Disease And The Novel, 1880–1960
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Markings: Fair - Bumping on spine and corners. Rubbed edges.
At the intersection of medicine and modernist literature lies one of the most compelling and underexplored narratives in literary history — the symbiotic relationship between physical illness and the creative imagination. Disease and the Novel, 1880–1960 by Jeffrey Meyers presents a rigorous and illuminating study of how tuberculosis, syphilis, and other diseases became not merely biographical footnotes but central, structuring forces in the works of major novelists across eight decades, from the fin-de-siècle to the mid-twentieth century. Meyers argues with scholarly precision that illness shaped not only the lives of writers such as D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann, and André Gide, but fundamentally altered their narrative sensibilities, thematic preoccupations, and aesthetic visions. This critical study stands as a landmark contribution to the fields of medical humanities and literary criticism, drawing on biography, cultural history, and close textual analysis to reveal the ways in which the diseased body became a powerful metaphor for moral, social, and existential crisis in the modern novel. Meyers' prose is authoritative yet accessible, moving fluidly between the clinical and the literary with a confidence that commands respect. For any reader who has ever wondered why so many great novels of the era are saturated with fever, decay, and mortality, this work offers answers that are as unsettling as they are revelatory.
Author: Jeffrey Meyers
Format: Hardback
Genre: Literary theory
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Markings: Fair - Bumping on spine and corners. Rubbed edges.
At the intersection of medicine and modernist literature lies one of the most compelling and underexplored narratives in literary history — the symbiotic relationship between physical illness and the creative imagination. Disease and the Novel, 1880–1960 by Jeffrey Meyers presents a rigorous and illuminating study of how tuberculosis, syphilis, and other diseases became not merely biographical footnotes but central, structuring forces in the works of major novelists across eight decades, from the fin-de-siècle to the mid-twentieth century. Meyers argues with scholarly precision that illness shaped not only the lives of writers such as D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann, and André Gide, but fundamentally altered their narrative sensibilities, thematic preoccupations, and aesthetic visions. This critical study stands as a landmark contribution to the fields of medical humanities and literary criticism, drawing on biography, cultural history, and close textual analysis to reveal the ways in which the diseased body became a powerful metaphor for moral, social, and existential crisis in the modern novel. Meyers' prose is authoritative yet accessible, moving fluidly between the clinical and the literary with a confidence that commands respect. For any reader who has ever wondered why so many great novels of the era are saturated with fever, decay, and mortality, this work offers answers that are as unsettling as they are revelatory.