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Hospital Of The Transfiguration

Published
Oct 1988
Main Genre
Science Fiction Sci-Fi
Rating
Pages
228

About This Book

An early realist novel by Stanisław Lem, taking place in a Polish psychiatric hospital during World War II.
Taking place within the confines of a psychiatric hospital, Stanisław Lem's The Hospital of the Transfiguration tells the story of a young doctor working in a Polish asylum during World War II. At first the asylum seems like a bucolic refuge, but a series of sinister encounters and incidents reveal an underlying brutality. The doctor begins to seek relief in the strange conversation of the poet Sekulowski, who is posing as a patient in a bid for safety from the occupying German forces. Meanwhile, Resistance fighters stockpile weapons in the surrounding woods.

A very early work by Lem, The Hospital of the Transfiguration is partly autobiographical, drawing on the author's experiences as a medical student. Written in 1948, it was suppressed by Polish censors and not published until 1955. The censorship of this realist novel is partly what led Lem to focus on science fiction and nonfiction for the rest of his career.

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May 1991 Harvest ISBN 0156421763
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Feb 2020 MIT Press ISBN 0262538490
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Hardcover

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First Edition Oct 1988 Harcourt ISBN 0151421862
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May 1991 Houghton Mifflin ISBN 0547995091
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May 1991 Houghton Mifflin ISBN B008533EMU
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May 1991 MIT Press ISBN 0262357720
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May 2018 Pro Auctore Wojciech Zemek ISBN B07D3KF57S
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Jan 2020 The MIT Press ISBN B0848MQJ7R
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