Synopses & Reviews
The victims of tuberculosis (usually known as consumption) included not only Keats, The Brontës, Chopin and Chekhov, but members of almost every family. It was a killer on a huge scale.
The White Death is an outstanding history of tuberculosis. Thomas Dormandy's engrossing account of the search for a cure is complemented by a description of its complex natural history and by portraits of individual sufferers, including writers, artists, and musicians, whose lives and work were shaped (and often tragically curtailed) by the disease. But, tuberculosis is not just a disease of the past. In many parts of the world it is still a bigger killer than AIDS, while in America and Europe drug-resistant strains threaten its resurgence.
Review
"General readers will find much of interest in Dormandy's stories and anecdotes."-The Bulletin of the History of Medicine,
Review
"One of the most readable medical histories ever."-Sunday Express,
Review
"A gripping read, enlightening and moving by turns."-Evening Standard,
Review
"Like an experienced suspense writer, the author of this marvelous book reserves his good news until the end. . . . One of the additional pleasures of his book lies in its vivid parentheses, case histories, even footnotes. . . . [it is] enlivened by Dormandy's mordant wit and idiosyncratic style. . . . A fine book."-Anita Brookner,The Sunday Times
Review
"A model of how medical history ought to be written . . . lucid in its analysis and perspicacious in its commentary."-Peter Ackroyd,The Times of London
About the Author
Thomas Dormandy, a physician and writer, is the author of Old Masters: Great Artists in Old Age.