Dec 24, 2009

The English Patient | The English Patient

At a glance:

Author: Michael Ondaatje
First Published: 1992
Type of Plot: War
Time of Work: World War II, 1939-1945
Setting: Near Florence, Italy
Principal Characters: Count Ladislaus de Almásy, Hana, David Caravaggio, Kirpal Singh, Katharine Clifton, Geoffrey Clifton
Genres: Long fiction, War fiction
Subjects: Europe or Europeans, World War II, Violence, Nationalism, Identity
Locales: Florence, Italy

The Novel

In the Villa San Girolamo, Hana, Kirpal Singh, David Caravaggio, and Count Ladislaus de Almásy, the “English patient” of the novel’s title, come together at the end of World War II. Each is haunted by ghosts of the dead, and each tells stories of how he or she came to be injured physically or emotionally. In the villa, these individuals unite as a multicultural society, in retreat from battle, their community ironically shattered at the war’s end.

The Canadian Hana is exhausted from nursing the wounded and the dying, her lover has died in the war, and...

[The entire page is 2296 words long]

The English Patient | The English Patient

At a glance:

The Novel

Join eNotes