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The Body in the Library: A Literary Anthology of Modern Medicine Hardcover – Bargain Price, December 17, 2003

ISBN-10: 1859845347 Edition: 1st

4 New from $57.60 3 Used from $29.46
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Hardcover, Bargain Price, December 17, 2003
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 424 pages
  • Publisher: Verso; 1 edition (December 17, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1859845347
  • ASIN: B005M4ZAPY
  • Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1.5 x 8.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,870,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Editorial Reviews


A superb reminder that the creativity of physicians flows beautifully beyond the consulting room or laboratory. -- John Carmody, Nature, 7 June 2004

A thoughtful, sometimes astonishing book. Bamforth, a doctor and poet, prefaces each extract wittily and appositely. -- Phil Whitaker, The Guardian

Bamforth's erudite volume...is not just an important cultural record, it is a humanistic treasure as well. -- David A. Rocheforth, Project Hope, May/June 2004

About the Author

Iain Bamforth is a doctor who has worked across Europe and Australia. His essays and reviews have appeared in a variety of medical and literary publications including The Lancet, Times Literary Supplement, London Review of Books, and New York Times. He is the author of several books of poetry and has received a Scottish Arts Council Book Award and an Eric Gregory Award.

Samuel Beckett was born in Ireland in 1906. His plays Waiting for Godot and Endgame revolutionized modern theater, and his trilogy—Molloy, Mallone Dies, and The Unnamable—ranks among the major works of twentieth century fiction. He died in Paris in 1989.

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was a German poet, playwright, and theater director. An influential theater practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner Ensemble—the post-war theater company operated by Brecht and his wife and long-time collaborator, the actress Helene Weigel—with its internationally acclaimed productions.


Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1894-1961) was a French writer and doctor whose novels are antiheroic visions of human suffering. Accused of collaboration with the Nazis, Céline fled France in 1944 first to Germany and then to Denmark. Condemned by default (1950) in France to one year of imprisonment and declared a national disgrace, Céline returned to France after his pardon in 1951, where he continued to write until his death. His classic books include Journey to the End of the Night, Death on the Installment Plan, London Bridge, North, Rigadoon, Conversations with Professor Y, Castle to Castle, and Normance.



Gustave Flaubert (1821-80) is considered to be one of the most important French novelists of the nineteenth century. He's most well known for his novel Madame Bovary, and for his desire to write "a book about nothing," a novel in which all external elements, especially the presence of the author, have been eliminated, leaving nothing but style itself. Often considered a member of the naturalist school, Flaubert despised categorizations of this sort, and in novels like Bouvard and Pécuchet demonstrates the inaptness of this label. In addition to these two novels, he is also the author of A Sentimental Education, Salambo, Three Tales, and The Temptation of Saint Anthony.

Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852) was a novelist and political satirist. The author of Dead Souls and The Overcoat, he was one of Russia’s greatest writers.


Novelist, poet, and journalist, Deszö Kosztolányi (1885-1936) is widely regarded as one of the great Hungarian writers.

George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair) (1903–1950) wrote fiction, journalism, criticism, and poetry. His nine books include the classics Animal Farm and 1984.

Raymond Queneau (1903-1976) is acknowledged as one of the most influential of modern French writers, having helped determine the shape of twentieth-century French literature, especially in his role with the Oulipo, a group of authors that includes Italo Calvino, Georges Perec, and Harry Mathews, among others.


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