Poor Things

Poor Things

First edition
Author	Alasdair Gray
Cover artist	Alasdair Gray
Language	English
Publisher	Bloomsbury Press
Publication date	1992
Publication place	Scotland
Media type	Print (hardback and paperback)
Preceded by	McGrotty and Ludmilla

Poor Things: Episodes from the Early Life of Archibald McCandless M.D., Scottish Public Health Officer is an epistolary novel by Scottish writer Alasdair Gray, published in 1992. It won the Whitbread Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize the same year.^[1][2]

A postmodern retelling of the gothic horror novel “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, the narrative follows the life of Bella Baxter, a surgically fabricated woman created in late Victorian Glasgow. Bella’s navigation of late 19th century society is the lens through which Gray delivers social commentary on patriarchal institutions, social equality, socioeconomic matters and sexual politics.

The novel itself is epistolary, being composed of a fictional novella entitled “Episodes from the Early Life of Archibald McCandless M.D., Scottish Public Health Officer”, several extended letters, a spread of original illustrations, as well as an Introduction and Critical Notes. The bracketing Introduction and Critical Notes feature a meta-textual component, in that they simultaneously exist in the novel’s fictional canon, but are also credited to real-life author Alasdair Gray.

The novel is illustrated by Alasdair Gray, despite the text claiming the illustration were created by Scottish painter and printmaker William Strang.