Books by Axel Munthe

Axel Munthe?s autobiography offers insight into his professional life as a doctor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his life anecdotes ranging from the lighthearted to the deeply serious.Titled after the ruined Italian chapel Munthe encountered and desired to renovate, these memoirs span a series of stories taking place over decades. Munthe does not discuss his personal life or family, instead opting to describe the various medical procedures and patients he encountered as a doctor working in a range of different countries. Although some of the author?s recollections are clearly fictional ? including a posthumous chapter set at the gates at heaven ? there are several chapters both eye-opening and sobering for their seriousness.The constraints of the medicine of the time are revealed in the frank recollections of patients whose lives could not be saved, with Munthe instead opting to lessen their suffering as they struggled through the later, painful stages of illness.

I protagonisti di questi racconti sono esseri fragili e umili, che mettono in luce la delicatezza dell'animo umano e la nobilta di quello animale. E in questo modo che la storia dello spazzino Angelo Fusco, quella del suonatore d'organetto accompagnato da una scimmia tisica e quella delle reliquie miracolose di suor Filomena si intrecciano, dando vita a una penetrante ballata dal respiro profondamente esistenzialista.-

Durante gli anni della prima guerra mondiale, il medico svedese Axel Munthe e impegnato a prestare servizio nelle ambulanze. Qui raccoglie le sue esperienze, che in seguito decide di narrare nella presente opera. Dolore, disumanita e incredulita per la misera condizione in cui vertono soldati e civili emergono da questo crudo documento che ripercorre uno dei piu sanguinosi conflitti dell'epoca moderna.-

Axel Munthe?s autobiography offers insight into his professional life as a doctor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his life anecdotes ranging from the lighthearted to the deeply serious.Titled after the ruined Italian chapel Munthe encountered and desired to renovate, these memoirs span a series of stories taking place over decades. Munthe does not discuss his personal life or family, instead opting to describe the various medical procedures and patients he encountered as a doctor working in a range of different countries. Although some of the author?s recollections are clearly fictional ? including a posthumous chapter set at the gates at heaven ? there are several chapters both eye-opening and sobering for their seriousness.The constraints of the medicine of the time are revealed in the frank recollections of patients whose lives could not be saved, with Munthe instead opting to lessen their suffering as they struggled through the later, painful stages of illness.