How many books get a preface by Winterson and an introduction by Eliot? Nightwood, the most transgressive of doctor stories. Barnes gifts Doctor Matthew O’Connor some of her best lines—“the last muscle of aristocracy is madness”—and allows him to serve as the brain of the book. Diseased and dysphoric, Dr. O’Connor puts to shame any other anti-hero doctor in literature. He contains multitudes—unlicensed but in practice, an invert but a devout Catholic, perhaps mad but able to see the world better than anyone. After a fashion, he’s a true doctor. He observes carefully. He keep confidences. He offers interpretations. He seems like a detached windbag who eventually blows truth, but “Am I to blame if I’ve been summoned before and this is my last and oddest call?”