Frances Burney and the Doctors: Patient Narratives Then and Now
Cambridge University Press, 10/24/2019
EAN 9781108476362, ISBN10: 1108476368
Hardcover, 220 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
Frances Burney is primarily known as a novelist and playwright, but in recent years there has been an increased interest in the medical writings found within her private letters and journals. John Wiltshire advocates Burney as the unconscious pioneer of the modern genre of pathography, or the illness narrative. Through her dramatic accounts of distinct medical events, such as her own infamous operation without anaesthetic, to those she witnessed, including the 'madness' of George III and the inoculation of her son against smallpox, Burney exposes the ethical issues and conflicts between patients and doctors. Her accounts are linked to a range of modern narratives in which similar events occur in the changed conditions of the public hospital. The genre that Burney initiated continues to make an important contribution to our understanding of medical practice in the modern world.
Acknowledgements
Note on short titles
Introduction
1. Frances Burney's long and extraordinary life
1752–1840
2. The King, the court and 'madness'
1788–9
3. Aftermath
1789–91
4. An inoculation for smallpox
1797
5. 'A mastectomy'
1811
6. Fighting for life
'the last illness and death of General D'Arblay'
1818
7. 'Between hope, trust and truth'
8. Across the centuries
Notes
Bibliography
Index.