This captivating pageturner is a pleasure to read. Doctor Horus Croft finds a juvenile survivor among a deceased family during the cholera pandemic of Great Britain. He takes her home to bring her back from the grave and eventually, she becomes his ward, carrying out domestic tasks such as cooking, cleaning and offering verbal solace. Over time, she views a great many operations performed by Doctor Croft and his understudy, Doctor Gibson among their associates at St Bart’s. During Doctor Croft’s absence, she assist Doctor Gibson with an operation, on a hernia entangled on the patient’s spermatic cord, using primitive anaesthetic. Despite, the unquestionable success of the surgery, she is banned from operating ever again (as she is a woman and she had no medical licence) and Doctors Croft and Gibson are frowned upon. She decides she cannot abandon her passion of medical science and decides to continue her studies in a new environment with a clean slate.
The literature of this book is very inspirational. The novel does not use many eccentric words, but rather everyday words that the reader is likely to know, creating an inviting setting for the reader to indulge in. The novel does not provide superfluous detail, but still provides enough. The characters have very developed idiosyncrasies that are consistent throughout the story, such as Doctor Croft’s relentless forgetfulness. The book explores the life of an orphaned girl who practices medicine in a time of senseless misogyny, but also in a time when medicine was still quite primitive in comparison to today’s milestones; They find the first aneaesthetic!
uite primitive in comparison to today’s milestones; They find the first aneaesthetic!