59 pages 1 hour read

Michael Ondaatje

The English Patient

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1992

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Background

Authorial Context: Michael Ondaatje

Michael Ondaatje was born in 1943 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. His parents were of Tamil and Dutch Burgher descent, and in 1954, he and his mother emigrated to England. Ondaatje attended Dulwich College, a private school in London, before moving to Montreal, Quebec, in 1962. In Montreal, he studied at Bishops’ College School and Bishops’ University. He received his bachelor of arts from the University of Toronto in 1965 and his master of arts from Queen’s University at Kingston in 1967. He later taught English at both the University of Western Ontario and York University. Ondaatje lives in Toronto with his second wife, Linda Spalding, an academic and novelist. Since 1985, he and Spalding have run Brick, A Literary Journal, and Ondaatje also works as a poetry editor for Coach House Books.

Ondaatje’s first collection of poetry, The Dainty Monsters (1967), is a series of lyric poems that juxtapose everyday domestic life with grand mythic images. His second poetry collection, The Collected Works of Billy the Kidd (1970), was inspired by Ondaatje’s fascination with stories of the American West. A pastiche, it contains not only poems, but

blurred text

blurred text

Related Titles

By Michael Ondaatje

Study Guide

logo

Anil's Ghost

Michael Ondaatje

Anil's Ghost

Michael Ondaatje

Plot Summary

logo

Coming Through Slaughter

Michael Ondaatje

Coming Through Slaughter

Michael Ondaatje

Plot Summary

logo

Divisadero

Michael Ondaatje

Divisadero

Michael Ondaatje

Study Guide

logo

In the Skin of a Lion

Michael Ondaatje

In the Skin of a Lion

Michael Ondaatje

Plot Summary

logo

Running in the Family

Michael Ondaatje

Running in the Family

Michael Ondaatje

Plot Summary

logo

The Cat's Table

Michael Ondaatje

The Cat's Table

Michael Ondaatje

Study Guide

logo

The Cinnamon Peeler

Michael Ondaatje

The Cinnamon Peeler

Michael Ondaatje

Plot Summary

logo

The Collected Works of Billy the Kid

Michael Ondaatje

The Collected Works of Billy the Kid

Michael Ondaatje

Plot Summary

logo

Warlight

Michael Ondaatje

Warlight

Michael Ondaatje