The Wooden Doctor

First published in 1933, this is the story of Arabella, an adolescent girl obsessed with her doctor. From a childhood blighted by a violent, alcoholic father, Arabella grows into a passionate young woman, impatient of any restraints. Misunderstood by all around her, she craves the security and peace she associates with the Irish doctor, and develops a strange illness, like a fox inside her—biting and tearing her flesh. Her condition, it seems, is incurable.