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Cuentos de Médicos
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, antes de alcanzar renombre literario y popularidad por su creación del detective aficionado Sherlock Holmes, ejerció la profesión médica durante ocho años. Estos cuentos, recuerdo de unos tiempos en que los estudios y la práctica de la medicina eran muy distintos de lo que son en la actualidad, nos confirman una vez más la maestría de Conan Doyle.
Esta edición incluye:
- La esposa del fisiólogo.
- A la zaga de los tiempos.
- Su primera operación.
- La tercera generación.
- La maldición de Eva.
- Un documento médico.
- Habla el cirujano.
- Los doctores de Hoyland.
- La clientela de Crabbe.
Esta edición incluye:
- La esposa del fisiólogo.
- A la zaga de los tiempos.
- Su primera operación.
- La tercera generación.
- La maldición de Eva.
- Un documento médico.
- Habla el cirujano.
- Los doctores de Hoyland.
- La clientela de Crabbe.
151 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1920
5 people are currently reading
106 people want to read
About the author
Arthur Conan Doyle
15.9k books24.4k followersSir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was a Scottish writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction.
Doyle was a prolific writer. In addition to the Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger, and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the brigantine Mary Celeste, found drifting at sea with no crew member aboard.
Doyle was a prolific writer. In addition to the Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger, and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the brigantine Mary Celeste, found drifting at sea with no crew member aboard.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 7, 2021
‘He walked swiftly down the stair and was quickly reabsorbed into the flood of comfortless clammy humanity which ebbed and flowed along the Strand.’ (p80) The mechanician leaves the inventors workshop…
The Brown-Pericord Motor is my favourite story from this odd collection of Conan Doyle tales, full of professional jealousy, an imaginative plot, quiet a lot of action and a dramatic climax. Highly entertaining, it is stylishly similar to the Sherlock Holmes stories.
It’s a ripper tale.
It reminds me a little of the real life collaboration between Charles Rolls the (literal) high flyer, business man about town and Henry Royce the motor engineer. They established Rolls-Royce, makers of the finest cars in the universe. Their successful collaboration, because they understood each others strengths, ended tragically when Rolls crashed his Wright Brothers plane in 1910. He was 32.
Back to Conan Doyle. I was curious about these tales because the collection was originally published in 1922, but the stories have the flavour of a much earlier time. So I did a bit of research and found they were all first published in magazines and journals in the 1890s, with a couple in the 1880s and one, Borrowed Scenes, a decidedly odd tale of lack of understanding and gypsies, which originally appeared in 1913. All the medical tales, bar one, were published in Round the Red Lamp in 1894. So they read like quite early work, without the magic we associate with the Sherlock Holmes tales.
The medical stories range from the struggles of young doctors to establish themselves, sometimes scheming to attract patients (Crabbe’s Practice) to a quite absorbing story of just deserts.
The adventure tales vary in interest, but The Man from Archangel is absorbing: an isolationist rescues a girl from a storm.
The Brown-Pericord Motor is my favourite story from this odd collection of Conan Doyle tales, full of professional jealousy, an imaginative plot, quiet a lot of action and a dramatic climax. Highly entertaining, it is stylishly similar to the Sherlock Holmes stories.
It’s a ripper tale.
It reminds me a little of the real life collaboration between Charles Rolls the (literal) high flyer, business man about town and Henry Royce the motor engineer. They established Rolls-Royce, makers of the finest cars in the universe. Their successful collaboration, because they understood each others strengths, ended tragically when Rolls crashed his Wright Brothers plane in 1910. He was 32.
Back to Conan Doyle. I was curious about these tales because the collection was originally published in 1922, but the stories have the flavour of a much earlier time. So I did a bit of research and found they were all first published in magazines and journals in the 1890s, with a couple in the 1880s and one, Borrowed Scenes, a decidedly odd tale of lack of understanding and gypsies, which originally appeared in 1913. All the medical tales, bar one, were published in Round the Red Lamp in 1894. So they read like quite early work, without the magic we associate with the Sherlock Holmes tales.
The medical stories range from the struggles of young doctors to establish themselves, sometimes scheming to attract patients (Crabbe’s Practice) to a quite absorbing story of just deserts.
The adventure tales vary in interest, but The Man from Archangel is absorbing: an isolationist rescues a girl from a storm.
February 23, 2022
It's kind of funny to realise that the perception of medical doctors by the public and the nature of the doctors themselves hasn't changed much since the nineteenth century.
October 12, 2021
The title of this particular volume may well bring a smile to the lips. While most of the pairings of tales made by Arthur Conan Doyle makes some sense, what on earth do adventure and medical practice have in common? Of course Conan Doyle was himself a qualified doctor, so perhaps the field of medicine is every bit as exciting for him as intrigue in Egypt.
Conan Doyle is certainly broad in his definition of an adventure story. ‘The Debut of Bimbashi Joyce’ opens the volume, and this is the Egyptian story I mentioned. After a native falls into his hands, Joyce has to decide how to extract information from the rascal who keeps winking at him, but will not speak.
Torture can be threatened, but not carried out, while whipping one of the colonised races is fine apparently, but just make sure it isn’t one of the ruling whites that you are offering to brutalise, or you might be in trouble.
Mystery is the theme of the next adventure, ‘The Surgeon of Gaster Fell’. A studier of ancient artefacts wishes to have an isolated location, but soon finds peculiar goings-on, and warnings that he should lock his doors at night. The solution is obvious, and handled in a surprisingly rushed way.
‘The Man from Archangel’ is another tale about the dangers of isolating oneself from one’s fellow humans. While the narrator of Gaster Fell is merely looking for a remote place to study, the narrator of Archangel is a confirmed misanthropist, and has a rude and aggressive temperament. However a shipwreck forces him to take responsibility for a woman who is fleeing a man who considers himself to be her husband.
Inbetween those two stories is a more comic tale, ‘Borrowed Scenes’, in which a whimsical man travels the area and arouses suspicion in the locals. The more we read of the story the more we realise that they are right to be suspicious, as he is clearly bonkers. This is a good fun tale.
‘The Great Brown-Pericord Motor’ has the grotesquery of a H G Wells story. Two men help to design a great new invention, but their petty jealousies towards one another reaches a head when one of them patents it without asking the other.
This selection ends with ‘The Sealed Room’, which is not a locked-door murder mystery, as the title might suggest. Nonetheless there is a sealed room in a house that a nervous young man is not allowed to open until a certain date, and which may be connected to his father’s public disgrace. The story is entertaining, but again rather predictable.
That moves us to the medical tales. I will not give a breakdown of all of them, as most of them are anecdotes, sometimes a string of anecdotes, about unusual cases in the lives of doctors. (Amusingly one doctor is called Charley Manson.) Did Conan Doyle hear all these stories in his professional life, and perhaps experience one or two of them, or did he simply draw them from his imagination?
Conan Doyle admires the wide range of doctoring styles from the hopelessly old-fashioned and reactionary doctor who is somehow more reassuring than his modern peers, to the young unorthodox doctor who establishes a good practice by performing a devious deception.
Where did Conan Doyle stand in the field of medicine, I wonder? In political matters, he was a blend of conformity and individuality. His stories show a sneaking admiration for the outsider, but he ultimately sides with authority – the government, nobility, the Royal Family, and the British Empire.
I suspect that Conan Doyle was closest to Doctor Ripley in ‘The Doctors of Hoyland’. Ripley is a younger man and open to new ideas, but also hopelessly staid and priggish. Imagine his horror when – heaven forfend! – a female doctor sets up a surgery nearby. Worse still this new rival is neither masculine nor incompetent. In fact she is a better doctor than he, and over time he comes to admire her.
Conan Doyle is clearly on the side of the new doctor, Verrinder Smith, but I imagine he feels a little sympathy for Ripley too. The women in Conan Doyle stories tend to be best admired when old-fashioned, although he occasionally puts across an admirable stronger woman who is a match for the men – Irene Adler, for example.
The stories here are consistently entertaining, but not especially striking. They shouldn’t bore the reader, but they won’t linger for long in the memory either.
Conan Doyle is certainly broad in his definition of an adventure story. ‘The Debut of Bimbashi Joyce’ opens the volume, and this is the Egyptian story I mentioned. After a native falls into his hands, Joyce has to decide how to extract information from the rascal who keeps winking at him, but will not speak.
Torture can be threatened, but not carried out, while whipping one of the colonised races is fine apparently, but just make sure it isn’t one of the ruling whites that you are offering to brutalise, or you might be in trouble.
Mystery is the theme of the next adventure, ‘The Surgeon of Gaster Fell’. A studier of ancient artefacts wishes to have an isolated location, but soon finds peculiar goings-on, and warnings that he should lock his doors at night. The solution is obvious, and handled in a surprisingly rushed way.
‘The Man from Archangel’ is another tale about the dangers of isolating oneself from one’s fellow humans. While the narrator of Gaster Fell is merely looking for a remote place to study, the narrator of Archangel is a confirmed misanthropist, and has a rude and aggressive temperament. However a shipwreck forces him to take responsibility for a woman who is fleeing a man who considers himself to be her husband.
Inbetween those two stories is a more comic tale, ‘Borrowed Scenes’, in which a whimsical man travels the area and arouses suspicion in the locals. The more we read of the story the more we realise that they are right to be suspicious, as he is clearly bonkers. This is a good fun tale.
‘The Great Brown-Pericord Motor’ has the grotesquery of a H G Wells story. Two men help to design a great new invention, but their petty jealousies towards one another reaches a head when one of them patents it without asking the other.
This selection ends with ‘The Sealed Room’, which is not a locked-door murder mystery, as the title might suggest. Nonetheless there is a sealed room in a house that a nervous young man is not allowed to open until a certain date, and which may be connected to his father’s public disgrace. The story is entertaining, but again rather predictable.
That moves us to the medical tales. I will not give a breakdown of all of them, as most of them are anecdotes, sometimes a string of anecdotes, about unusual cases in the lives of doctors. (Amusingly one doctor is called Charley Manson.) Did Conan Doyle hear all these stories in his professional life, and perhaps experience one or two of them, or did he simply draw them from his imagination?
Conan Doyle admires the wide range of doctoring styles from the hopelessly old-fashioned and reactionary doctor who is somehow more reassuring than his modern peers, to the young unorthodox doctor who establishes a good practice by performing a devious deception.
Where did Conan Doyle stand in the field of medicine, I wonder? In political matters, he was a blend of conformity and individuality. His stories show a sneaking admiration for the outsider, but he ultimately sides with authority – the government, nobility, the Royal Family, and the British Empire.
I suspect that Conan Doyle was closest to Doctor Ripley in ‘The Doctors of Hoyland’. Ripley is a younger man and open to new ideas, but also hopelessly staid and priggish. Imagine his horror when – heaven forfend! – a female doctor sets up a surgery nearby. Worse still this new rival is neither masculine nor incompetent. In fact she is a better doctor than he, and over time he comes to admire her.
Conan Doyle is clearly on the side of the new doctor, Verrinder Smith, but I imagine he feels a little sympathy for Ripley too. The women in Conan Doyle stories tend to be best admired when old-fashioned, although he occasionally puts across an admirable stronger woman who is a match for the men – Irene Adler, for example.
The stories here are consistently entertaining, but not especially striking. They shouldn’t bore the reader, but they won’t linger for long in the memory either.
April 17, 2023
There’s a reason he’s only famous for Sherlock Holmes….
July 9, 2022
Except for lifelong Conan Doyle fans like myself, this book has little to offer in the way of interest or entertainment. I suspect that the collection is drawn from his early writings, when he was probably the unwilling recipient of a good many rejection slips. Unfortunately, there is no Introduction or Foreword, so the reader is left to his own speculative conclusions.
Much of what we appreciate in his more polished writings is foreshadowed here: his love of words, mystery, adventure, the ability to create a verbal painting of a memorable scene, a sense of location, a fascination with and admiration for strong, impulsive men. Victorian class consciousness is occasionally evident; a woman who rents rooms in her house to boarders is described as loyal but "like a toothless dog." There is a mixed bag of attitudes toward women, in keeping with what was unfortunately regarded as chivalry in that era. In "The Man from Archangel," a case of what most modern readers would interpret as stalking is presented in a sympathetic light. But in "The Doctor of Hoyland," a strong and independent woman is believably portrayed by the writer who later gave us Violet Hunter and Irene Adler.
There is also a fair amount of humor, especially in "Crabbe's Practice" and "Borrowed Scenes," the latter bordering on the farcical.
Sherlock Holmes fans will note that one mystery, "The Surgeon of Gaster Fell" takes place on the moors, and that a housekeeper by the name of Mrs Hudson is a minor character in another story.
Much of what we appreciate in his more polished writings is foreshadowed here: his love of words, mystery, adventure, the ability to create a verbal painting of a memorable scene, a sense of location, a fascination with and admiration for strong, impulsive men. Victorian class consciousness is occasionally evident; a woman who rents rooms in her house to boarders is described as loyal but "like a toothless dog." There is a mixed bag of attitudes toward women, in keeping with what was unfortunately regarded as chivalry in that era. In "The Man from Archangel," a case of what most modern readers would interpret as stalking is presented in a sympathetic light. But in "The Doctor of Hoyland," a strong and independent woman is believably portrayed by the writer who later gave us Violet Hunter and Irene Adler.
There is also a fair amount of humor, especially in "Crabbe's Practice" and "Borrowed Scenes," the latter bordering on the farcical.
Sherlock Holmes fans will note that one mystery, "The Surgeon of Gaster Fell" takes place on the moors, and that a housekeeper by the name of Mrs Hudson is a minor character in another story.
August 3, 2023
This is a worthwhile and readable selection of short stories. These are not Holmes stories but, as the title suggests, is a mix of more general subjects and some specifically set in the medical world, and thus drawing on Conan Doyle's profession. The adventure tales are more interesting than the medical ones, although all have a whimsical charm. This slim volume is recommended as a light diversion.
April 24, 2018
As a soon-to-become medic myself, I found the medical stories hilarious, witty, and absolutely accurate.
Read
February 17, 2022Šis ilgi gāja.
Interesanti, protams, bet nav vairs tas posms kad ar lielu prieku lasu šī laika darbus.
Interesanti, protams, bet nav vairs tas posms kad ar lielu prieku lasu šī laika darbus.
August 28, 2024
Exceptionally brilliant, funny, fascinating and heroic short stories involving doctors, scientists and adventurers. We must remember that there was an Arthur Conan Doyle separate to Sherlock Holmes!
April 16, 2017
15 short stories published at the end of Conan Doyle's career. The author of the Sherlock Holmes stories turns from crime to episodes of mystery and action in his 'Adventures' section, and to anecdotes involving the lives and experiences of doctors and surgeons in his 'Medical' section.
These are very enjoyable pieces of short fiction. On the whole, I preferred the medical stories for the characters in them, and for the fascinating descriptions of 19th century medical practice. The Adventures/Medical headings are used quite loosely - often the story is a romance or an illustration of the foibles and quirks of humanity, but with an adventure setting or a doctor as protagonist. Other stories, such as The Surgeon Talks, are more straightforward collections of medical anecdotes, related by a fictional physician.
Conan Doyle is very skilled at showing the emotions that are hidden beneath social conventions or scientific detachment - his characters have human instincts, even if they try to rise above them. The stories are often amusing, sometimes poignant, always engaging. My personal favourite was The Physiologist's Wife for its clever characterisation and its mix of the comic and tragic.
For me a mix of 3* and 4* stories, but the majority at 4* so decided to round up the rating.
These are very enjoyable pieces of short fiction. On the whole, I preferred the medical stories for the characters in them, and for the fascinating descriptions of 19th century medical practice. The Adventures/Medical headings are used quite loosely - often the story is a romance or an illustration of the foibles and quirks of humanity, but with an adventure setting or a doctor as protagonist. Other stories, such as The Surgeon Talks, are more straightforward collections of medical anecdotes, related by a fictional physician.
Conan Doyle is very skilled at showing the emotions that are hidden beneath social conventions or scientific detachment - his characters have human instincts, even if they try to rise above them. The stories are often amusing, sometimes poignant, always engaging. My personal favourite was The Physiologist's Wife for its clever characterisation and its mix of the comic and tragic.
For me a mix of 3* and 4* stories, but the majority at 4* so decided to round up the rating.
April 7, 2014
"Geniuses are more commonly read about than seen."
Hilarious, tragic, and thrilling in turn, this fun little study of human character throws fresh light upon the creator of our beloved consulting detective.
A naïve fellow attempts to live according to his favourite novelist with side-splitting results; a young man's life is haunted by the secrets of his father; an austere, seemingly unemotional scientist decides to marry; a man loses his ear in the most tragicomic fashion; a country doctor is forced to brace himself against competition of an unusual kind, and another doctor performs a miracle in order to give himself a start in business.
All of this and much more in a fine story collection that explores the vices, virtues, and limitations of human beings in the face of both extremity and the grind of everyday life. How far would we go to survive when in a dark place, and how are we changed upon reemerging?
“Yet birth, and lust, and illness, and death are changeless things, and when one of these harsh facts springs out upon a man at some sudden turn of the path of life, it dashes off for the moment his mask of civilization and gives a glimpse of the stranger and stronger face below. ”
Hilarious, tragic, and thrilling in turn, this fun little study of human character throws fresh light upon the creator of our beloved consulting detective.
A naïve fellow attempts to live according to his favourite novelist with side-splitting results; a young man's life is haunted by the secrets of his father; an austere, seemingly unemotional scientist decides to marry; a man loses his ear in the most tragicomic fashion; a country doctor is forced to brace himself against competition of an unusual kind, and another doctor performs a miracle in order to give himself a start in business.
All of this and much more in a fine story collection that explores the vices, virtues, and limitations of human beings in the face of both extremity and the grind of everyday life. How far would we go to survive when in a dark place, and how are we changed upon reemerging?
“Yet birth, and lust, and illness, and death are changeless things, and when one of these harsh facts springs out upon a man at some sudden turn of the path of life, it dashes off for the moment his mask of civilization and gives a glimpse of the stranger and stronger face below. ”
February 13, 2014
No se si algunos cuentos eran derechamente fomes, o me aburrían porque lo leí en inglés y me costaba un poco entender ciertas partes... Igual tiene un par de cuentos que me gustaron harto. The doctors of Hoyland fue mi favorito, no esperaba encontrarme con feminismo en este libro.
March 12, 2016
Tales of Adventure and Medical Life is a 1922 collection of 15 short stories, grouped into the two themes of the title. One of them contains a possible reference to Dr Watson, but all are nicely crafted workmanlike stories typical of their time, and most enjoyable.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews