The Doctor is Sick
Encyclopedia
The Doctor Is Sick is a 1960 novel by Anthony Burgess
.
According to his autobiography, Burgess composed the book in just six weeks. He wrote it after his return to England from Malaya
in a burst of literary activity that also produced Devil of a State
, A Clockwork Orange
, The Right to an Answer
and several other works.
While Edwin is confined to a neurological ward, undergoing a battery of diagnostic tests, Mrs. Spindrift amuses herself with some disreputable new friends at the surrounding pubs. Sometimes, to Edwin's distress, she sends these friends to keep her husband company during visiting hours, rather than come herself.
Most of the novel is a dream sequence: while anesthetised for brain surgery, Edwin's anxiety over his wife and the company she keeps turns into a slightly surrealistic fantasy in which Edwin leaves the hospital and encounters his wife's friends, with whom he has various adventures.
Burgess's description of life in a hospital ward is particularly vivid, as is his account of the bizarre and sometimes grisly medical tests to which Edwin is subjected. The book is also notable for the variety of English dialect
s represented: like his protagonist, Burgess was a philologist, and he shows a playful virtuosity in drafting phonetically accurate renditions of lower-class London speech.
The novel's "Doctor Railton", who is in charge of Edwin's case, is a fictionalised version of Sir Roger Bannister, who in real life performed neurological tests on Burgess.
Anthony Burgess
John Burgess Wilson – who published under the pen name Anthony Burgess – was an English author, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. The dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange is Burgess's most famous novel, though he dismissed it as one of his lesser works...
.
According to his autobiography, Burgess composed the book in just six weeks. He wrote it after his return to England from Malaya
Federation of Malaya
The Federation of Malaya is the name given to a federation of 11 states that existed from 31 January 1948 until 16 September 1963. The Federation became independent on 31 August 1957...
in a burst of literary activity that also produced Devil of a State
Devil of a State
Devil of a State is a 1961 novel by Anthony Burgess based on his experience living and working in Bandar Seri Begawan in the Southeast Asian sultanate of Brunei, on the island of Borneo, in 1958-59....
, A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange is a 1962 dystopian novella by Anthony Burgess. The novel contains an experiment in language: the characters often use an argot called "Nadsat", derived from Russian....
, The Right to an Answer
The Right to an Answer
The Right to an Answer is a darkly comic 1960 novel by Anthony Burgess, the first of his repatriate years . One of its themes is the disillusionment of the returning exile. The critic William H Pritchard described the novel in a 1966 publication as "surely Burgess' most engaging novel".-Characters...
and several other works.
Plot introduction
The "doctor" of the title is Edwin Spindrift, Ph.D., an unhappily married professor of linguistics who has been sent home from Burma to England suffering from a mysterious brain ailment.While Edwin is confined to a neurological ward, undergoing a battery of diagnostic tests, Mrs. Spindrift amuses herself with some disreputable new friends at the surrounding pubs. Sometimes, to Edwin's distress, she sends these friends to keep her husband company during visiting hours, rather than come herself.
Most of the novel is a dream sequence: while anesthetised for brain surgery, Edwin's anxiety over his wife and the company she keeps turns into a slightly surrealistic fantasy in which Edwin leaves the hospital and encounters his wife's friends, with whom he has various adventures.
Background and sources
Shortly before he wrote The Doctor Is Sick, the author suffered an obscure mental breakdown that ended his foreign service career. He came back to England convinced he had a brain tumor; he based some of the novel's events on his resulting confinement to London's Neurological Institute.Burgess's description of life in a hospital ward is particularly vivid, as is his account of the bizarre and sometimes grisly medical tests to which Edwin is subjected. The book is also notable for the variety of English dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s represented: like his protagonist, Burgess was a philologist, and he shows a playful virtuosity in drafting phonetically accurate renditions of lower-class London speech.
The novel's "Doctor Railton", who is in charge of Edwin's case, is a fictionalised version of Sir Roger Bannister, who in real life performed neurological tests on Burgess.