The Ubiquitous Doctor

Abstract

‘Zola’s aplomb ... comes from his inconceivable ignorance’ (Flaubert). ‘Your Zola knows nothing; he invents it all in his study’ (Chekhov). The exasperation which many of Zola’s friends and admirers felt for his scientific pretensions was the greater for coming from men who in a number of cases had genuine professional knowledge. A striking feature of the later Realists is the first-hand acquaintance which several of the leading figures had with the world of medicine. Ibsen started to earn his living at the age of fifteen in an apothecary’s shop, where he made up the prescriptions and spent his spare hours preparing himself to read medicine at Christiania University. Had he not failed his entrance examination, he might conceivably have embarked on a medical career, despite the fact that literary composition was already occupying much of his time and eroding his medical interests. Theodor Fontane (1819–98), for his part, was not only a pharmacist’s son, but made it his profession for ten years, practising in Berlin, then Leipzig.