Elsie Venner: A Romance of Destiny - Softcover

Wendell Holmes, Oliver

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1545291594 ISBN 13: 9781545291597

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017

Synopsis

Full text

Elsie Venner: A Romance of Destiny is an 1861 novel by American author and physician Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Later dubbed the first of his "medicated novels", it tells the story of a neurotic young woman whose mother was bitten by a rattlesnake while pregnant, which imbued the child with some characteristics of the reptile.

The Holmes' aim was "to test the doctrine of 'original sin' and human responsibility for the distorted violation coming under that technical denomination". The novel explores medical complexities, psychology, the origins of behavior and the certainties of religion.

The character of Elsie Venner may have been modeled on the famous feminist pioneer Margaret Fuller, whom Holmes knew from his school days in Cambridge.

Quotes: I don’t doubt there is some truth in the phenomena of animal magnetism, for instance; but when you ask me to cradle for it, I tell you that the hysteric girls cheat so, and the professionals are such a set of pickpockets, that I can do something better than hunt for the grains of truth among their tricks and lies. Do you remember what I used to say in my lectures?—or were you asleep just then, or cutting your initials on the rail? (You see I can ask questions, my young friend.) Leverage is everything,—was what I used to say;—don’t begin to pry till you have got the long arm on your side.

About this title

About the Author:

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) served as chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court and as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He was nick-named the "Great Dissenter" because of his many dissenting opinions. Holmes is also the author of Kent's Commentaries on the Law (1873) and "The Path of the Law" (1897).

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1545291594
• ISBN 13: 9781545291597
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 510