William Wilkie Collins: medicine as an aid for enriching the creation of fiction literature
Miranda C, M.; Collins, W.Wilkie.
Revista Medica de Chile 139(10): 1365-1369
2011
ISSN/ISBN: 0034-9887 PMID: 22286739 Document Number: 655193
William Wilkie Collins (WWC) is a well-known prolific and innovative English writer of the Victorian age. After 150 years he is still being extensively read and all his main works are translated into Spanish. Furthermore, WWC has been acclaimed by famous writers such as JL Borges and TS Eliot as one of the best story-tellers of all times, and a master of the complexities of the plot of stories. WWC mentioned on his works many innovator aspects of medicine, demonstrating an uncanny power of observation and real interest in science. Notoriously, WWC described posttraumatic epilepsy, the clinical effects of opium, the introduction of people with sensorial deficits, such as blindness and deafness, as main figures in his novels. WWC also showed an interest in the management of mental disorders and the use of music as a potential therapy. In this review, we comment these interesting aspects of the creative work of this genius of the fiction literature.