I love this book, one of my preferred. This a lovely, short description of the book by Seamus O’Mahony, consultant gastroenterologist: ‘Axel Munthe (1857–1949), a Swede who trained in Montpellier and Paris, was one such fashionable doctor. His memoir, The story of San Michele, published in 1929, when he was 71, was an unlikely global bestseller. The book is a highly impressionistic, semi-fictional account of an extraordinary life, an amalgam of memoirs, personal philosophy and tall tales. Munthe describes a number of supernatural encounters with ghosts and fairy folk, yet fails to mention his two wives. His stories are far-fetched but entertaining, with a charming, whimsical portrait of peasant life in Capri. Animal lovers were entranced by Munthe’s tenderness towards, and understanding of, his large menagerie, which included dogs, birds and a baboon.’ What I like the most in his book was his love for the Sun, his “supernatural encounters” and his alcoholic pet baboon, Billy. Infinite Love.
The story of San Michele
