Passages from the Diary of a Late Physician

by Samuel Warren

Samuel Warren's "Passages from the Diary of a Late Physician," a very popular Victorian short story collection, was originally serialized in Blackwood's Magazine and later published in book form in 1835. This volume is a facsimile of the Fifth Edition.

516 pages, Hardcover

Published February 15, 2008

About the author

Samuel Warren (23 May 1807 – 29 July 1877), was a Welsh barrister, novelist and MP.

Reviews

[Shawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read two "chapters" from this, notable for having fantastic content. "The Boxer" is a short thing and fairly unremarkable - a profane, violent, drunken boxer severly damages his ankle while riding in a carriage during a thunderstorm and the doctor is called to help him until a surgeon arrives. But a particularly violent flash of lightning blinds and quiets (possibly paralyzes) the unruly and blaspheming brute.

"The Thunder-Struck" is longer and somewhat better. During that same thunderstorm (an extreme and apocalyptic one, feared by many to signal the end of the world) a young female guest of the doctor's is (we presume) struck by lightning and goes into some kind of catalyptic state, from which nothing seems to revive her. Then, days later, she recovers for no obvious reason, enough at least to ask after her fiancee. When he arrives, she warns him of an awful event that will happen soon. Not bad.