The Strange Case of Dr. Simmonds and Dr. Glas
by Dannie Abse
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Dr Simmonds is infatuated with an unhappily married patient, Yvonne. When she presents him with a novel about a certain Dr Glas, Simmonds immediately recognizes his similarity affinity with the fictional doctor. The trouble is that Dr Glas deliberately murders the husband of the one he loved.Tags
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This took me a while to get into. I was pleased I'd taken it away with me and had nothing else to read; otherwise at home I may have not continued reading it. It is very strange with elements of Freud appearing in the fictitious prose.
Dr Simmonds is a batchelor in 1950s London (I believe he's in his 40s). He is given - by 2 different people - a copy of a 1905 Swedish classic 'Doctor Glas' which is a novel posing the question of a pure moral murder. This book sees Dr Simmonds becoming involved in the same circumstances that occur in the book he is given.
It takes a while to get into, but once you have it's worth it. Dr Simmonds is a dry character whose humour may not appeal to everyone. I like the line "it will be wonderful if cortisone show more does prove to be an effective remedy for severe rheumatoid arthritis. At present, the tapping noise of sticks on the road to Lourdes is too loud."
The ending seems to make it more like non-fiction than fiction when the 'journals' of Dr Simmonds are sold. However I don't feel like the end leaves the book complete.
Worth a read. show less
Dr Simmonds is a batchelor in 1950s London (I believe he's in his 40s). He is given - by 2 different people - a copy of a 1905 Swedish classic 'Doctor Glas' which is a novel posing the question of a pure moral murder. This book sees Dr Simmonds becoming involved in the same circumstances that occur in the book he is given.
It takes a while to get into, but once you have it's worth it. Dr Simmonds is a dry character whose humour may not appeal to everyone. I like the line "it will be wonderful if cortisone show more does prove to be an effective remedy for severe rheumatoid arthritis. At present, the tapping noise of sticks on the road to Lourdes is too loud."
The ending seems to make it more like non-fiction than fiction when the 'journals' of Dr Simmonds are sold. However I don't feel like the end leaves the book complete.
Worth a read. show less
Abse has a hard act to follow here. Doctor Glas, which I've discussed elsewhere, is a superb existential story of alienation, told from the point of view of a doctor who by virtue of his position in society is both especially connected to people - he is privy to their secrets - and especially disconnected - he is privy to secrets. The very fact that his job is to be privy to their most private thoughts means that the nature of his social relationships is compromised and ambiguous. He finds it hard to understand what his relationship is to individuals and that is connected up, of course, to his relationship to society.
Abse continues on this theme with the profound understanding that comes of being both a doctor and a poet. He is at the show more time of penning this, furthermore, an eighty year old Jewish doctor and poet.
The rest is here show less
Abse continues on this theme with the profound understanding that comes of being both a doctor and a poet. He is at the show more time of penning this, furthermore, an eighty year old Jewish doctor and poet.
The rest is here show less
Abse has a hard act to follow here. Doctor Glas, which I've discussed elsewhere, is a superb existential story of alienation, told from the point of view of a doctor who by virtue of his position in society is both especially connected to people - he is privy to their secrets - and especially disconnected - he is privy to secrets. The very fact that his job is to be privy to their most private thoughts means that the nature of his social relationships is compromised and ambiguous. He finds it hard to understand what his relationship is to individuals and that is connected up, of course, to his relationship to society.
Abse continues on this theme with the profound understanding that comes of being both a doctor and a poet. He is at the show more time of penning this, furthermore, an eighty year old Jewish doctor and poet.
The rest is here show less
Abse continues on this theme with the profound understanding that comes of being both a doctor and a poet. He is at the show more time of penning this, furthermore, an eighty year old Jewish doctor and poet.
The rest is here show less
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Booker Prize
491 works; 62 members
Man Booker Prize Longlist 2002
20 works; 2 members
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Dannie Abse was born in Cardiff, Wales on September 22, 1923. He trained as a doctor at King's College London and Westminster Hospital, where he qualified in 1950. In 1951, he was called up for national service as a medical officer in the RAF. In 1954, he went to the Middlesex Hospital, where he stayed for the rest of his medical career, as show more specialist in charge of the chest clinic at the Central Medical Establishment. His first collection of poetry, After Every Green Thing, was published in 1948 and his first autobiographical novel, Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve, was published in 1954. His other collections of poetry include A Small Desperation; Funland; White Coat, Purple Coat: Collected Poems, 1948-88; Two for Joy: Scenes from Married Life; Speak, Old Parrot; and Ask the Moon. He won the Roland Mathais Prize in 2007 for Running Late and the Wales Book of the Year award in 2008 for The Presence. His other novels include Some Corner of an English Field; O. Jones, O. Jones; There Was a Young Man from Cardiff; and The Strange Case of Dr. Simmonds and Dr. Glas. He wrote two books of memoirs, A Poet in the Family and Goodbye, Twentieth Century. He also wrote a number of plays. In the early 1950s, he edited a magazine entitled Poetry and Poverty and compiled a variety of anthologies including Wales in Verse and the Hutchinson Book of Post-War British Poets. In 2012, he accepted his CBE for services to poetry and literature. He died on September 28, 2014 at the age of 91. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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