At the dawn of the Enlightenment, James Dyer is born unable to feel pain. A source of wonder and scientific curiosity as a child, he rises through the ranks of Georgian society to become a brilliant surgeon. Yet as a human being he fails, for he can no more feel love and compassion than pain. Until, en route to St Petersburg to inoculate the Empress Catherine against smallpox, he meets his nemesis and saviour.
Ingenious Pain
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Amazon Review
"What does the world need most--a good, ordinary man, or one who is outstanding, albeit with a heart of ice?" This is the question at the heart of Andrew Miller's first novel, Ingenious Pain, a book set during the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment. The outstanding man in question is James Dyer, an English freak of nature who, since birth, has been impervious to physical pain. Not only does he feel no pain, but he recovers from all injuries in record time. By turns a shill for a quack pain- reliever at county fairs, an object of study by a wealthy collector of human oddities, and, eventually, a surgeon, James Dyer--and through him the reader--gains exposure to a panoply of 18th-century philosophical thought, medical practice, historic events, and larger-than-life rogues and heroes, both fictional and real.
As a surgeon, James Dyer excels, and his inability to feel--whether physical pain himself or empathy for others--seems only to enhance his skill with a knife. James slices and dices and cures without a scintilla of compassion while his reputation grows, until at last he arrives in Russia and the mystery of his unusual quality is resolved. Miller navigates his complicated story and exotic locales with unswerving confidence, bolstered, no doubt, by thorough research. James Dyer is not a character who invites love, but his adventures make for intelligent, deeply pleasurable reading. --Amazon.com
Review
'A wild adventure through 18th-century England and Russia, medicine, madness, landscape and weather, rendered in prose of consummate beauty.' -- Independent Books of the Year 'Dazzling ... Miller tackles notions of mortality and humanity to brilliant effect ... truly wonderful' -- Evening Standard 'Astoundingly good ... it shines like a beacon among the grey dross of much contemporary fiction' -- The Times 'A really remarkable first novel, original, powerfully written ... Miller's narrative is gripping and his imagination extraordinary.' -- Sunday Telegraph 'A timeless and thought-provoking fable about human nature ... It is something very rare in modern fiction, a true work of art.' -- Spectator 'Strange, unsettling, sad, beautiful, and profound' -- Literary Review
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First Sentence
On a hot, cloud-hemmed afternoon in August, three men cross a stable yard near the village of Cow in Devon. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
On a hot, cloud-hemmed afternoon in August, three men cross a stable yard near the village of Cow in Devon. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I loved this book. Every detail was fresh with insight into the human condition. Suffering (both physical and mental), love, ambition, death - all were addressed with freshness, warmth and compassion. Even now, eight months after reading the book, I feel as if I have a film of the book's events running through my thoughts. Every detail had meaning. Every plot turn was the natural result of the character's personalities, flaws and desires. Nothing felt contrived. Amazing.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This book was an absolute page turner for me. A friend reflects back over the strange life of a man from early age to adult surgeon. The man in question, after several adventures becomes one of the most sought after surgeons in the whole of europe, only one thing...he cannot feel any emotions or physical pain. And this of course creates problems. Towards the end of the book there is a great climax of events and then ends as it began. (Nice closure!) Set circa 17-18th century ? (sorry dates were never my forte) when a good bleeding was a cure for what ails you and much experimentation was going on . The scenes are graphic, incredibly beautiful, sometimes mystical.
31 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This first time author so skilled and so committed to his subject that he has been able to reject all the conventions of novel writing and still get his surprising book published--receiving rave reviews on two continents in the process!
Miller sets the book in the eighteenth century and begins with a graphic autopsy of the main character. Here he recreates the philosophical and scientific attitudes of the period, attitudes which are alien to our own, and which he will explore as a subtext throughout the book. He summarizes the life of the main character--which he spends the rest of the book recounting--in the first chapter, eliminating any climactic excitement he might have created. His main character is a man with the inability to feel pain, someone with whom the reader cannot possibly identify, and his adventures are weirdly melodramatic, so unusual the reader's interest lies primarily in their curiosity.
Yet the book "works," and very often thrills. Somehow he does manage to make the reader care about James Dyer and his fate, and he does create excitement in a plot which skips from small town England to the court of Russia. Miller's masterful and controlled use of description is a primary factor in his ability to further the action of this unusual story and bring the characters and the period alive. This reader was awestruck by Miller's creative daring--and by his success. Mary Whipple
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Many books are described as 'poetic' and 'lyrical', but few are as deserving of the adjectives as this. The relentless use of the first person carries the reader along as though on a wave, and few writers display such an understanding of the power of the English language. Quite simply one of the best books I've read in years, truly 'haunting' (another overused, but apt adjective) and genuinely moving with scenes you'll be thinking back on many months later. And it's Miller's first novel! A great book.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Didier
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
A doctor that is uncapable of feeling physical pain, now there's an original starting point for a novel! Set in the 18th century but timeless in its study of human behaviour, and written in a most beautiful style. Insightful, engrossing, captivating, ... you name it, this book has it all.
I've lost count of the number of people I've recommended this to, and most of them still thank me for it ;-) Allow yourselves a treat, I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a book that I'm puzzled isn't more well-known. It seems to have garnered good reviews when it first came out in the late nineties, but I'd never heard of it before. The novel is about a man who cannot physically feel pain in the mid-seventeenth century. He goes through life not quite living because while he cannot feel pain, he cannot feel pleasure, either. James Dyer is therefore cold and calculating, and becomes a celebrity surgeon because he has no qualms about cutting human flesh. He does not forge friendships, and he's essentially a cold-hearted bastard.
It's excellently written, with good pacing and an intricate plot. Lots of little things about the time period I enjoy are in here--wandering about the countryside and scamming the public, scandal, a crazy wealthy man who insists on collecting oddities, both objects and people. It's one of the best books I've read this year. The quote on the cover by The Times hits it on the nose when it states, "Astoundingly good . . . it shines like a becon among the grey dross of much contemporary fiction."
It's excellently written, with good pacing and an intricate plot. Lots of little things about the time period I enjoy are in here--wandering about the countryside and scamming the public, scandal, a crazy wealthy man who insists on collecting oddities, both objects and people. It's one of the best books I've read this year. The quote on the cover by The Times hits it on the nose when it states, "Astoundingly good . . . it shines like a becon among the grey dross of much contemporary fiction."
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I loved this book. It reminded me very much of Rose Tremain's Restoration in feel and genre. It is a fascinating study of a man out of his time who is both an alien and an outsider and yet has the ability to touch people when he himself cannot be touched.
It is profound, moving and exceptionally well written. It's a great historical novel, really getting into the time it is set in, and full of lovely details that shape your immersion as the reader into the work. It's melancholy and beautiful and I highly recommend it.
It is profound, moving and exceptionally well written. It's a great historical novel, really getting into the time it is set in, and full of lovely details that shape your immersion as the reader into the work. It's melancholy and beautiful and I highly recommend it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful book
Wonderfully imaginative and moving. The characters are completely believable - with all their human failings and foibles. Read more
Published 26 days ago by AnnaC
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting & Ingenious
I ready Mr Miller's "Pure"a few months ago and really enjoyed it despite the novel being a tough read. So I decided to have a go at Ingenious Pain and was well rewarded. Read more
Published 1 month ago by nickyb
5.0 out of 5 stars
An emotional journey
I have read other books by Andrew Miller and thought they were brilliant, so decided to leap into his first work. Better late then never. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Bev Rogers
4.0 out of 5 stars
A gift
Haven't read this as it was a Christmas present but it was well received by the recipient and he said it is a good read
Published 5 months ago by john d
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ingenious Pain
After reading "Pure" and enjoying it so much, I was really keen to try another book by this author. But having got hold of a copy of this debut novel, weirdly, something stopped me... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Rachel Cude
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Reflective Read!
This first novel by Andrew Miller is remarkably engaging in its evocation of an historical era and of the individuals emerging in the developing narrative. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Martin
2.0 out of 5 stars
shameless rip off of Perfume
There is only one answer to this book - it is a reworked Perfume by Suskind. It hangs precariously on one concept, and there is no plot. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Josey Wales
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intriguing theme
After reading 'Pure' by Andrew Miller I decided to read more of his books and found the theme of 'Ingenious Pain' intriguing. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Amy Page
3.0 out of 5 stars
If you liked Perfume ...
... you will love this. Beautifully written, it's an engrossing tale. The ending jarred a little with me though
Published on 25 May 2010 by liveenl
5.0 out of 5 stars
As beautiful as a stark winter landscape
This was the first Andrew Miller book I read and although I've enjoyed all his others they all pale in comparison. Read more
Published on 13 Dec 2008 by Ms. A. Aspin
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