WORDS IN PAIN

Book excerpt: First published anonymously in 1919, these letters from a dying woman to her doctor display an attitude to death which is fiercely independent of religion but full of hope. The book will appeal to diverse readers: it is a picture of family life and love, interspersed with clear-headed musings on the nature of illness, loss and death; it illuminates the development of rationalist thought, humanism and liberal education and the history of adoption; and it providescomfort for those who try to come to terms with dying, without religion to cushion the blow. As her dialogues withthe doctor, a Christian, show, Jacoby is witty and erudite, and rails against the dogmas of organised religion whileespousing a passionate morality.