Boekverslag : Michael Ondaatje - The English Patient
De taal ervan is Engels en het aantal woorden bedraagt 798 woorden.
De taal ervan is Engels en het aantal woorden bedraagt 798 woorden.
Chronological summary
Almasy is a Hungarian count (graaf), together with Madox, Geoffrey Clifton and Katharine Clifton he searches for the lost oasis Zerzura in the Egyptian desert. The Greek writer Herodotus has written about Zerzura. Almasy has a copy of Herodotus' 'Histories',in wich he takes notes. He never goes anywhere without this book. They have a base camp in Uweinat. Almasy falls in love with Katharine when she is reading his Herodotus. Geoffrey finds this out and he gets jeaulous. Then WW II begins and they have to stop their desert Expedition. They have to come back one more time to Uweinat to pack-up their base camp. Almasy is already there when Geoffrey and his wife arrive by plane. Geoffrey lets his plane crash because he's got mad when he discovered his wife was in love with Almasy. This way be tries to kill himself and his wefe. He dies but Katharine is only injured. Almasy brings her to the cave of swimmers (a cave with paintings of swimming people on the walls) and he leaves her there while he'll get help. He walks to El Taj but the English there don't trust him so they don't send a jeep. Geoffrey worked for the English, the English knew Almasy had a relation with his wife, they think Almasy killed Geoffrey. Almasy gets frustrated about this and decides to join the Germans. The English try to arrest him but because he knows the desert better than anyone they can't get him. Three years later he's able to go to Katharine again. She's dead of course and her body is in an advanced state of decomposition. Almasy digs up the old plane which they buried there (Madox had an old plane but they didn't need it anymore because Geoffrey had a newer one, so they buried it in the desert) andhe puts Katharines body in it, then he flies away. The plane leaks oil, then there's a spark and the plane is on fire. Katharines body collapses. Almasy gets badly burned, his body is black and his face is unrecognizable. Almasy is saved by Bedouin and brought to Italy where hegets nursed in a military hospital. A nuse, Hana falls in love with him. The hospital is the villa 'San Girolamo'. It's the end of WWII and the Germans are retreating to the north. Because the villa is in a dangerous area (there are a lot of mines there) it is being moved to a safer place. Hana decides to stay with Almasy because she thinks he's to ill to be moved. Hana thinks Almasy is English, he himself doesn't remember anything. She calls him the English patient. Caravaggio is an old firend of Patrick, Hanas father. He hears that Hana is in a villa near Florence and he decides to go to her. Caravaggio was a spy in the war. The Germans caught him once and they chopped of his thumbs. Then a sapper (someone who dismantles mines and bombs) comes to the villa, his name is Kirpal Singh, Kip for short. He puts up his tent in the villas garden. So now there are three men and a woman in the villa. No-oneknows who The English Patient really is but Caravaggio thinks he's count Almasy (he heard about him when he worked for the English, who wrer trying to catch him.) He gives The English Patient an overdose morphine and then he remembers everything and he tells Caravaggio everything that happened in the desert. This is how Caravaggio discovers the patient is Almasy. Hana has fallen in love with Kip. Then Kip hears on the radio that Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been bombed. He gets angry and drives away on a motorbike. 13 years later Kip has become a doctor and he has two children.
Main characters
The English patient:
He is the Hungarian count Almasy. He's an autodidact, he knows everything about anything. He's an expert about guns, books, explosives, history, the desert and gardening. He's fascinated by maps, the desert and Herodotus. He worked for the Germans. He made maps of the desert.
Hana:
She's a nurse. She comed from Canada and is 20 years old. She reads books, falls in love with The patient and with Kip. She has a stepmother called Clara and a father called Patrick, he died in the war.
David Caravaggio:
He's a spy and a thief. The Germans chopped of his thumbs. He was a friend of Hanas father. He's married to Gianetta, he's about 45 years old. He uses morphine.
Kirpal Sing (Kip):
He's a sapper. Born in the Pubjab (India). He's a Sikh (Indian religion) he wears a turban. He's 26 years old he falls in love with Hana. His brother is in jail.
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