ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the representations of medical practitioners in fiction, encompassing classic and contemporary literature. Roger Martin du Gard came from a prosperous and intellectual background. Les Thibault, for which Roger Martin du Gard was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1937, covers the history of two upper-middle-class families in Paris in the years between 1905 and 1918, the Thibaults of the title, prosperous, conservative and Catholic, and the de Fontanins, cash poor, liberal and Protestant. Antoine, the most sympathetic of the Thibaults, remains determined to protect his brother from their father's ire. The novel was uniformly praised for its objectivity and scrupulous regard for detail, which apply to the images of medical practice. Dr. Antoine Thibault, house physician at the Children's Hospital, is a rationalist with a quick, retentive mind. Dr. Thibault's working days are so long that he hardly goes out at night. The practice grows and the work distracts him from his grief.
