The Hypochondriacs, Brian Dillon
The Hypochondriacs, Brian Dillon
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The Hypochondriacs
Nine Tormented Lives

Author: Brian Dillon

Narrator: John Lee

Unabridged: 9 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/29/2010

Synopsis

Charlotte Brontë found in her illnesses, real and imaginary, an escape from familial and social duties and the perfect conditions for writing. The German jurist Daniel Paul Schreber believed his body was being colonized and transformed at the hand of God and doctors alike. Andy Warhol was terrified by disease and by the idea of disease. Glenn Gould claimed a friendly pat on his shoulder had destroyed his ability to play piano. And we all know someone who has, in solitude, trawled the Internet seeking to pinpoint the source of his or her fantastical symptoms.The Hypochondriacs is a book about mind and body, fear and hope, illness and imagination, despair and creativity. It explores, in the stories of nine individuals, the relationship between mind and body as it is mediated by the experience, or simply the terror, of being ill. And in an intimate investigation of those nine lives, it shows how the mind can make a prison of the body by distorting our sense of ourselves as physical beings. Through witty, entertaining, and often moving examinations of the lives of nine eminent hypochondriacs—James Boswell, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Darwin, Florence Nightingale, Daniel Paul Schreber, Marcel Proust, Alice James, Glenn Gould, and Andy Warhol—Brian Dillon brilliantly unravels the tortuous connections between real and imagined illness, irrational fear and rational concern, the mind’s aches and the body’s ideas.

About Brian Dillon

Brian Dillon was born in Dublin in 1969. His first book, the memoir In the Dark Room, won the 2006 Argosy Irish Book of the Year Award for nonfiction. The UK editor of Cabinet, a quarterly of art and culture based in New York, he is a research fellow at the University of Kent.

About John Lee

John Lee is the winner of numerous Earphones Awards and the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration. He has twice won acclaim as AudioFile’s Best Voice in Fiction & Classics. He also narrates video games, does voice-over work, and writes plays.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Steven on December 13, 2012

I generally don't write many reviews, but several of the low scores for this book spurred my to put something together. Brian Dillon's study of disease and hypochondria through the characters of nine literary figures presents an interesting and illuminating read with one major caveat that has led to......more

Goodreads review by Jennah on July 10, 2010

Currently reading: have finished half of the chapters. One British critic described it as a book one reads slowly to fully consider Dillon's writing and to postpone finishing the book: "There is no higher compliment." I fully agree. Each sentence is crafted masterfully and depicts the affect of hypo......more

Goodreads review by Theresa on May 02, 2012

Not too bad, interesting profiles. Unfortunately the people were really sick characters, if not always physically sick.......more

Goodreads review by Justin on August 03, 2013

Interesting, very interesting. I thought every story would read like a textbook; I was pleased to discover the author managed to make it more story-like.......more

Quotes

“[Dillon’s] nine case studies embrace writers and artists, thinkers and iconoclasts; they are full of insight and beautifully constructed, with a wealth of cultural reference and a breadth of imagination behind them.” Hilary Mantel, Booker Prize–winning author of Wolf Hall

“An intriguing, suavely written blend of medical history and literary criticism, a book that adds to the growing (or metastasizing) field of pathological biography.” Los Angeles Times

“There is an abundance of ‘wracked truth’ in this book. It will delight, inform, move, and horrify any of the millions of us.” Sam Leith, Daily Mail (London)

“[An] excellent book.” Kevin Jackson, Sunday Times (London)

“[The Hypochondriacs] is not a book you can’t put down. It is a book you will keep putting down, both to absorb what [Dillon] has said and to postpone reaching the end. There is no higher compliment.” Independent (London)

“A collection of beautifully crafted medical case histories…This book is greater than the sum of its parts; for as well as individual narratives, what Dillon provides here is nothing less than a history of ‘health anxiety’ in our culture from the 18th century to the present…The language is fluent and cogent, the story telling economical and deft…This is a superb book about a fascinating subject and one I’d recommend to anyone wanting to understand the function of hypochondria in society past and present.”  Carlo Gebler, Irish Times (Dublin)

“Sturdy research and subtle analysis of these extreme cases produce some startling insights into human suffering.” Kirkus Reviews

Awards

  • Wellcome Trust Book Prize
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