Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is an infection with the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect the central nervous system (meningitis), lymphatic system, circulatory system (miliary TB), genitourinary system, bones and joints.

Tuberculosis in art, literature, history and film

It has been speculated that the real-life ubiquity of illness and death due to tuberculosis affected the portrayal of these issues in European art and literature as well as history.

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David Brainerd (born: April 20, 1718, died: October 9, 1747) only lived 29 years. His diary has been published and reflects his reliance upon God's faithfulness amidst his battle with consumption. Brainard's diary has proven historically very influential, particularly to the modern Christian missionary movement. He was a close friend of Theologian and Pastor Jonathan Edwards in New England. More information about Brainerd's life can be found detailed by contemporary pastor/theologian John Piper herehttp://www.desiringgod.org/library/biographies/90brainerd.html, with Brainerd's diary being found here http://www.ccel.org/ccel/edwards/works2.ix.html.

Related Topics:
David Brainerd - Jonathan Edwards - John Piper

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The Life and Death of Mr. Badman (1680) by John Bunyan - "Yet the captain of all these men of death that came against him to take him away, was the consumption, for it was that that brought him down to the grave."

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The pale, "haunted" appearance of tuberculosis sufferers has been seen as an influence on the works of Edgar Allan Poe and in vampire tales. In recent years, this aesthetic has been revived by the "Goth" subculture.

Related Topics:
Edgar Allan Poe - Vampire - Goth

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The heroine, Mimi, of Puccini's opera La bohème suffers from tuberculosis (a theme carried over in the modern film adaptation Moulin Rouge!). Violetta, heroine of Verdi's La Traviata also dies of the disease.

Related Topics:
Puccini - La bohème - Moulin Rouge! - Verdi's - La Traviata

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In Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Jane's best friend in school dies of consumption. It is indicative of the horrible conditions of these types of schools in the 1800s.

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In Sylvia Plath's novel The Bell Jar, the protagonist Esther's boyfriend Buddy Willard suffers from tuberculosis, much to her liking.

Related Topics:
Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar

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Celestine, the heroine of Octave Mirbeau's Diary of a Chambermaid, attempts to contract tuberculosis from her dying lover, Monsieur Georges.

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In Nicholas Nickleby, by Charles Dickens, Nickleby's faithful companion Smike is beset by tuberculosis.

Related Topics:
Nicholas Nickleby - Charles Dickens

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Extensively, in The Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann, where a three week visit to a sanitarium turns into a seven year sabbatical.

Related Topics:
The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann

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Tuberculosis patients were frequent characters in 19th century Russian literature, and even inspired a character type; the consumptive nihilist, examples of which include Bazarov from Ivan Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, Katerina Ivanovna from Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Kirillov from Dostoevsky's Demons (aka The Possessed), and Ippolit and Marie from Dostoevsky's The Idiot.

Related Topics:
Russian literature - Ivan Turgenev - Fathers and Sons - Fyodor Dostoevsky - The Possessed - The Idiot

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The hospitalized mother in the movie My Neighbor Totoro is thought to be suffering from tuberculosis (her ailment is not specifically named in the film, but tuberculosis is cited in the film's novelization). This is an autobiographical reference to the fact that writer/director Hayao Miyazaki's own mother spent several years of his childhood hospitalized with TB.

Related Topics:
My Neighbor Totoro - Autobiographical - Hayao Miyazaki

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The Sick Child (1886) by Edvard Munch, portrait of his deceased sister Sophie who died of TB at 16. http://www.museumsnett.no/nasjonalgalleriet/munch/eng/innhold/ngm00839.html

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In Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut, the protagonist contracts TB later in his lifetime.

Related Topics:
Hocus Pocus - Kurt Vonnegut

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In "Long Day's Journey Into Night" by Eugene O'Neill character Edmund Tyrone is sick with consumption.

Related Topics:
Long Day's Journey Into Night - Eugene O'Neill

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In the film "Moulin Rouge!", Satine (the beautiful courtesan) is dying from the disease.

Related Topics:
Moulin Rouge! - Courtesan

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In the Australian novel Seven Little Australians, Judy becomes consumptive after walking from the Blue Mountains to her home.

Related Topics:
Australian - Seven Little Australians - Blue Mountains

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In the 2002 film The Twilight Samurai, the leading character Seibei Iguchi's wife dies of consumption at the beginning of the story. At the end, his opponent tells of the death of his own wife and daughter of consumption.

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Famous gambler and gunslinger John "Doc" Holliday suffered from tuberculosis until his death in 1887. Doc and his bloody cough were masterfully portrayed by Val Kilmer in the 1993 film Tombstone.

Related Topics:
Gunslinger - John "Doc" Holliday - Val Kilmer - Tombstone

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Alice Neel (1900-1984), T.B. Harlem, 1940, American. Oil on canvas. JAMA cover June 8, 2005.

Related Topics:
Alice Neel - JAMA

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Legendary father of country music, Jimmie Rodgers (1897 - 1933) sang the woes of having tuberculosis in the song T.B. Blues (co-written with Raymond E. Hall). Rodgers ultimately died of the disease days after a New York city recording session.

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Van Morrison's song "TB Sheets" (from the eponymous 1974 album) is about the narrator nursing a girl, who is dying of tuberculosis. The song is a reworking of the TB theme in American blues music.

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The Catholic Church canonized Saint Therese of the Child Jesus (1873-1897) in 1925, who died of tuberculosis.

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