THE PRODIGIOUS PHYSICIAN

Jorge de SENA

ISBN 10: 1910213381 / ISBN 13: 9781910213384

Published by Dedalus, 2016

About this Item

This is a first printing of the Dedalus new translation (by Margaret Jull Costa) of this novella which was originally published in Portuguese in 1966 and is now regarded as a classic of Portuguese literature. Unread. B format (130 x 198 mm) sized paperback. SYNOPSIS: "A young gentleman is travelling on horseback, and stops by a river to rest and bathe. As he is lying there naked after bathing, three maidens appear and, trying to avert their gaze from the young man's many charms, they tell him the story of their recently widowed mistress, who is dying of grief. She can only be saved by a man who fulfils three conditions: he must be the son of a king, a great physician, and a virgin. Since he more or less fulfils these conditions, the young man duly goes to the castle and saves the queen, who immediately falls in love with her saviour. But the maidens, the queen or the prodigious physician what they seem? In this novel, nothing is certain and nothing is ever entirely over." Packed weight 235 gms. IN STOCK FOR IMMEDIATE DESPATCH    .

Seller Inventory # 11458

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE PRODIGIOUS PHYSICIAN
• Publisher: Dedalus
• Publication Date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1910213381
• ISBN 13: 9781910213384
• Binding: Softback
• Edition: First.
• Condition: New
• Dust Jacket Condition: No dustjacket

About this title

Synopsis

This astonishingly erotic and ironic novel is set in vaguely medieval times, but the tone is starkly modern. A young gentleman is travelling on horseback, and stops by a river to rest and bathe. As he is lying there naked after bathing, three maidens appear and, trying to avert their gaze from the young man's many charms, they tell him the story of their recently widowed mistress, who is dying of grief. She can only be saved by a man who fulfils three conditions: he must be the son of a king, a great physician, and a virgin. Since he more or less fulfils these conditions, the young man duly goes to the castle where he saves the queen, who immediately falls in love with her saviour. But are the maidens, the queen or the prodigious physician what they seem? In this novel, nothing is certain and nothing is ever entirely over.

About the Authors

Jorge de Sena (1919-78) was a Portuguese poet, critic, essayist, novelist, dramatist, translator and university professor. His opposition to the Salazar dictatorship in Portugal led to him go into voluntary exile in Brazil in 1959 and, after the military coup in Brazil in 1964, he moved to the United States. He taught first at the University of Wisconsin and, for the last eight years of his life, at the University of California in Santa Barbara, where he was Professor of Comparative Literature.

Margaret Jull Costa has translated the works of many Spanish and Portuguese writers. She won the Portuguese Translation Prize for The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa in 1992 and for The Word Tree by Teolinda Gersao in 2012, awith Javier Marias, she won the 1997 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for A Heart So White, and, in 2000, she won the Weidenfeld Translation Prize for Jose Saramago's All the Names.In 2008 she won the PEN Translation Prize and The Oxford Weidenfeld Translation Prize for The Maias by Eca de Queiroz.

University teacher of Portuguese Literature in Wales.