Butcher: A Novel

Butcher: A Novel
	First edition
Author	Joyce Carol Oates
Language	English
Publisher	Alfred A. Knopf
Publication date	2024
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (hardback)
Pages	333
ISBN	Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).

Butcher: A Novel is a historical novel by Joyce Carol Oates published in 2024 by Alfred A. Knopf.

The Gothic genre work is a fictional rendering of the medical careers of three professionals educated and practicing medicine in the 19th century.^[1] These are J. Marion Sims, M.D., Silas Weir Mitchell, M. D., and Henry Cotton, M. D., notable researchers and practitioners in, respectively, gynecology, neurology, and psychology.^[2]^[3]

Reception

Publishers Weekly writes: "Oates's scathing indictment of the physical and psychological treatment of women by the medical establishment makes for compulsive but challenging reading. Unlike the ghastly procedures depicted, Oates's inventive Gothic novel pays off."^[4]

Eric K. Anderson at LonesomeReader Blog calls Butcher "an arresting, horrifying and impactful novel" in which Oates exposes "how misogyny is built into the medical profession leading to a near total ignorance about how the human body actually works."^[5]

Commenting on Oates's productivity as a writer—"almost compulsive, verging on the hypergraphic"—critic Daphne Merkin praises Butcher for its "feverish energy, narrative propulsion and descriptive amplitude—sometimes to excess—of much of her earlier work."

In a positive review, Kirkus Reviews called the novel "Vintage Oates: splendidly written, and a useful warning to choose your doctors wisely."^[6]

Footnotes

^ Merkin, 2024: "Through the lens of a 19th-century doctor, Joyce Carol Oates explores gothic medical horror."
^ Oates, 2024: Acknowledgments, after p. 332
^ Anderson, 2024: "The novel is a fictional biography..."
^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
^ Anderson, 2024: "[A] striking representation of a misogynistic mind which is motivated more by self-belief and personal gain than caring for patients."
^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).

Sources

Anderson, Eric Karl. 2024. Butcher by Joyce Carol Oates. LonesomeReader Blog. July 25, 2024. https://lonesomereader.com/blog/2024/7/25/butcher-by-joyce-carol-oates Accessed 14 March, 2025.
Merkin, Daphne. 2024. 'Butcher' Tells the (Mostly) True Story of a Very Bad Gynecologist. New York Times, May 21, 2024.https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/21/books/review/butcher-joyce-carol-oates.html Accessed 17 April, 2025.
Oates, Joyce Carol. 2024. Butcher: A Novel. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).

[1] Merkin, 2024: "Through the lens of a 19th-century doctor, Joyce Carol Oates explores gothic medical horror."

[2] Oates, 2024: Acknowledgments, after p. 332

[3] Anderson, 2024: "The novel is a fictional biography..."

[4] Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).

[5] Anderson, 2024: "[A] striking representation of a misogynistic mind which is motivated more by self-belief and personal gain than caring for patients."

[6] Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).

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v t e Works by Joyce Carol Oates
Short fiction
The Wonderland Quartet	A Garden of Earthly Delights (1967) Expensive People (1968) Them (1969) Wonderland (1971)
The Gothic Saga	Bellefleur (1980) A Bloodsmoor Romance (1982) Mysteries of Winterthurn (1984) My Heart Laid Bare (1998) The Accursed (2013)
Other novels	With Shuddering Fall (1964) Do With Me What You Will (1973) The Assassins: A Book of Hours (1975) Childwold (1976) Son of the Morning (1978) Cybele (1979) Unholy Loves (1979) Angel of Light (1981) Solstice (1984) Marya: A Life (1986) You Must Remember This (1987) American Appetites (1989) Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart (1990) Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang (1993) What I Lived For (1994) Zombie (1995) We Were the Mulvaneys (1996) Man Crazy (1997) Broke Heart Blues (1999) Blonde (2000) Middle Age: A Romance (2001) I'll Take You There (2002) The Tattooed Girl (2003) The Falls (2004) Missing Mom (2005) Black Girl / White Girl (2006) The Gravedigger's Daughter (2007) My Sister, My Love (2008) Little Bird of Heaven (2009) Mudwoman (2012) The Sacrifice (2015) Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars. (2020) Breathe (2021) Babysitter (2022) 48 Clues into the Disappearance of My Sister (2023) Butcher: A Novel (2024) Fox (2025)
Novellas	Black Water (1992) First Love: A Gothic Tale (1996) Beasts (2001) The Corn Maiden: A Love Story (2005) A Fair Maiden (2010)
Short story collections	By the North Gate (1963) Upon the Sweeping Flood and Other Stories (1966) The Wheel of Love and Other Stories (1970) Marriages and Infidelities (1972) The Goddess and Other Women (1974) The Hungry Ghosts: Seven Allusive Comedies (1974) The Poisoned Kiss and Other Stories from the Portuguese (1975) The Seduction and Other Stories (1975) Crossing the Border (1976) Night-Side (1977) All the Good People I've Left Behind (1979) A Sentimental Education (1980) Last Days: Stories (1984) Raven's Wing (1986) The Assignation (1988) Where Is Here? (1989) Heat and Other Stories (1991) Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?: Selected Early Stories (1993) Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque (1994) Demon and Other Tales (1996) I Am No One You Know: Stories (2004) High Lonesome: New & Selected Stories, 1966–2006 (2006) The Museum of Dr. Moses: Tales of Mystery and Suspense (2007) Wild Nights! (2008) Dear Husband (2009) The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares (2011) Black Dahlia & White Rose (2012) Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror (2016) DIS MEM BER and Other Stories of Mystery and Suspense (2017) Beautiful Days: Stories (2018) Night-Gaunts (2018) The (Other) You (2021) Extenuating Circumstances: Stories of Crime and Suspense (2022) Zero-Sum: Stories (2023) Flint Kill Creek: Stories of Mystery and Suspense (2024)
Short stories	"Sweet Love Remembered" (1960) "A Legacy" (1961) "The Fine White Mist of Winter" (1962) "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" (1963) "Pastoral Blood" (1963) "Stigmata" (1963) "Upon the Sweeping Flood" (1963) "First Views of the Enemy" (1964) "The Survival of Childhood" (1964) "Archways" (1965) "Norman and the Killer" (1965) "In the Region of Ice" (1966) "In the Warehouse" (1967) "The Voyage to Rosewood" (1967) "Accomplished Desires" (1968) "How I Contemplated the World from the Detroit House of Correction and Began My Life Over Again" (1969) "Unmailed, Unwritten Letters" (1969) "Bodies" (1970) "I Was in Love" (1970) "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For" (1970) "The Dead" (1971) "The Metamorphosis" (1971) "Blindfold" (1972) "The Lady With the Pet Dog" (1972) "Nightmusic" (1972) "Small Avalanches" (1972) "The Girl" (1974) "The Goddess" (1974) "Magna Mater" (1974) "The Sacrifice" (1975) "Daisy" (1977) "Night-Side" (1977) "A Theory of Knowledge" (1977) "The Translation" (1977) "Funland" (1983)
Young adult fiction	Big Mouth & Ugly Girl (2002) Small Avalanches and Other Stories (2003) Freaky Green Eyes (2003) Sexy (2005) After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away (2006)

Butcher: A Novel

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Butcher: A Novel

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