- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: Robson Books Ltd; New edition edition (29 Aug 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1861056508
- ISBN-13: 978-1861056504
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,375,000 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
'Mr Abse is a real writer' Sir John Betjeman
Product Description
Dr Simmonds is infatuated with an unhappily married patient, Yvonne. When she presents him with a novel about a certain Dr Glas, Simmonds immediately recognizes his own affinity with the fictional doctor. The trouble is that Dr Glas deliberately murders the husband of the one he loved.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format: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.
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
Format: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.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Written almost experimentally, it falls flat.
28 May 2005
Format: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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