In this ingenious novel, Dr Woodhead - a retired consultant
physician - tells the story of Robert Louis Stevenson, the author
of Treasure Island and many other varied books, through the history
of his lifetime struggle against consumption. Harping thus on his
illness might seem likely to result in a one-sided picture of the
author, but in the first place this is a novel rather than a
biography, and in the second the narrative is sufficiently
inventive to interest us in the five doctors he consulted just as
much as in Stevenson himself. There is the self-satisfied Sir
Andrew Clark, sometime President of the Royal College of Physicians
and doctor to Mr Gladstone; Dr Karl Ruedi, who worked on Davos and
talked with Stevenson not only about his sickness but about
tobogganing; Dr Thomas Bodley Scott (later Mayor of Bournemouth)
who discussed a fascinating dream of his patient's; Dr E.L Trudeau,
a world authority on pulmonary tuberculosis, and perhaps the wisest
of the five; and finally Dr Bernard Funk, who attended the writer
on his death-bed - and witnessed the strange irony that after a
lifetime fighting TB Stevenson in the end died not of that disease,
but of a tiny brain haemorrhage. These men emerge quite as vividly
as Stevenson, their dialogue particularly well individualized; the
author suggests that they all realized that if their names were
remembered at all, it would be because they had treated one
particular man. And that has proved true. The charismatic and
highly individual Fanny Osbourne, Stevenson's wife, also emerges
strongly into the sunlight. This is naturally a sad story, but
Stevenson's bright, sunny personality comes through with sufficient
force to make it a cheering one. (Kirkus UK)
A consultant physician for 22 years with a strong interest in
Robert Louis Stevenson's life and work, Richard Woodhead was
intrigued by the questions raised by the references to his
symptoms. The assumption that he suffered from consumption - the
diagnosis of the day - is challenged here. Consumption
(tuberculosis), a scourge of nineteenth century society, it was
regarded as severely debilitating if not a death sentence. Dr
Woodhead examines how Stevenson's life was affected by his illness
and his perception of it. This fictional work puts words into the
mouths of five doctors who treated RLS at different periods of his
adult life. Though these doctors existed in real-life, little is
documented of their private conversations with RLS. However
everything Dr Woodhead postulates could have occurred within the
known framework of RLS's life. Detailed use of Stevenson's own
writing adds authenticity to the views espoused in the book. RLS's
writing continues to compel readers today. The fact that he did
much of his writing while confined to his sick-bed is fascinating.
What illness could have contributed to his creativity?
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