Human Traces
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Overview
Sixteen-year-old Jacques Rebi re is living a humble life in rural France, studying butterflies and frogs by candlelight in his bedroom. Across the Channel, in England, the playful Thomas Midwinter, also sixteen, is enjoying a life of ease-and is resigned to follow his father's wishes and pursue a career in medicine. A fateful seaside meeting four years later sets the two young men on a profound course of friendship and discovery; they will become pioneers in the burgeoning field of psychiatry. But when a female patient at the doctors' Austrian sanatorium becomes dangerously ill, the two men's conflicting diagnosis threatens to divide them--and to undermine all their professional achievements. From the bestselling author of Birdsong comes this masterful novel that ventures to answer challenging questions of consciousness and science, and what it means to be human.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9780375704574
- ISBN-10: 0375704574
- Publisher: Vintage
- Publish Date: March 2008
- Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 1.1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.07 pounds
- Page Count: 672
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Human Traces
Faulks' chilling historical novel examines the development of psychiatry during the late 1800s through the story of two doctors who were ahead of their time. Thomas Midwinter and Jacques Rebière—friends as well as colleagues—are at the forefront of the profession. A follower of Darwin, Midwinter, who is from England, has formulated theories about neurology and the development of the brain. Rebière, a Frenchmen, is interested in the unconscious workings of the mind and allies himself with the Viennese school of psychoanalysis. Together, the pair embark on a quest to establish a standard approach to psychiatry—an ambitious project that takes them to Africa and America, France and Austria. Faulks humanizes this science-based story through the development of characters like Sonia, Midwinter's sister, whom Rebière eventually marries, and Olivier, Rebière's troubled brother. When the doctors found an asylum of their own, Midwinter takes on Olivier as a patient. Olivier, as it turns out, is schizophrenic, a condition that has tragic consequences for the young man. Spanning three decades, this meticulously detailed period piece is written in the spirit of an old-fashioned 19th-century novel. Faulks, the best-selling author of Birdsong and Charlotte Gray, has written a finely nuanced narrative about the nature of human mind and the workings of the human heart.
A reading group guide is available online at readinggroupcenter.com.
Human Traces
Faulks' chilling historical novel examines the development of psychiatry during the late 1800s through the story of two doctors who were ahead of their time. Thomas Midwinter and Jacques Rebière—friends as well as colleagues—are at the forefront of the profession. A follower of Darwin, Midwinter, who is from England, has formulated theories about neurology and the development of the brain. Rebière, a Frenchmen, is interested in the unconscious workings of the mind and allies himself with the Viennese school of psychoanalysis. Together, the pair embark on a quest to establish a standard approach to psychiatry—an ambitious project that takes them to Africa and America, France and Austria. Faulks humanizes this science-based story through the development of characters like Sonia, Midwinter's sister, whom Rebière eventually marries, and Olivier, Rebière's troubled brother. When the doctors found an asylum of their own, Midwinter takes on Olivier as a patient. Olivier, as it turns out, is schizophrenic, a condition that has tragic consequences for the young man. Spanning three decades, this meticulously detailed period piece is written in the spirit of an old-fashioned 19th-century novel. Faulks, the best-selling author of Birdsong and Charlotte Gray, has written a finely nuanced narrative about the nature of human mind and the workings of the human heart.
A reading group guide is available online at readinggroupcenter.com.