The Case of Lady Sannox, by Arthur Conan Doyle
This is an article written following the inaugural meeting of a Book Club looking at books with a medical Theme.
This is a short story written in a highly dramatic form by Conan-Doyle. It does not feature Sherlock Holmes, and perhaps because of that it has a cracking pace. It is a bit-sized story that can be read in a single tube journey. There is no detection in it, but the style alerts the reader to the fact that there is going to be a surprising possibly horrific ending.
The plot has medicine at its heart. Conan-Doyle was a doctor himself, trained in Edinburgh by Joseph Bell whose forensic skills were one of the main influences leading to the creation of the world's most famous fictional detective.
There was no wikipedia page, so I set up the following wikipedia entry outlining the plot.
This is a short story by Conan-Doyle which features an arrogant Surgeon, Douglas Stone, who is in love with the married Lady Sannox, one of the most beautiful woman world.
Spoiler Alert!
Because of his desire to meet his lover; his need for money; his professional arrogance; and the opinion of the Turk that any delay will kill his wife. the Surgeon goes ahead with the operation on the heavily drugged wife who's face is obscured by a veil.
After he has done the operation the lady turns out to be Lady Sannox, and the Turk is her husband who believes the disfigurement will be morally good for his wife. The Surgeon suffers a breakdown.
Medically, the case is interesting as the depiction of the Surgeon is one of extreme arrogance. He would have succeeded in any adventurous sphere of life, and 'his nerve, his judgement, his intuition, were things apart'. 'Again and again, his knife cut away death'. Although the story was written well after the introduction of anesthesia and anteseptic surgery something of the surgeon in the heroic age of surgery sticks to Douglas Stone. He, we imagine, is something of the showman, and so assured is he that he must be in complete control of the operating theatre.
But he has flaws, he is impetuous, and in debt due to an extravagant life style.
By contrast Lord Sannox is not very impressive, although he had a period as an actor. But, it becomes clear that he knows his opponent and he plays on the weaknesses of his rival in love: his need for money, his need to do the operation quickly, which suits his belief in his own skills. To the reader it is clear he should take some care to find out if the patient really will die if she does not have an operation now, we have no real details of the poison, and it is clear that all the information we have is given by the husband. There are enough circumstances, the strange house, the need for speed, to urge caution.
He has not administered anaesthesia but the poison and opium have sedated her. There is a glimmer of intelligence in her eyes but Stone is easily persuaded that he needs to operate now before she becomes aware of the pain and before the poison spreads.
He takes the word of an unknown turk and with 2 swift cuts he takes out her lip.
It is ofcourse Lady Sannox, and the Turk is her husband. The most unlikely, perhaps, part of the story is the fact that the surgeon loses his reason as soon as he realises just what he has done.
Strangely, you are left with the feeling that the Surgeon is the villain and not the vengeful cuckolded husband.
This is a short story written in a highly dramatic form by Conan-Doyle. It does not feature Sherlock Holmes, and perhaps because of that it has a cracking pace. It is a bit-sized story that can be read in a single tube journey. There is no detection in it, but the style alerts the reader to the fact that there is going to be a surprising possibly horrific ending.
The plot has medicine at its heart. Conan-Doyle was a doctor himself, trained in Edinburgh by Joseph Bell whose forensic skills were one of the main influences leading to the creation of the world's most famous fictional detective.
There was no wikipedia page, so I set up the following wikipedia entry outlining the plot.
This is a short story by Conan-Doyle which features an arrogant Surgeon, Douglas Stone, who is in love with the married Lady Sannox, one of the most beautiful woman world.
Spoiler Alert!
Because of his desire to meet his lover; his need for money; his professional arrogance; and the opinion of the Turk that any delay will kill his wife. the Surgeon goes ahead with the operation on the heavily drugged wife who's face is obscured by a veil.
After he has done the operation the lady turns out to be Lady Sannox, and the Turk is her husband who believes the disfigurement will be morally good for his wife. The Surgeon suffers a breakdown.
Medically, the case is interesting as the depiction of the Surgeon is one of extreme arrogance. He would have succeeded in any adventurous sphere of life, and 'his nerve, his judgement, his intuition, were things apart'. 'Again and again, his knife cut away death'. Although the story was written well after the introduction of anesthesia and anteseptic surgery something of the surgeon in the heroic age of surgery sticks to Douglas Stone. He, we imagine, is something of the showman, and so assured is he that he must be in complete control of the operating theatre.
But he has flaws, he is impetuous, and in debt due to an extravagant life style.
By contrast Lord Sannox is not very impressive, although he had a period as an actor. But, it becomes clear that he knows his opponent and he plays on the weaknesses of his rival in love: his need for money, his need to do the operation quickly, which suits his belief in his own skills. To the reader it is clear he should take some care to find out if the patient really will die if she does not have an operation now, we have no real details of the poison, and it is clear that all the information we have is given by the husband. There are enough circumstances, the strange house, the need for speed, to urge caution.
He has not administered anaesthesia but the poison and opium have sedated her. There is a glimmer of intelligence in her eyes but Stone is easily persuaded that he needs to operate now before she becomes aware of the pain and before the poison spreads.
He takes the word of an unknown turk and with 2 swift cuts he takes out her lip.
It is ofcourse Lady Sannox, and the Turk is her husband. The most unlikely, perhaps, part of the story is the fact that the surgeon loses his reason as soon as he realises just what he has done.
Strangely, you are left with the feeling that the Surgeon is the villain and not the vengeful cuckolded husband.
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