Return to main shop menu

The Tyranny of Treatment
Ed. Natasha McEnroe and Robin Simon
£5 + P&P

The Tyranny of Treatment, with a foreword by Beryl Bainbridge, is a collection of essays by distinguished scholars on the subject of Dr Johnson, his circle of friends, their illnesses and treatment. It provides a vivid insight into a world without anaesthetic, where the ancient theory of the 'humours' still held sway, and with very little understanding of how diseases could be transmitted or cured.

Dr Johnson and his friends emerge as heroes and survivors. Here, for example, is the horrific account of the novelist Fanny Burney's mastectomy, without anaesthetic, and written by the novelist herself. Dr Johnson's agonised stabbing of his swollen leg and testicle in his last few hours. And the sorry tale of Boswell's catalogue of venereal infections ...

This absorbing and original book is edited by Natasha McEnroe, Donald Hyde Curator at Dr Johnson's House from 1996-2006, and Robin Simon, editor of The British Art Journal.

Published by The British Art Journal in association with Dr Johnson's House Trust, 2003
15 x 21 cm
Paperback, 52 pages, colour illustrations
ISBN: 0-9540420-6-9