In the land of pain

Description

The nineteenth-century French writer offers an account of his life as he succumbed to the pain of syphilis, detailing the symptoms of his disease, his fellow patients in search of a cure, and the impact of his physical suffering.

First Sentence

'What are you doing at the moment?'

Description

"Alphonse Daudet (1840-1897) was one of the most popular nineteenth-century French novelists, whose work radiated humour and good cheer. What few except those close to him knew was that for his enitre adult life he suffered from syphilis, a disease both unmentionable and incurable at the time. What even fewer knew was that for the last dozen years of his life he kept an intimate notebook in which he recorded the inevitable development and terrifying effects of the disease. He described the often alarming treatments he took in the desperate attempt to defeat the disease, and wrote with comic zest about life in the spa-towns to which he was sent for a cure. Even for a time when we are more openly confessional about illness, Daudet remains exemplary and instructive, both in his lucid self-examination and in his amused stoicism. In the Land of Pain was first published by Daudet's widow in 1930."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

Genres

• Biography

Other Editions

• In the land of painKnopf2002-01-01
• In the land of painJonathan Cape2002
• In the Land of PainKnopf2003-01-07