Poor Things

McCandless’s narrative includes several illustrations depicting the characters and various anatomical models. These are all credited to William Strang. There are footnotes scattered throughout the text. In most of them, Alasdair Gray provides details about the history of several buildings in Glasgow or gives context for any historical figures mentioned.

Archibald McCandless is the illegitimate son of a poor farmer in Galloway, Scotland, in the mid-19th century. On her deathbed, his mother gives him all her savings, which he uses to become a doctor. At medical school, his humble origins set him apart from his fellow students, as do his shabby clothes. He manages to buy a microscope and some better shirts, after which his classmates treat him better. He only thinks of one fellow student as his equal: a man named Godwin Baxter.

McCandless describes Godwin as an ogrish man with a “big face, stout body and thick limbs” (39), towering a head taller than the average person. He speaks in a shrill, high voice. He is the only son of the late Sir Colin Baxter, a renowned medical doctor. Although Godwin was illegitimate, his father legitimized him. McCandless’s father, by contrast, never claimed him. Godwin was a brilliant medical student, but his appearance frightened patients so much that he was not able to graduate and does medical research instead. McCandless bumps into Godwin on a walk, and they have a spirited discussion about hospitals. They start meeting for regular walks. 

On one such day, Godwin says that he “entered the world through Sir Colin’s dealings with a nurse” (47), a long-deceased mother he does not remember. Godwin was educated at home and was only taught subjects that Sir Colin found useful. By the age of six, he was able to take his own temperature, pulse, and blood and urine samples, which he did every morning and evening. Godwin explains to McCandless that he has a chemical imbalance that must be carefully monitored and treated. He admits that his father performed vivisections.

Godwin invites McCandless to his house. He shows McCandless two live rabbits, one of which is exactly half white and half black, separated by a straight line around its middle. The other rabbit is the opposite. After examining them more closely, McCandless realizes that Godwin had cut both rabbits in half and recombined them. McCandless is in awe of this accomplishment, seeing potentially life-saving opportunities for organ transplants, but Godwin is less enthusiastic. He insists that if doctors really wanted to heal people, they would band together and work to ensure that every person has access to ​​“fresh air, pure water, a good diet and clean roomy houses…and a total government ban on all work which poisons and prevents these things” (54). 

McCandless insists that this vision of the future is impossible because of Britain’s industrial economy, which offends Godwin. Godwin admits that most of his current work is devoted to a private endeavor that he does not wish to reveal. They quarrel and Godwin asks McCandless to leave. McCandless begs Godwin to let him publish his research; Godwin refuses.

McCandless and Godwin do not speak for several months, and McCandless grows lonely. Finally, he meets Godwin on the street. Godwin looks well and he tells McCandless that he is happy because he has been spending time with a young woman whom he cured of death. McCandless corrects Godwin, saying he must have saved the woman from death, but Godwin insists that he resurrected her. He invites McCandless to come to his house to meet her. At the house, Godwin introduces McCandless to a young woman called Bella Baxter. She behaves and speaks very childishly. McCandless kisses her hand, which astonishes her. He believes that she has brain damage. 

Godwin privately explains that Bella’s mental faculties are in fact improving at an astonishing rate, and that six months ago, “she had the brain of a baby” (63). When McCandless realizes what Godwin means, he is overcome by shock and panic. Godwin gives him a strange concoction of fruits and vegetables that he says will help calm him, but McCandless refuses to drink it. Godwin instead finds him a glass of port and begins to tell him a story.

A year ago, just after his quarrel with McCandless, Godwin was called to examine the body of a young woman who had died by suicide. Upon examining her body, Godwin discovered that she was pregnant and had removed her wedding ring. He decided to keep her body alive at “a purely cellular level” (67). When her body was not claimed, he took it to his lab. He united the woman’s body with a new brain and animated her. McCandless applauds Godwin’s accomplishment but asks how Godwin will explain Bella to others. Godwin will introduce her as a distant niece whose parents died in Argentina. Bella’s brain is developing quickly: Until recently, she preferred to interact with young toddlers, but now Godwin thinks she has a mental age of around four. 

Despite her child’s mind, Godwin believes Bella is able to recall some “carnal sensations from [her body’s] earlier life” (70). McCandless is horrified to hear Godwin speak about Bella’s sexuality. He drunkenly accuses him of having created for himself exactly what all men want: a woman with the trusting and dependent mind of a child. Godwin takes the port away from McCandless and locks him in the room until he calms down.

Later, Godwin returns to McCandless and explains that all his life, he has wanted a companion. He yearns for the company of a woman who could care for him, as most people find him frightening and repulsive. Bella has never seen another adult man (until McCandless) and so has no idea that Godwin looks unusual. She trusts him completely and associates him with kindness and care. For now, he is content that Bella thinks of him as a father figure. McCandless asks if he can see Bella again. Godwin agrees, but not until after he has taken Bella on a trip around the world so that she can learn and grow.

As Godwin ushers McCandless out of his house, McCandless asks Godwin what happened to Bella’s unborn baby. Godwin explains that he took the baby’s brain and placed it in the head of the mother.