12 h 4 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 12 h 4 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the trouble in your rooms is something no ordinary doctor can treat?
In Algernon Blackwood’s John Silence, Physician Extraordinary, a calm, kind doctor takes on troubles of mind and spirit that ordinary medicine cannot explain. Across five tales, he listens where others laugh or turn away. For his patients, the unseen threatens health, work, and the comfort of familiar places.
A Psychical Invasion brings Silence a writer whose rooms seem hostile. In Ancient Sorceries, Arthur Vezin describes a strange French town. The Nemesis of Fire turns to an old house; Secret Worship returns a man to his German school. The Camp of the Dog carries dread into a wild landscape, where a holiday slowly loses its ease.
What you’ll discover
- A patient investigator Meet a physician who refuses to call anything impossible before he has looked closely.
- Rooms that threaten Enter a writer’s rooms, where failing health and faltering work hint at something hostile.
- A town that draws you Follow Arthur Vezin into a quiet place whose pull is stronger than he expects.
- Old places, hidden powers Feel unease gather around an old house and a school remembered from youth.
- Dread under open skies Watch a camping holiday sour as the wild shore carries the feeling of being watched.
Who will love it
For readers who love ghost stories told with calm, atmosphere and a kind hero. If you enjoy haunted houses, old towns with secrets and foggy nights, these five cases will feel like home.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A rich doctor treats those nobody else will
- A humorist loses his laughter to something unseen
- Two animals keep watch in a foggy house
- A warning on a train sends a shy man astray
- The whole town watches him and draws him in
- Heat and fire gather around a lonely manor
- A merchant's memories lead him back to school
- Camp life on a Baltic island wakes something wild
- Strong feeling can outlast those who felt it
- Sympathy and fear set the voice of the tales
Who’s who
- John SilenceA rich, gentle doctor who charges no fees and treats psychical afflictions, using sympathy, trained perception and calm courage.
- HubbardSilence's confidential assistant, who tells several cases, watches closely and learns to guard his mind with a shell of thought.
- Felix PenderA humorous writer whose gift turns dark after a drug experiment, and who feels a presence in his house.
- Arthur VezinA timid man past forty who leaves a train on impulse and is drawn into the strange life of a hill town.
- Colonel WraggeA stern retired soldier who guards his invalid sister and seeks help against fires he cannot explain.
- HarrisA heavy silk merchant who returns to his old German school, moved by memories of a boyhood spent among devout Brothers.
- Joan MaloneyA wild, brave young woman of twenty-two who feels at home in the wilderness yet fears a call in a fellow camper.
- Peter SangreeA pale Canadian pupil who loves Joan in silence and grows strangely vigorous and wild in the island camp.
Formats and delivery
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John Silence, medico straordinario
by Algernon Blackwood · 1908
A doctor who charges no fees investigates haunted places and hears a traveler's account of a witch town.
Medium level10–20 hours to readItaliano
Excellent
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In short
What would you do if your sense of humor vanished and something unseen began to walk beside you on the stairs? That is the first case in John Silence, Physician Extraordinary, a book of five tales by Algernon Blackwood.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A rich doctor treats those nobody else will
John Silence is rich by accident and a doctor by choice. He keeps no consulting room and charges nothing at all. He takes only the cases that pay nothing and the cases that interest him for some special reason.
His patients are often artists with elusive afflictions of the spirit, and he becomes known as the Psychic Doctor. Most tales are told by his assistant, Hubbard, who watches closely and takes the notes. Silence trained for years in ways nobody can name, and he believes that thought can act at a distance and produce real effects.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1908
- Language
- Italiano
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Blackwood, Algernon. John Silence, Physician Extraordinary. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/john-silence-physician-extraordinary.
Blackwood, A. (2026). John Silence, physician extraordinary. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/john-silence-physician-extraordinary (Original work published 1908)
Blackwood, Algernon. John Silence, Physician Extraordinary. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/john-silence-physician-extraordinary.
@book{blackwood2026john,
author = {Blackwood, Algernon},
title = {John Silence, Physician Extraordinary},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/john-silence-physician-extraordinary},
note = {First published 1908}
}
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What is John Silence, Physician Extraordinary about?
It follows Dr. John Silence, a wealthy doctor who treats psychical afflictions without charging. His five cases concern a haunted house, a French town, a moorland manor, a mountain school and a Baltic island camp.
Who is John Silence in the book?
He is a rich man who practices medicine by choice, charges no fees and takes unpaid cases and those of special interest. He is gentle, trained in the unseen and calm under threat, and his assistant Hubbard often tells the tales.
Is John Silence, Physician Extraordinary a series of separate stories?
Yes, it is five self-contained cases linked by Silence and by the friend who aids him. You can read each tale on its own, though they share ideas about thought, memory and the unseen.
The author
Algernon Blackwood
1869–1951 · English supernatural fiction writer
Algernon Blackwood (1869–1951) was an English short story writer and novelist. He was born in Kent and lived in Canada before returning to Britain. He wrote The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories (1906), The Willows (1907), John Silence (1908), and The Wendigo (1910). He died in London.
More by Algernon Blackwood
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