Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery (Harvest Book) - Softcover

Selzer, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0156004003 ISBN 13: 9780156004008

Publisher: Thomson Learning, 1996

Synopsis

In this collection of nineteen unforgettable essays, Dr. Richard Selzer describes unsparingly the surgeon's art, opening up the body to view, one part at a time. Both moving and perversely funny, Mortal Lessons is an established classic that considers not only the workings and misworkings of the human body, but also the meaning of life and death. And although Dr. Selzer's dark humor makes the burgeoning tumors and ulcerations of his essays more bearable, he is frank about the mysterious and dreaded inevitable - the sometime surprise, as he calls it, at the center of surgery: death. Behind his traditional "surgeon's arrogance" the reader will find endearing self-mockery, a very real empathy for his patients, and the ready suggestion that even the surgeon is still very small when he stands before nature.

About this title

About the Author:

Richard Selzer (1928-2016) was for many years a surgeon practicing in New Haven, Connecticut, where he was also on the faculty of the Yale School of Medicine. He was born in Troy, New York, was graduated from Union College and Albany Medical College, and from the Surgical Training Program of Yale University. In 1975 he won the National Magazine Award for his essays on medicine. Dr. Selzer's books include Letters to a Young Doctor, Mortal Lessons, Down from Troy, Imagine a Woman and Other Tales, and Raising the Dead.

Synopsis:

A surgeon at the Yale Medical Center writes of the craft and practice of the operating room, blending narrative clinical material with dramatic and metaphoric tableaux of the human body.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thomson Learning
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0156004003
• ISBN 13: 9780156004008
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 220