The Strange and True Tale of Horace Wells, Surge A Novel

In 1844, Horace Wells, a Connecticut dentist, encountered nitrous oxide, or laughing gasthen an entertainment for performers in carnival-like theatrical actsand began administering the gas as the first true anesthetic. His discovery would change the world, reshaping medicine and humanitys relationship with pain. But that discovery would also thrust Wells into scandals that threatened his reputation, his family, and his sanityhardships and triumphs that resonate in todays struggles with what hurts us and what we take to stop the hurt. In this novel, Michael Downs mines the gaps in the historical record and imagines the motivations and mysteries behind Wellss morbid fascination with pain, as well as the price he and his wife, Elizabeth, paidfirst through his obsession, then his addiction. The book is a love story, but also a story of what love cant redeem; of narcotic dreams and waking insanity; of humbug and miracle; of pains destruction and what pains can never be eased. Following Wells throughout New England and across the ocean to Paris, the novel immerses the reader in the nineteenth century, conveying through rich physical description and telling dialogue the tragic life of a dentist who gave everything to rid the world of suffering.