The Physician
Cover of the 1st American Edition
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| Author | Noah Gordon |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Wendell Minor |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Cole Family series |
| Genre | Historical novel |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
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Publication date
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August 7, 1986 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 608 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | (first edition, hardback) |
| OCLC | 13269822 |
| 813/.54 19 | |
| LC Class | PS3557.O68 P49 1986 |
The Physician is a novel by Noah Gordon. It is about the life of a Christian English boy in the 11th century who journeys across Europe in order to study medicine among the Persians.
The book was initially published by Simon & Schuster on August 7, 1986. The book did not sell well in America, but in Europe it was many times a bestseller, particularly in Spain and Germany, selling millions of copies in translation. Its European success caused its subsequent sequelization. The film rights to the book were purchased.
It is the year 1020. Rob Cole is the eldest of many children. His father is a Joiner in the Guild of Carpenters in London. His mother, Agnes Cole, is his father's wife. Robert has a particular Gift: he can sense when someone is going to die. When his mother and father both die, the Cole household is parceled out to various neighbors and friends. The Cole children are parceled out likewise.
Rob is taken by the only one who wants him: a traveling barber-surgeon who goes only by the name of Barber. He is a fleshy man with fleshy appetites and a very great zest for life. Over the next years, he takes Rob as his apprentice. He teaches the boy how to juggle, to draw caricatures, to tell stories, to entertain a crowd, to sell the nostrum on which they make their living. He also teaches the boy all he knows of medicine—which is little.
When Barber dies, Rob takes over his traveling medicine show. But he is restless, desiring to know more about the ways of medicine. He meets a Jewish physician in Malmesbury who tells him of schools (Madrasahs) in Córdoba, Toledo, even in far-away Persia, where the medical and scientific learning of the Muslims is taught. Unfortunately, besides being worlds away, the schools do not admit Christians—and even if they did, no country in Christendom would allow a person with such learning to return.
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