
The Poet-Physician
George Crabbe and Medicine
Yimon Lo(Author)
Cambridge University Press
Will be published approx. on 31. August 2026
Book
Hardback
75 pages
978-1-009-57984-1 (ISBN)
Description
This Element offers the first comprehensive study of George Crabbe's engagement with medical thought and practice in his poetry. Drawing on his interest in illness, care, and healing as a trained physician, surgeon, apothecary, and obstetrician, it addresses how his medical expertise and awareness inform his assessment of social problems, his perspective on the role of a poet, and his views on education and religion. The study examines the intersection between Crabbe's poetic achievement and medical discourse in advancing humanist healing for mind and soul, and explores how his verse registers systemic and ethical issues surrounding poverty, addiction, intoxication, and madness through an unsentimental and truthful style. By tracing the moral and social implications of the connection between medical vision and poetic philosophy, it recovers Crabbe as a significant poet-physician of the long eighteenth century and invites renewed attention to the cultural work of his poetry in health and medicine.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
ISBN-13
978-1-009-57984-1 (9781009579841)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
approx. 08/2026
Cambridge University Press
€22.50
Not yet published
Person
Content
Introduction; 1. Dissecting poverty, end of life, and the economies of health; 2. Physician of the soul; 3. Indulgence, addiction, and intoxication; 4. Portraits of madness; Coda; Bibliography.