The Vivisector

by Patrick White

Book Overview

Paperback reprint in the 'Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics' series of a novel first published in 1970. It traces the life of a painter from his birth at the turn of the century until his death in the 60s. He dissects his experiences and relationships for the sake of his art. The Australian author was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1973.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670747394
• ISBN13: 9780670747399
• Release Date: July 1970
• Publisher: Viking Books
• Length: 567 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Superb again

I read the other reviews (3) and I'm left cold.This book is a fabulous read about a chap who's life didn't take a straight line.And since he had deep talent in a time when money was only so interesting , he reached for his own stars and personal understanding before the age of the government institutionalized society.This is written in the later style , unlike 'The Tree of man' which goes for formalized minimalism. The depth of Whites classical and linguist knowledge shine through yet it the earth that always interests him with regards to man's veracity.

"You can only do. Or be, sort of."

In his longest novel, written in 1970, Nobel Prize-winning author Patrick White examines the question of an artist's creativity, where it comes from, whether it can be controlled, and what obligations, if any, accompany it. As he traces the life of Hurtle Duffield from the age of four until his death as an elderly (and successful) avant-garde artist, we see Duffield always as somehow different from his peers. The son of a laundress and a bottle collector, Hurtle is from birth inspired, painting large images on walls as a toddler, but he recognizes at an early age that "people look down at their plates if you said something was 'beautiful.'" To provide him with opportunities which will allow his genius to flourish, his parents sell him to the wealthy family for which his mother works when he is four years old. As a member of the Courtney family, Hurtle travels and becomes educated, though he continues to see rather than think. For him, the usual emotional traumas of adolescence are accompanied by unique questions of his identity, both because of his two families and also because of his view of the world. Not religious, he sees God as the Great Vivisector, and men treating each other as animals, slaughtering each other in war. When he himself goes off to war and returns to find that the family has gone in separate directions, he devotes himself, once again, to his art, using women who love him as vehicles for his own self-expression and behaving as a vivisector himself. About his painting of one model, White says "[Hurtle] disemboweled her while she was still alive." As time passes, Hurtle continues to search for love, inspiration, self-expression, and some sort of balance in his life between his immense need to paint, his desire for personal connection, and his simultaneous need to be alone. White's prose style is direct and concise, elegantly simple, and easy to understand. He uses colloquial speech--words like "smoodge," "sook," "slommacky," and "mumped," which must be understood from context--and reveals character and action through dialogue. The novel is old-fashioned, using a straight chronological narrative with no complex flashbacks, and it is somewhat romantic in its plot elements, despite its serious thematic development. The biggest problem for the reader is that the main character is not very likable, nor does he inspire a great deal of empathy--a difficult character to live with for approximately six hundred pages--and I'm not sure how typical he is of the artists he is supposed to represent. Mary Whipple

"You can only do. Or be, sort of."

In his longest novel, written in 1970, Nobel Prize-winning author White examines the question of an artist's creativity, where it comes from, whether it can be controlled, and what obligations, if any, accompany it. As he traces the life of Hurtle Duffield from the age of four until his death as an elderly (and successful) avant-garde artist, we see Duffield always as somehow different from his peers. The son of a laundress and a bottle collector, Hurtle is from birth inspired, painting large images on walls as a toddler, but he recognizes at an early age that "people look down at their plates if you said something was 'beautiful.'" To provide him with opportunities which will allow his genius to flourish, his parents sell him to the wealthy family for which his mother works when he is four years old.As a member of the Courtney family, Hurtle travels and becomes educated, though he continues to see rather than think. For him, the usual emotional traumas of adolescence are accompanied by unique questions of his identity, both because of his two families and also because of his view of the world. Not religious, he sees God as the Great Vivisector, and men treating each other as animals, slaughtering each other in war. When he himself goes off to war and returns to find that the family has gone in separate directions, he devotes himself, once again, to his art, using women who love him as vehicles for his own self-expression and behaving as a vivisector himself. About his painting of one model, White says "[Hurtle] disemboweled her while she was still alive." As time passes, Hurtle continues to search for love, inspiration, self-expression, and some sort of balance in his life between his immense need to paint, his desire for personal connection, and his simultaneous need to be alone.White's prose style is direct and concise, elegantly simple, and easy to understand. He uses colloquial speech-words like "smoodge," "sook," "slommacky," and "mumped," which must be understood from context-and reveals character and action through dialogue. The novel is old-fashioned, using a straight chronological narrative with no complex flashbacks, and it is quite romantic in its plot elements, despite its serious theme development. The biggest problem for the reader is that the main character is not very likable, nor does he inspire a great deal of empathy--a difficult character to live with for approximately six hundred pages--and I'm not sure how typical he is of the artists he is supposed to represent. Mary Whipple

articulate, original and awesome

The Vivisector is a novel which commands some effort on the part of the reader because it is not fast paced. White portrays the essence of the artist with brilliance. It is compelling and revealing if you have the concentration to continue past the opening few chapters. While not giving us the fairytale ending, White provides such insight into the workings of a complex individual through his relationships with others and art that a resolution is secondary to the resonance that this novel evokes.

genius

Patrick White is a genius. The Vivesector is, garunteed, one of the most original pieces of fiction ever written, not to mention one of the most subtley disturbing. It is beautiful, brutal, and above all, very very sad. We should all be so lucky as to have the imagination and sheer power of invention that Peter White possessed.