Boswell's Clap and Other Essays: Medical Analyses of Literary Men's Afflictions

by William B. Ober, William B. Ober

In this “cock to Aesculapius,” a distin­guished pathologist shows how simple medical analyses can be applied centu­ries later to reconstruct the scene and as­sign a more probable cause of disability or death.

 

The ten essays selected for this volume range from an investigation of Boswell’s repeated infection with gonorrhea to a critical examination of Plato’s account of Socrates’ death in the Phaedo, subjects both ancient and modern. Other essays include studies of the ailments of two medical doctors—William Carlos Wil­liams and Chekhov—and the disabili­ties of Swinburne, Lawrence, Rochester, Shadwell, Keats, Collins, Cooper, and Smart.

 

Documenting a wealth of physical and psychological symptoms that bear directly upon the writer’s work—“when there is a medical question,” Dr. Ober writes, “consult a doctor”—Dr. Ober diagnoses Swinburne’s masochism and penchant for writing flagellatory verse and facetiae as the combined results of anoxic brain damage at birth, sexual im­potence, and the exposure to flagellation at public school. D. H. Lawrence’s “dirty words,” he finds, stemmed from Lawrence’s psychological needs. Law­rence wrote Lady Chatterley’s Lover while tuberculosis was weakening him physi­cally, and the combination of his re­pressed homosexual tendencies and sexual impotence distorted his view of sexual relations. Rochester’s bisexuality and “double life” were at the root of his experience, celebrated in his poetry, of premature ejaculation, Dr. Ober shows. Dr. Ober also shatters two legends by proving that Shadwell did not die of self-administered laudanum and that Soc­rates’ death was not reported accurately by Plato.

 

A pathologist by training and prac­tice, more specifically a histopatholo­gist, Dr. Ober has spent most of his life trying to diagnose diseases by looking through a microscope at pieces of tissue removed from the human body by biopsy, at surgery or autopsy. By applying medical analyses, and evidence from other disciplines as well, Dr. Ober scru­tinizes selected literary subjects and brings to their mind-body problems new and often astonishing interpretations.

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[W.B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's much more interesting and smart and worthwhile than the title would seem to imply. The author also has a good head for criticism to complement that medical degree, and really researches his authors in an encylopedic, almost obsessive-compulsive manner. The end result is great dish and smart critical assessments. He disabuses the reader of many false notions about some of the great dead ones. For example, the author speculates on what manner of death Socrates probably really suffered with that draught of hemlock, as opposed to the accounts given by Plato in writing or David in his celebrated painting. And the reader learns that D.H. Lawrence was not really such a nice guy, even if he was a great writer. In fact, he was mostly a bumptious prick. Tra la. But it's good stuff. It's like the STARS NOT NORMAL of Western Civ.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have come to like reading essays, and this book is a series of essays from the perspective of a doctor, about literary figures. The longest essay is about James Boswell and his 18 doses of gonorrhoea. Dr Ober tries hard not to be judgemental, but I cannot help feeling that there was a note of disapproval. Many of the other essays rely a lot on Freudian analysis, which I think has now been somewhat overtaken by different approaches to psycho analysis. Nonetheless it is a very learned discussion, and I found that there were occasionally unfamiliar to me, which is, if I may be bold, a little unusual for me. I don’t think this author would be capable of writing an up-to-date addition, but it would be interesting to consider the analysis through a more modern lens. Leaving aside of the psychoanalysis, the medical descriptions are fascinating. it does make me feel grateful for modern medicine, as many of the illnesses described would have been relatively easy to treat although the current antiscience movement in the United States may mean that much of the illnesses reappear

[Sandra Strange]

I expected this one to be more inclusive than it is. The book discusses a very few early English authors and their nasty diseases. Many pages discuss Boswell's venereal diseases and how he got them in lots of R rated detail, then other author's unpleasant diseases, including sexual problems, drug taking, and mental illness. Not pleasant, very explicit, and seemingly a bit biased (toward the most negative) in the details the author favors and includes.

[Gary Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense—but worth it—reading. A good companion volume to "Orwell's Cough," by John Ross