This ‘rediscovered masterpiece’ has perhaps been published as a timely reminder that, if we didn’t know this already, we should all thank our lucky stars every minute of every day for advances in medical science and equal access to treatment on the NHS, whether we are rich or poor. A.E. Ellis is the pseudonym used by the writer and playwright Derek Lindsay. After serving in the army in the Second World War, Lindsay went to Oxford University, where he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. ‘The Rack’, his only novel, was closely based on his experiences in a sanatorium in the French Alps. Lindsay was one of the last people to suffer the inhumane and often experimental treatments for tuberculosis before advances in medical science produced effective treatments with antibiotics. Lindsay tells the story of a poor Cambridge student, Paul Davenant, who, supported by barely adequate funds from a student organisation, is admitted to a Swiss sanatorium, where patients are segregated according to income. Paul receives inedible food and is treated as a guinea pig by a succession of grotesquely indifferent, bombastic, megalomaniac doctors, some of whom appear to enjoy inflicting on Paul barbaric, experimental medical interventions. One announces with great glee: ‘Monsieur, we have just learned that your bacilli are far wickeder than we had anticipated’. Another tells Paul to consider himself ‘an experiment of the gods in what a man can endure’. The novel is written in a detached manner, reminiscent of Kafka (who also suffered from TB) in its matter-of-fact narration which describes in minute and precise detail the sheer horror of Paul’s treatments, as a series of large needles puncture his lungs and liquids such as creosote are poured into his lung cavities. It is a gruelling read as Paul oscillates between optimism and despair, initially trusting the doctors, but gradually losing faith in them as they promise him constantly that he will be cured in three months. Years slowly creep by and despair sets in as Paul gradually fears that he will never regain his health. It isn’t all despair. There are some very funny passages as Paul describes the eccentric cast of characters who share his confinement, and there are touching passages as Paul describes his desperate love affair with a fellow patient. Not just a novel then, this book is an invaluable historical record, documenting the history of medical treatments for TB before the advent of effective antibiotics. It’s also an invaluable social document with its insight into the inequalities of medical care. And it provides a fascinating picture of life in a sanatorium in the 1950s. Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review.

I'm not sure I'd consider this book a masterpiece, but I have enjoyed it, and welcome its republication. Set in a Swiss sanatorium, the story concentrates on the life of Paul, a student with TB, and details the medical procedures he undergoes in the hope of a cure. (Warning, the medical bits can get fairly descriptive, so avoid if you don't like that sort of thing). Sometimes normal life seems just around the corner, other times Paul finds himself at death's door. As the months go on, a new patient provides a love interest for Paul, and he starts to dream of the future he could have. Set in a beautifully described mountain setting, this is an interesting read.

This is a timely reprint given the fuss over vaccinations and the Covid viruses. It is about tuberculosis and an almost forgotten history of the efforts to isolate and treat the disease before antibiotics became available. The central character is Paul Davenant, a Cambridge undergraduate who has contracted TB in military service and is sent to a sanatorium in France to breathe mountain air and, hopefully, to recover. In the 1930s and 1940s, sanatoria appeared to offer the best hope for treating TB through complete rest for patients, fresh air and the occasional medical intervention and many people would have a rosy picture of their peace and quiet but, in reality, it clearly wasn’t quite like that. Since AE Ellis is a pseudonym for Derek Lindsay, who also spent time in the military and at Cambridge before being confined in a French sanatorium with TB, the intention of this novel is to describe the reality of what went on. As it is described by Paul, the sanatorium daily life could vary according to what the patient could afford while the treatments proposed could vary in the level of inhumanity they imposed. Medical science was willing to try almost anything in the fight against TB, even to the extent of removing the ribs of patients or pouring creosote into their lung cavities. This makes the sufferings of Paul Davenant almost too horrific to read at times but even that understates the mental suffering which went beyond the physical disease. This book is a very grim read indeed. There cannot be any doubt that what we are reading is both autobiographical and an authentic account of a long-term stay in a French sanatorium. A range of other characters, mostly male, young and also suffering from TB, are introduced and the changes the disease brings about in them are also shocking. Finally, some of the doctors working in these sanatoria also had TB, usually in some form of remission, but still as deadly eventually. It is a dispassionate, bitter yet convincing account of how TB and isolation wrecked people’s lives. As if to underline this, Paul’s attempts to develop a genuine loving relationship are thwarted at every turn and, eventually, are doomed. Many people die. There’s no happy ending. It’s not at all an easy read but perhaps it should be compulsory for people opposed to vaccinations and the good they do for public health. In some ways this is a timely reprint and a reminder of how bad things could be without them. (The Rack was first published in 1958. This reprint is published by Vintage Classics. Thanks to the publishers and to NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for a fair review.)