The Vivisector is the eighth published novel by Patrick White

Patrick White

Patrick Victor Martindale White , an Australian author, is widely regarded as an important English-language novelist of the 20th century. From 1935 until his death, he published 12 novels, two short-story collections and eight plays.White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, shifting narrative...

, winner of the 1973 Nobel Prize for Literature. First published in 1970, it details the lifelong creative journey of fictional artist/painter Hurtle Duffield. Named for its sometimes cruel analysis of Duffield and the major figures in his life, the book explores universal themes like the suffering of the artist, the need for truth and the meaning of existence.

Background

The longest of White's novels, The Vivisector was written in 1968. While the novel was dedicated to painter Sidney Nolan

Sidney Nolan

Sir Sidney Robert Nolan OM, AC was one of Australia's best-known painters and printmakers.-Early life:Nolan was born in Carlton, a suburb of Melbourne, on 22 April 1917. He was the eldest of four children. His family later moved to St Kilda. Nolan attended the Brighton Road State School and...

, White denied any connection between Hurtle Duffield, the novel's central character, and Nolan or any other painter. Other literary critics have interpreted the novel as being largely autobiographical, with Australian literary critic Geordie Williamson noting that "The Vivisector is a great Australian novel. I think it is one of White's, I think it's White's great autobiography to be honest."

Plot summary

Hurtle Duffield is born into a poor Australian family. They adopt him out to the wealthy Courtneys, who are seeking a companion for their hunchbacked daughter Rhoda. The precocious Hurtle gains artistic inspiration from the world that surrounds him, his adoptive mother, Maman, and Rhoda; the prostitute Nance, who is his first real love; the wealthy heiress Olivia Davenport; his Greek mistress Hero Pavloussi and finally the child prodigy Kathy Volkov. He becomes famous and his paintings are in great demand. However, he is unimpressed by the monetary and status gain this brings and continues to live a spartan life, beholden to nobody - even the Prime Minister. In his final years he is drawn closer to his sister Rhoda, and after a stroke causes partial paralysis, is assisted by his protoge Don Lethbridge to produce a huge, final magnum opus to God--the Vivisector.

Awards

White's biographer, David Marr, has claimed that White was being considered by a Nobel Prize committee to receive the Nobel Literature prize. However, the committee was reportedly offended by one of the central themes of the novel, which posed the question as to whether it was possible to be a human being and an artist at the same time, and decided not to award the prize to White that year. He later won the Literature prize in 1973.

White was announced, on 26 March 2010, as one of six authors shortlisted for the "Lost Man Booker Prize

Lost Man Booker Prize

The Lost Man Booker Prize was a special edition of the Man Booker Prize awarded by a public vote in 2010 to a novel from 1970, described by The New York Times as "an act of literary reparation"...

" of 1970, a contest delayed by 40 years because a reshuffling of the fledgeling competition's rules that year disqualified nearly a year's worth of high-quality fiction from consideration.