth to 17 rabbits, many in Georgian Britain believed her, including senior members of the medical profession

27 July 2024

9:00 AM

27 July 2024

9:00 AM

Mary and the Rabbit Dream Noémi Kiss-Deáki

Galley Beggar Press, pp.288, 10.99

Mary Toft seems to be having something of a moment. The English 18th-century peasant who stunned society with her claim to have given birth to rabbits has been the focus of a suite of recent books, including Dexter Palmer’s Mary Toft, or the Rabbit Queen (2019) and Karen Harvey’s The Imposteress Rabbit Breeder (2020).

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