Healthcare in Literature

Literary representations of medicine, physicians in literature, and medical narratives

Doctor Zhivago and the Reality of Medicine in Revolutionary Russia

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A doctor in a railwais stations in rural russia

Doctor Zhivago turns the daily work of a physician into a lens for what care becomes when institutions break. War medicine, infectious disease, rural scarcity. Through these threads Pasternak delivers a lesson that still cuts close to contemporary, technology-driven healthcare: clinical judgment and ethical independence carry the most weight precisely when the system around them … Read more

Murakami’s metaphorical medicine

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An elderly woman sits quietly on a wooden chair beside an iron hospital bed, gazing out a sunlit window in a softly lit early 20th-century convalescent room filled with worn furniture, simple bottles, and a calm, reflective atmosphere.

Introduction Haruki Murakami is one of the most significant contemporary Japanese novelists. While he never directly addresses medicine in his works, health-related themes frequently appear as metaphors. In his writing, the body and its lived experiences are consistently connected to trauma, memory, and the unconscious. These connections extend into fantastic, paranormal, and cosmological dimensions, transforming … Read more

The Death of the Grandmother in Proust’s “À la recherche du temps perdu”

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An elderly woman sits quietly on a wooden chair beside an iron hospital bed, gazing out a sunlit window in a softly lit early 20th-century convalescent room filled with worn furniture, simple bottles, and a calm, reflective atmosphere.

The Death of the Grandmother: A Moment of Truth, Fragility, and Revelation Introduction In the third volume of “À la recherche du temps perdu”, Marcel Proust portrays the gradual illness and death of the narrator’s grandmother. This episode stands as one of the emotional, philosophical, and narrative pinnacles of the entire work. Through his meticulous … Read more

Dr Rieux in Albert Camus’ “The Plague”

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A physician stands on a glowing divide between two opposing worlds: a dark quarantined industrial city with masked medical staff on one side, and a fiery militarized landscape with rows of soldiers and an authoritarian flag on the other.

The Author Albert Camus (1913–1960) was a French writer-philosopher and a key figure in existentialism. Born in Mondovi, Algeria, Camus began his philosophy studies in Algiers. He later moved to Paris where, during World War II, he actively participated in the resistance against Nazi occupation. His most renowned novel is “The Stranger.” In 1957, Camus … Read more

“The Scarlet Plague” by Jack London

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An elderly bearded scholar sits among open books in the ruins of a devastated city, speaking to a young boy as a crumbling cathedral rises in the background.

I alone remember. And if I don’t tell you, children, everything that was and everything we knew, all will be lost. Jack London (1867–1916) was a prolific American writer. He’s best known for adventure novels like “The Call of the Wild” and “White Fang,” but his vast work also addressed social issues. “The Scarlet Plague,” … Read more

“A Young Doctor’s Notebook” by Mikhail Bulgakov

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Early 20th-century doctor in a white coat examines a seated woman wrapped in a blanket inside a modest rural clinic, with wooden furniture, medicine bottles, an oil lamp, and snow-covered windows.

“A Young Doctor’s Notebook” by Mikhail Bulgakov is a goldmine of information for those interested in the history of medicine. Mikhail Bulgakov, a Russian doctor and writer, lived from 1891 to 1940. Born into a family of intellectuals, he studied medicine in Kiev, graduating in 1916. He then worked in various rural villages, with his … Read more

Docteur Cottard in Proust’s “À la recherche du temps perdu”

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Vintage-style illustration of a doctor in a white coat examining a red-haired child with a stethoscope in an early 20th-century hospital ward, with an iron bed, anatomical charts, bottles, and worn walls in the background.

“On avait fait venir le docteur Cottard qui, après m’avoir ausculté, m’avait déclaré sujet à des crises nerveuses et m’avait prescrit un peu de lait chaud avant de me coucher.” “They had called Dr. Cottard, who, after examining me, declared me subject to nervous attacks and prescribed a little warm milk before bed.” In Proust’s … Read more