 First edition (UK) | |
| Author | Hilary Mantel |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Fourth Estate (UK) Henry Holt (US) |
Publication date | 1998 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 219 |
| ISBN | 1-85702-884-8 |
The Giant, O'Brien is a novel by Hilary Mantel, published in 1998. It is a fictionalised account of Irish giant Charles Byrne (O'Brien) and Scottish surgeon John Hunter.
Set mainly in the 1780s it tells of O'Brien and his companions as they decide to escape the poverty of Ireland to seek their fortune in London. O'Brien is portrayed as a teller of folk tales and as a poet who aims to save enough money to rebuild the ruined Mulroney's Tavern where as a youth he learned to be a storyteller. In contrast, John Hunter is obsessed with science; with an insatiable desire to experiment on both the living and the dead, both man and animals; employing body-snatchers to supply his needs. When he hears of O'Brien's arrival in London, Hunter determines to obtain his body. Ominously O'Brien is still growing and it appears Hunter may not have too long to wait.
In the postscript to the 2010 paperback edition of the novel Mantel writes 'In a way I feel, more than with any other book, that I have absolutely no responsibility for what I put on the page'. She explains that she had initially planned to write 'a big, realistic historical novel about John Hunter, the great surgeon, collector and experimentalist', but as she began to write she had a sudden revelation that she herself was Irish, 'Somehow the giant's story became part of this awakening and the feeling grew in me that in order to find myself I had to go back and capture that voice, that Irishness. So the novel became about the giant utterly, and the giant's people, and the giant's transition from speaking Irish to speaking English, exploring what is lost, and what is gained in the process. It was as if something came into the room, opened its mouth and sang. I just wrote the song out and it was over'. [1]
According to complete review "Not a true consensus, though most think it very good" [2]
John Hunter was a Scottish surgeon, one of the most distinguished scientists and surgeons of his day. He was an early advocate of careful observation and scientific methods in medicine. He was a teacher of, and collaborator with, Edward Jenner, pioneer of the smallpox vaccine. He paid for the stolen body of Charles Byrne, and proceeded to study and exhibit it against the deceased's explicit wishes. His wife, Anne Hunter (née Home), was a poet, some of whose poems were set to music by Joseph Haydn.
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Charles Byrne, or "The Irish Giant", was a man regarded as a curiosity or freak in London in the 1780s for his large stature. Byrne's exact height is of some conjecture. Some accounts refer to him as being 8 ft 2 in (2.49 m) to 8 ft 4 in (2.54 m) tall, but skeletal evidence places him at just over 7 ft 7 in (2.31 m).
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