Ingenious Pain - SIGNED - Hardcover

MILLER, Andrew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0340682078 ISBN 13: 9780340682074

Publisher: Sceptre, 1997

Synopsis

Physical description; 337 pages ; 24 cm. Notes; "A Sceptre book". Summary; The rise, fall and redemption of an extraordinary man born unable to feel pain. Growing up in the West Country in the mid-18th century, James Dyer grows up to become a brilliant surgeon. En route to St Petersburg he meets a witchlike woman who proves both his nemesis and saviour. Subjects; 18th century. Medicine - History - 18th century. Nervous System Malformations. Physicians - history. Pain. Surgeons. Physicians - Europe - Fiction. Physicians - England - Fiction. English fiction - 20th century. Europe - History - 18th century - Fiction. Historical fiction ; Modern fiction. Fiction / Historical. Fiction / General. Physicians ; Fiction. Genres; Historical fiction. Novels.

About this title

Review

"What does the world need most--a good, ordinary man, or one who is outstanding, albeit with a heart of ice?" This is the question at the heart of Andrew Miller's first novel, Ingenious Pain, a book set during the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment. The outstanding man in question is James Dyer, an English freak of nature who, since birth, has been impervious to physical pain. Not only does he feel no pain, but he recovers from all injuries in record time. By turns a shill for a quack pain- reliever at county fairs, an object of study by a wealthy collector of human oddities, and, eventually, a surgeon, James Dyer--and through him the reader--gains exposure to a panoply of 18th-century philosophical thought, medical practice, historic events, and larger-than-life rogues and heroes, both fictional and real.

As a surgeon, James Dyer excels, and his inability to feel--whether physical pain himself or empathy for others--seems only to enhance his skill with a knife. James slices and dices and cures without a scintilla of compassion while his reputation grows, until at last he arrives in Russia and the mystery of his unusual quality is resolved. Miller navigates his complicated story and exotic locales with unswerving confidence, bolstered, no doubt, by thorough research. James Dyer is not a character who invites love, but his adventures make for intelligent, deeply pleasurable reading.

About the Author

ANDREW MILLER's first novel, Ingenious Pain, won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the International IMPAC Award. He was short-listed for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Award for his novel Oxygen. He lives in Brighton, England.

Edition details

• Publisher: Sceptre
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0340682078
• ISBN 13: 9780340682074
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352