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Author: Jason Karlawish
ISBN : B005STO086
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Download for free books Free Download Open Wound: The Tragic Obsession of Dr. William Beaumont from 4shared, mediafire, hotfile, and mirror link "This is an excellent historical novel, so real that the biting winds of the western frontier seem to flutter across its pages and cool our sweaty brows. Within this, however, is something much more profound---a dark and gripping morality play about friendship, ambition, and the very essence of what it means to be a doctor. This should be required reading in medical schools. I will not soon forget this book."
---Jake Halpern, author of Fame Junkies and commentator for NPR's All Things Considered
"The ethical questions that envelop Doctor Beaumont and his patient are here laid bare for all to see---sliced through by Karlawish's sharp scalpel of finely-honed research . . . One can't judge this tale without pondering the possible experimental horrors our own bones and flesh might be enduring in our own time."
---Jackson Taylor, author of The Blue Orchard
"This is a remarkable story, compellingly written, of how one man's ambition brings him both the fame he coveted and crushing failure. The propriety of a physician treating his patient as a living laboratory and as an avenue to personal glory is set down for the reader to judge. Beaumont was a man both desperate and delusional, yet one who advanced medical science albeit with questionable methods. A provocative read from cover to cover."
---Don Faber, author of The Toledo War
"A highly readable and plausible reconstruction of the medical and personal interaction between St. Martin and Beaumont."
---Richard Selzer, surgeon and author of Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery and the novel Knife Song Korea
"Open Wound is a fascinating novel about scientific ambition on the American frontier. Read this fine book for its meticulous reconstruction of nineteenth-century life, and for its evocative portrait of a medical researcher whose hunger for success leads him down an ethically dubious path."
---Karl Iagnemma, author of The Expeditions
A shotgun misfires inside the American Fur Company store in Northern Michigan, and Alexis St. Martin's death appears imminent. It's 1822, and, as the leaders of Mackinac Island examine St. Martin's shot-riddled torso, they decide not to incur a single expense on behalf of the indentured fur trapper. They even go so far as to dismiss the attention of U.S. Army Assistant Surgeon William Beaumont, the frontier fort's only doctor.
But in the name of charity and goodness, Beaumont ignores the orders and saves the young man's life. What neither the doctor nor his patient understands---yet---is that even as Beaumont's care of St. Martin continues for decades, the motives and merits of his attention are far from clear. In fact, for what he does to his patient, Beaumont will eventually stand trial and be judged.
Rooted deeply in historic fact, Open Wound artfully fictionalizes the complex, lifelong relationship between Beaumont---a prominent figure in Michigan's medical past and present---and his illiterate French Canadian patient. The young trapper's injury never completely heals, leaving a hole into his stomach that the curious doctor uses as a window to understand the mysteries of digestion. Eager to rise up from his humble origins and self-conscious that his medical training occurred as an apprentice to a rural physician rather than at an elite university, Beaumont seizes the opportunity to experiment upon his patient's stomach in order to write a book that he hopes will establish his legitimacy and secure his prosperity. As Karlawish portrays him, Beaumont, always growing hungrier for more wealth and more prestige, personifies the best and worst aspects of American ambition and power.Download latest books on mediafire and other links compilation Free Download Open Wound: The Tragic Obsession of Dr. William Beaumont [Kindle Edition]
- File Size: 631 KB
- Print Length: 280 pages
- Publisher: The University of Michigan Press; 1 edition (August 30, 2011)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B005STO086
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
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- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #447,587 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
Free Download Open Wound: The Tragic Obsession of Dr. William Beaumont
This book was very well written. I had heard of Dr. Beaumont before and had always been interested in how his patient had come to have a hole in his stomach. Mr. Karlawish did an excellent job of bringing this piece of history to life. I was virtually transported back to 1822, and the years that followed, to witness Dr. Beaumont and Alexis St. Martin's often troubled interactions. I say interactions, because they were never truly friends. A friendship requires a form of respect on each side of the fence, and while Alexis had some respect to an extent for Dr. Beaumont, Beaumont never really respect Alexis at all. However not respecting Alexis doesn't necessarily make Beaumont a bad man. Raised in the time period that he was, no one of that time period would fault him for looking at Alexis as more of a scientific breakthrough than an actual man. You have to remember this was when slavery was still common place, American Indians were all assumed to be savages and Alexi being an indentured fur trapper made him only a step higher on the social ladder of the time. Even with this outlook, Beaumont does still try to morally educate Alexis. He gives him work in exchange for his medical treatment and a place to stay. He also buys Alexi's contract from the fur company, thereby making him a free man. (however later he does basically put him back into being an indentured servant, albeit by a different name) But Alexi is young, while he idolizes the doctor for saving him, he also wants to have a life and not be constantly poked and prodded at. This leads to a constant source of problems for both of the men.
Along with the other multitude of sins they are guilty of, both men are extremely greedy. Beaumont even more so than Alexis. Alexis simply wants to be able to make an easy buck.