Pearls & Oy-sters: Upbeat Nystagmus and Quadriplegia in a Young Girl with Bilateral Medial Medullary Syndrome

A small, insignificant-looking intellectual with absurdly long legs, Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) was a veritable Hans Christian Andersen caricature of a man. A strange combination of witty cosmopolite and melancholy introvert, he spent years writing under a series of fantastical pseudonyms, lavishing all the splendor of his mind on a seldom-appreciative world. He had a tragic love affair with a young girl, was dominated by an unforgettable Old Testament father, fought a sensational literary duel with a popular satiric magazine, and died in the midst of a violent quarrel with the state church for which he had once studied theology. Yet this iconoclast produced a number of brilliant books that have profoundly influenced modern thought. This classic biography presents a charming and warmly appreciative introduction to the life and work of the great Danish writer. It tells the story of Kierkegaard's emotionally turbulent life with a keen sense of drama and an acute understanding of how his life shaped his thought. The result is a wonderfully informative and entertaining portrait of one of the most important thinkers of the past two centuries.

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Young girl beside statue of a child reading

10.31096/wua033-pls90c118 ◽

2018 ◽

Keyword(s):

Young Girl

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"L: Mother with three children, R: Young girl"

10.31096/wua033-pls90c124 ◽

2018 ◽

Keyword(s):

Young Girl

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Young girl and toddler

10.31096/wua033-pls90c132 ◽

2018 ◽

Keyword(s):

Young Girl

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The Monk

10.1093/owc/9780198704454.001.0001 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Matthew Lewis

Keyword(s):

French Revolution ◽

English Literature ◽

Young Girl ◽

The Novel ◽

Reading Public ◽

Ghost Stories ◽

Gothic Fiction ◽

Black Magic ◽

Insight Into ◽

Profound Insight

‘He was deaf to the murmurs of conscience, and resolved to satisfy his desires at any price.’ The Monk (1796) is a sensational story of temptation and depravity, a masterpiece of Gothic fiction and the first horror novel in English literature. The respected monk Ambrosio, the Abbot of a Capuchin monastery in Madrid, is overwhelmed with desire for a young girl; once having abandoned his monastic vows he begins a terrible descent into immorality and violence. His appalling fall from grace embraces blasphemy, black magic, torture, rape, and murder, and places his very soul in jeopardy. Lewis’s extraordinary tale drew on folklore, legendary ghost stories, and contemporary dread inspired by the terrors of the French Revolution. Its excesses shocked the reading public and it was condemned as obscene. The novel continues to beguile and shock readers today with its gruesome catalogue of iniquities, while at the same time giving a profound insight into the deep anxieties experienced by British citizens during one of the most turbulent periods in the nation’s history.

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Pamela

10.1093/owc/9780199536498.001.0001 ◽

2008 ◽

Author(s):

Samuel Richardson

Keyword(s):

Young Girl ◽

Original Text ◽

Literary Marketplace ◽

Defining Moment ◽

Modern Novel ◽

The World ◽

The Voice

‘Pamela under the Notion of being a Virtuous Modest Girl will be introduced into all Families, and when she gets there, what Scenes does she represent? Why a fine young Gentleman endeavouring to debauch a beautiful young Girl of Sixteen.’ (Pamela Censured, 1741) One of the most spectacular successes of the burgeoning literary marketplace of eighteeent-century London, Pamela also marked a defining moment in the emergence of the modern novel. In the words of one contemporary, it divided the world ‘into two different Parties, Pamelists and Antipamelists’, even eclipsing the sensational factional politics of the day. Preached up for its morality, and denounced as pornography in disguise, it vividly describes a young servant’s long resistance to the attempts of her predatory master to seduce her. Written in the voice of its low-born heroine, but by a printer who fifteen years earlier had narrowly escaped imprisonment for the seditious output of his press, Pamela is not only a work of pioneering psychological complexity, but also a compelling and provocative study of power and its abuse. Based on the original text of 1740, from which Richardson later retreated in a series of defensive revisions, this edition makes available the version of Pamela that aroused such widespread controversy on its first appearance.

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Upbeat vertical nystagmus after brain stem cavernoma resection: a rare case of nucleus intercalatus/nucleus of roller injury

Journal of Neurology ◽

10.1007/s00415-020-09891-4 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 267 (10) ◽

pp. 2865-2870

Author(s):

Torstein R. Meling ◽

Aria Nouri ◽

Adrien May ◽

Nils Guinand ◽

Maria Isabel Vargas ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Rare Case ◽

Vascular Malformations ◽

Clinical Manifestations ◽

Neurological Injury ◽

Medial Longitudinal Fasciculus ◽

Blurred Vision ◽

Complete Excision ◽

First Case ◽

Vertical Nystagmus ◽

Upbeat Nystagmus

Abstract Introduction CNS cavernomas are a type of raspberry-shaped vascular malformations that are typically asymptomatic, but can result in haemorrhage, neurological injury, and seizures. Here, we present a rare case of a brainstem cavernoma that was surgically resected whereafter an upbeat nystagmus presented postoperatively. Case report A 42-year old man presented with sudden-onset nausea, vomiting, vertigo, blurred vision, marked imbalance and difficulty swallowing. Neurological evaluation showed bilateral ataxia, generalized hyperreflexia with left-sided predominance, predominantly horizontal gaze evoked nystagmus on right and left gaze, slight left labial asymmetry, uvula deviation to the right, and tongue deviation to the left. MRI demonstrated a 13-mm cavernoma with haemorrhage and oedema in the medulla oblongata. Surgery was performed via a minimal-invasive, midline approach. Complete excision was confirmed on postoperative MRI. The patient recovered well and became almost neurologically intact. However, he complained of mainly vertical oscillopsia. The videonystagmography revealed a new-onset spontaneous upbeat nystagmus in all gaze directions, not suppressed by fixation. An injury of the rarely described intercalatus nucleus/nucleus of Roller is thought to be the cause. Conclusion Upbeat nystagmus can be related to several lesions of the brainstem, including the medial longitudinal fasciculus, the pons, and the dorsal medulla. To our knowledge, this is the first case of an iatrogenic lesion of the nucleus intercalatus/nucleus of Roller resulting in an upbeat vertical nystagmus. For neurologists, it is important to be aware of the function of this nucleus for assessment of clinical manifestations due to lesions within this region.

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