- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Robson Books Ltd; 1st edition (26 Jun 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1861055048
- ISBN-13: 978-1861055040
- Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 14.4 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,561,582 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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'Mr Abse is a real writer' Sir John Betjeman
Product Description
The story of Dr Robert Simmonds's disastrous infatuation with one of his patients, the young, unhappily married Yvonne Bloomberg, takes place during the post-war utilitarian days of the 1950s. When Yvonne presents her doctor with a Swedish novel about a certain Dr Glas, Robert Simmonds immediately recognises their similarity. 'I Dr. Simmonds' he writes in his diary 'acknowledge such an affinity with you. I understand your loneliness, your non-physical attachment to a woman, a woman who is innocent - and your belief in purity of action, however risky. I live here in 1950, you in a novel published in 1905. And yet you think my thoughts, speak words I could utter, accomplish deeds I might emulate.' The trouble is that the fictional Dr Glas deliberately murders the husband of the one he loved. In this spell-binding novel, Dannie Abse draws on his medical background to create a compelling narrative in which motives and action all come into question.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Unusual to say the least,
By
This review is from: The Strange Case of Dr. Simmonds and Dr. Glas (Paperback)
This took me a while to get into. I was pleased I'd taken it away with me and had nothing else to read; otherwise at home I may have not continued reading it. It is very strange with elements of Freud appearing in the fictitious prose.
Dr Simmonds is a batchelor in 1950s London (I believe he's in his 40s). He is given - by 2 different people - a copy of a 1905 Swedish classic 'Doctor Glas' which is a novel posing the question of a pure moral murder. This book sees Dr Simmonds becoming involved in the same circumstances that occur in the book he is given. It takes a while to get into, but once you have it's worth it. Dr Simmonds is a dry character whose humour may not appeal to everyone. I like the line "it will be wonderful if cortisone does prove to be an effective remedy for severe rheumatoid arthritis. At present, the tapping noise of sticks on the road to Lourdes is too loud." The ending seems to make it more like non-fiction than fiction when the 'journals' of Dr Simmonds are sold. However I don't feel like the end leaves the book complete. Worth a read.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Puzzling and therefore ulimately unsatisfying,
By K Mansfield (Suffolk) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Strange Case of Dr.Simmonds and Dr.Glas (Hardcover)
A strange book. Beautifully written by the poet Dannie Abse,it tells the story of Simmonds, a London GP, prevented from becoming a surgeon by a boyhood accident which damaged his hands, and possibly prevented from forming a permanent relationship by the facial scarring caused by the same accident. He forms an infatuation for a patient's wife and begins to identify with the protagonist in a Swedish novel, Dr Glas, who murders his patient's husband. Lacking the courage of his convictions, Simmonds ulimately fails to kill the despised husband but brings about a fate which is infinitely worse. I didn't understand the ending ..The best aspects of the book were the brilliant evocation of seedy, impoverished post-War Austerity London and the subtle attack on anti-Semitism.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
2.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review) 1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Written almost experimentally, it falls flat.,
By Peter LaPrade - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Strange Case of Dr. Simmonds & Dr. Glas (Hardcover)
Abse's "Dr Simmonds" was a boring novel that is thankfully short(about 180 pages). Most of the novel takes place through the diary entries of Dr. Simmonds, who is an Anti-Semite and has a noticable dark side that becomes darker once he becomes attracted to the wife of one of his patients.
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