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Words in Pain: Letters on Life and Death
Written “under sentence of death”, Words in Pain is a collection of letters by Olga Jacoby, a writer, thinker and rationalist whose passionate ideology leaps from its pages. Challenging her doctor, a Christian, she demonstrates her commitment to science, logic and social justice in these lively and erudite letters, in which she celebrates the power of nature.
First published posthumously in 1919, Words in Pain explores the emotional highs and lows of enduring terminal illness, including the knowledge that Jacoby would not see her four adopted children grow up. It conjures up the joys and sorrows of motherhood in the constrained circumstances of illness, and brings alive the social disapproval of adopting children in the first decade of the twentieth century, and of Jacoby’s progressive attitude to child-rearing. Her children appear in vivid colour here, as they find their own ways to understand their mother’s condition:
“I was greatly amused by my boy explaining to me and his little sister that even should I die they would not lose me, as they would take my skeleton to keep in a corner of their nursery.”
Praised by the TLS of 1919 for its “sweetness and sanity”, Words in Pain now appears in a new, centenary edition, with supplementary notes on its many literary and socio-historical references and an Afterword on Jacoby’s life and death, written by her great-granddaughter.
First published posthumously in 1919, Words in Pain explores the emotional highs and lows of enduring terminal illness, including the knowledge that Jacoby would not see her four adopted children grow up. It conjures up the joys and sorrows of motherhood in the constrained circumstances of illness, and brings alive the social disapproval of adopting children in the first decade of the twentieth century, and of Jacoby’s progressive attitude to child-rearing. Her children appear in vivid colour here, as they find their own ways to understand their mother’s condition:
“I was greatly amused by my boy explaining to me and his little sister that even should I die they would not lose me, as they would take my skeleton to keep in a corner of their nursery.”
Praised by the TLS of 1919 for its “sweetness and sanity”, Words in Pain now appears in a new, centenary edition, with supplementary notes on its many literary and socio-historical references and an Afterword on Jacoby’s life and death, written by her great-granddaughter.
254 pages, Hardcover
Published March 7, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 3, 2019
Olga Jacoby is my new role model. She's amazing.
February 17, 2023
Very good. A progressive woman dealing with knowing that she will die much sooner than later. While she was an atheist of sorts, a Rationalist, she was very good friends with her Doctor who was very religious. Both were honest, forthright, adn Olga was blunt - a chief characteristic of her. The world would be better if more read and though about her words. I disagreed with some, but overall very good.
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September 6, 2021Interesting to read in conjunction with the fictional book, Gilead
January 5, 2022
Twice I stopped reading this book. I really never did find the deeper meaning. It was quite repeitive.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews