Author | Lindsey Fitzharris |
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Subject | Nonfiction, history, medicine |
Set in | 1840s-1870s England |
Publisher | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
Publication date | October 17, 2017 |
Pages | 304 |
Awards | 2018 PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award |
ISBN | 9780374715489 |
The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine is a 2017 historical nonfiction book by Lindsey Fitzharris that discusses the evolution of Victorian-era medicine between the 1840s and 1870s, along with how surgeon Joseph Lister revolutionized the practice of surgery to reduce the extremely high death rates of the time period. Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux on October 17, 2017, the book includes graphic descriptions of operating theaters and the unclean conditions of hospitals and other facilities at the time. The book was given the 2018 PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award[1] and was shortlisted for both the 2018 Wellcome Book Prize[2] and the 2018 Wolfson History Prize.[3]