Death on the Installment Plan (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Louis-Ferdinand Destouches
- First Published: 1936
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: 1900 to World War I
- Setting: Primarily Paris, France
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, Family or family life, Memory, Sex or sexuality, Suicide, Doctors, Paris, 1910’s, Child abuse
- Locales: Paris, France
Characters Discussed
Ferdinand (fehr-dee-NAHN), a doctor and aspiring writer who narrates the novel. Personally as well as professionally disillusioned, he cares for his patients although he believes most human beings are not worth saving and are, in fact, better off dead. The reasons for Ferdinand’s deep-seated pessimism are evident in his account of his childhood and adolescence. Beaten and abused by his petit bourgeois father, exploited by his employers, and disenchanted with women and love, he finds little to admire in his fellow humans and becomes increasingly cynical...
[The entire page is 810 words long]
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