Introduction

In a novel of this nature, little can be said to have happened that is not in direct relation to one or more of the characters. Readers who cannot find a reference they seek are urged to look under the name of a character associated with that reference.

For further information about the index, and about indexing works of fiction in general, see Origins and Objectives of the Index.

 

A
A-type Ford cars, used in desert explorations, 139
Abishag (biblical character), 94-95
abortion, Hana's, 82, 85. See also under Hana
abra, English patient dreams of eating if he reaches El Taj, 249
acacia trees
show where Zerzura is, 140
Katharine's body transformed into, 175
Acacias, City of, Zerzura's other name, 135, 136
accent, Kip's, 201
accidents, English patient explains away injuries from Katharine as, 154
adoration, Hana's of English patient, 45
adultery, 145
Katharine fears impact on Geoffrey, 153, 157
advent calendar, Caravaggio annoyed if not up to date in burgled house, 209
Aeneas, Bagnold as, 241
Afrika Korps, 163
Ain Dua (well at Uweinat), 168, 169, 249
air pillow, 270, 280
aircraft. See planes
airplanes. See planes
Alice (character in A. A. Milne poem), 211, 213
Alice (Hana's mother), 268
Almásy, Count Ladislaus de. See English patient
aluminized power, 183
amatol, 183
anger
of patient Hana mistakes for dead, 83
as animal instinct (Kip's when fuze head snaps), 214-16
animals as deities, 258
Anna, general's mistress who photographs Caravaggio by mistake, 35-39
Anna Karenina (Tolstoy), Madox's, 237, 241, 242
Annals (Tacitus), Hana reads to English patient, 93
anointment of English patient by Bedouin, 6
Arab slave girl, 138
Arezzo
town's Gothic church viewed by soldiers, 70
Kip hoists mediaeval scholar high in church, 71-72
art, mediaeval, of Italy, 69-70
Asian politics, 217
atheism, English patient's, 240
autodidact, Suffolk as, 111
automobiles used in desert explorations, 139
aviatrix (Miss Swift, Suffolk's friend), 185, 186, 190
ayah, Kip's, 225-26
B
bag (suitcase), English patient misinterprets Katharine's offer to carry, 151-52
Bagnold (explorer), 135, 136, 138, 168, 239, 241
as spy, 255
Bailey bridges, 71, 129, 293
balance, Caravaggio seeks, 121
bandaged hands, Caravaggio's, 27, 53-54
bangle, Kip wears, 74
barometer, Kip studies while waiting to interview Suffolk, 187
baths
Hana gives English patient, 3-4, 246-47
Hana watches Kip during, 72-73, 127
“Bathe at Brighton” (first line of song), 108
bathing woman, inspiration for Zerzura's name, 140-41, 153
bats, screeching of (quoting Herodotus), Bedouin's Arabic as, 140
bayonet, Kip uses as can-opener, 177
beauty, Katharine's, 155-56, 248
Bedouin
customs and history, 18-19, 21
identity of tribe that rescues English patient, 8-9, 257
relations with European explorers, 138
“screeching of bats,” (Herodotus), Bedouin's Arabic as, 140
rescue English patient and treat burns, 5, 6, 18
wartime presence of spies among them, 168
beds
Kip's dislike of western-style, 280
Hana's use of hammock for, 47
beholden, Kip will not be to Hana, nor allow her to be to him, 128
Bell, John
director of Geographical Society's Desert Surveys in Egypt, 134
accomplishments, 135
Bermann (explorer), 135, 136, 168, 240
describes Asian gardens to English patient, 170
betrayals
of lovers make wartime betrayals look childlike, 97
of self, 174
Bible
leaf from glued into English patient's Herodotus, 94-95
quoted, 290, 294, 295
binoculars
Kip uses to view paintings in church in Arezzo, 70, 72
Lord Suffolk uses to watch Kip during training, 181
Kip uses rifle sight as, 77-78, 79-80
birds
English wood thrush, 112
English patient as hawk, 116
Hana as bird, 120
Kip's father's pet, 201
Kip Seems to be, 270
bitch, Hana called by soldier when she tries to close his eyes, mistaking him for dead, 83
Blackler, Lt., Suffolk-trained sapper, 190-91, 196, 199
blindfold, Bedouin use on English patient, 20-22
Blitz, 183
blood
appears black after dusk, 62
lovers' exchange of, 157, 170
blood rain, caused in Europe by red sand from desert carried by wind, 17
blue, 173, 260-61
bomb disposal
history of British management, 182-84
character assessment a necessary skill, 192
changed radically with Kip's discovery of Erith bomb's joke, 198
See also bombs; mines; sappers
bombs
components, 182, 183
dropped over Britain, 183-84
See also bomb disposal; mines; sappers
bonfire to clean up villa's garden, 124
Bonfire of the Vanities (Savonarola), 57
books
Hana reads to English patient, 5, 6, 7, 8, 93, 94
door to cell, half of Hana's world, 7
Kip lacks faith in, 111
English patient uses to try to draw Hana out, 253
See also under individual titles or authors
Bosphorus hug (dance), 109-110
invented by Almásy, 244
Bosphorus, name for indentation in woman's throat, 236
Botticelli (painter), 57
boy, dancing, is desirable; arouses himself, 22-23
Bradman, Don, 95
break up, of Katharine and English patient, 156-57, 171-72, 238
bridge (card game), 192
bridges give rivers identity; sappers rebuild, 129
British. See English
Brompton cocktail (morphine and alcohol), 166-67
bruise inflicted on English patient by Katharine, 152, 153
bubble on mouth as indicator of death, 83-84
“Buckingham Palace” (poem by A. A. Milne), 211, 213, 304
Buddy, Hana's use as term of address during war, 52
burden (songwriting term), 109, 257
burns
English patient's
  • described, 3, 4, 28, 48, 207
  • how he received, 5, 175
  • treatment by Bedouin, 6, 8-10
Patrick's, 295-96
C
Cairo, 1936, described, 161
dance halls, 242
calmness
Kip's, 126
Madox's, 242
camels, 136, 137
speed of, 249
Canada, Hana refers to as Upper America, 76. See also under Hana; Caravaggio
Candaules, Katharine reads story of from Herodotus, 232-33
candle, Hana dislikes English patient's “mocking a deathlike posture, wax falling unnoticed onto his wrist” when fallen asleep holding lit candle, 62
canoes, Clara's comfort with, 130, 292, 296
Caravaggio (painter), 116
Caravaggio, David
character and personality
  • eyes are “faultless,” hide him well, 39
  • distrusts men, 47
  • a man no longer young, 58-59
  • age (about 45), 61
  • has always “avoided permanent intimacy,” 116
  • views on love and sex, 120
  • “too curious and generous to be a successful thief,” 169
  • a man who finds words difficult, 252-53
prewar life
  • thinks of wife, Giannetta, 39
  • as Hana knew him, in Toronto, 40, 47-48
  • stories of robberies, 82, 208-9
wartime career
  • thief-turned-spy, 34-35, 117, 253
  • clowns as naked drunk to steal film, 36-39
  • torture, 30, 54-55, 58-60
  • has lost his nerve to steal, 33-34
  • hospitalized, evasive and silent until hears Hana's name, 27-28
at Villa San Girolamo
  • surveys Villa and surroundings, 31
  • quietness of arrival is comforting to Hana, 30-31
  • prefers to eat alone, 39-40
  • relaxes during time at Villa, 265
  • traverses one-strand rope bridge, 297
morphine addiction
  • Hana can detect he has had recently, 81
  • injects himself with Hana's morphine, 85
  • steals morphine from Hana's supply, 115
  • Hana hides from him, but not in English patient's room, 125
  • accomplished morphine thief, 166
  • vomits from overdose, 166
  • administers to Kip without asking, 166
  • shares addiction with English patient, 243, 247
  • refuses Hana's offer to wean from, 266
  • See also morphine
and Hana
  • she removes bandages from his hands, 53-54
  • loves her efforts at civilisation, 58
  • finds her asleep in library, 81
  • he probes her relationship with the English patient, 82
  • as Hana's “uncle,” 85
  • desire to unite her with Kip, 122-23, 268
  • tries to tell her who English patient is, 163
  • love for Hana, 222-23
  • reports to her on conversation with English patient, 265
and Kip
  • talks to him about Hana, 87
  • desire to unite with Hana, 122-23, 268
  • saved by Kip's catch when knocks fuze box, 208
  • thinks of him years later, 208
  • hugs goodbye, 289
  • See also under Hana
and English patient
  • calls him “pure carbon” 109
  • conversation about Caravaggio's name and painter of the same, 116-17
  • See also under English Patient
carbon, Caravaggio calls English patient “pure carbon” 109
cars used in desert explorations, 139
cartography of lives, English patient's belief in, 261. See also maps
casualty rate for early sappers, 183-84
caterpillar, wakens Hana on Kip's lap, 105
cattle in desert cave paintings, 169
Cave of Swimmers
English patient discovers, 140
English patient leaves Katharine, 169, 248-49
cave, hundreds of Naples citizens trapped in by German mines, 275
cave paintings. See Cave of Swimmers
celibacy, Kip and Hana celebrate, 225
chalk horses, site of Kip's first solo defusion, 181, 184, 186, 201-3
chalk, yellow, on bombs; on Indian enlistees, 199-200
character
English patient and Katharine attempt to pull off each others' bodies, 173
Miss Morden and Suffolk judge Kip to possess, 189
Suffolk's views on, 192
Kip understands Suffolk's after his death, 195
See also under entries for individuals
Charterhouse of Parma (Stendahl), 93, 222, 273
Cheese, mythical agent invented by Caravaggio, 117
chess, 192
childhood, shared by lovers, 153. See also under entries for individuals
cholera, 96
Christopher Robin (character in poem), 211, 213
churches used to billet soldiers, 69-70
Cicero, code name for spy, 163
citizens of morphia (English patient and Caravaggio), 243
Clara (Hana's stepmother)
Hana carries her letters but never replies, 91-92
last of Hana's family, 130
Hana finally writes, 292-93, 295-96
class as a barrier between Katharine and English patient, 155
Clifton, Geoffrey
background, joining of expedition, 142
affection but not love for desert, 143
propensity toward ceremony and celebration, 143, 232
adoration of Katharine, 229-31
protected from knowledge of Katharine's infidelity, 237
plan to commit suicide while murdering Katharine and English patient, 171
death, 256
spy/aerial photographer, 252
See also Clifton, Katharine
Clifton, Katharine
background and character
  • beauty, 155-56
  • love of family line, tradition, ceremony, 170
  • love of water, 170
pre-Africa life
  • as youth personified, 142
  • at Oxford; romance with Geoffrey, 258-59
  • marriage and arrival in Egypt, 229
  • social life in Cairo, 234-35
in Africa
  • arrival, 142-43
  • recites poetry, 97, 143-44
  • feelings for desert, 170, 229
  • begins to discover herself, 230
  • reads Candaules-Gyges story, 232-34
and English patient
  • announces her desire for him, 236
  • anger at, 244
  • breaks off relationship, 156-57, 171-72, 238
  • tries to suffocate her heart, 152
  • reasons for leaving, 171, 173-74
  • role of violence, 149-50, 152, 153-54, 244
  • reunites after plane crash, 171, 173, 174
  • See also under English patient
plane crash
  • condition after crash, 256-58, 259-61
  • left in Cave of Swimmers, 169, 248-49
  • death sanctified, 260-61; death pose, 170
cockpit
needed for desert flight, 168
traps English patient as plane catches fire, 175
cold
Hana lies in bed beside English patient to ward off, 5
incapacitates Kip during Esau defusal, 210-16
in Cave of Swimmers, 248
collectors, thieves and explorers as, 169
colour
Hana learns variations of Kip's skin, 127
English patient steals from cave paintings to paint Katharine, 248
See also race
comfort, Kip wants to surround Hana with, 114
commonplace book. See Herodotus
condensed milk
Kip and English patient share, 176
English patient's sucking technique not English, 177
Conrad (Joseph), 133
contempt, English patient interprets Katharine's look as, 144
cooking, Kip's not to Caravaggio's taste, 266
cordite, smell of, 110, 112
Cortona, Kip stops to visit statue in church of, 291
Crane, Stephen, Katherine reads poem by about the desert, 97
crash. See plane crash
Creighton (character in Kim), Hana sees Kip as, 111
crucifix used as scarecrow, 14, 207
Crusaders, 96
Crusoe (Robinson), 12
crystal set
Kip's use to block out world, 74, 76, 194, 272
instrument of news of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 282, 283-84, 285, 286
See also radio
culture, English. See English culture
curse, English patient as, 257

D
dance
Bedouin perform traditional, 21-22
Bedouin boy arouses himself during, 22-23
Caravaggio teaches Hana to, 107-10
English patient and Katharine, 144, 244-45
dance halls, English patient's venue, never Madox's, 242
dates
Bedouin feed English patient, chewing first, 6
fed to camels, 136
David (biblical character), 94-95
Kip as English patient's, 116
David with the Head of Goliath, 116
death
smell of, 29
Hana's intimate knowledge of, 83-84
English patient predicts alcohol may precipitate, 109
in holy places, 260-61
English patient's death-in-life, 247
delicacy
English patient appreciates, 231
English patient once possessed, 245
Delilah, code name for spy, 163, 165
demon
Katharine possessed by
Almásy questions whether he is, 260
descant chord, Kip needs in order to put down one of two live wires, 101
desert
as a battlefield of war, 19, 134, 169
a sea, where everything drifts, 22
Western lack of interest in, 133
explorations during 1920s and 1930s, 133-34
land of rumour and mystery, 135
nature of (can't be owned), 138-39
and poetry, 240-41
apart from nations, the world, 242
travel in, 249
desert European, term for explorers, 135, 245
desert explorers
men unused to “etiquette of taxis,” 133
list of renown figures, 135
divided into “teams,” 168
nationlessness, 135, 136, 138-39, 176-77
as members of a cult, 231
desert fox, whistle of, 112
desertion, Hana accused of, 41-42
Desire, Drawn by
phrase endears English to Kip, 190
Kip uses as memorial to Suffolk, 198
desire, English patient's for Katharine, 239. See also under English patient
Devon, Suffolk's native land, 184-85
diagrams of order (mines), 110
disassembly of English patient by Katharine, 155, 158
discussed, English patient learns how much his life was, 255
dislocation of inhabitants of Villa San Girolamo as consequence of war, 122
doctor, Kip becomes, 299
dog (Caravaggio's)
enters English patient's room, 56
sticks with Caravaggio, 73
English patient upset by, 84
English patient listens to, 88
Caravaggio sleeps with in his arms, 113
English patient suggests names for, 163
dog tags. See tags
dogs
Hana's father's love of smell of their paws, 8
desert sand like roof of a dog's mouth, 136
Kip's son's love of, 301
dormant bombs, 183
dove-cot, place of Patrick's death, 91, 293, 295-96
“Drawn by desire”
phrase on map endears English to Kip, 190
Kip uses as memorial to Suffolk, 198
dreams
English patient cannot determine if events are real or dreamed, 22
Katharine's of English patient, 149, 150
English patient dreams he has Seen Kip, 297
drunkenness
Hana's, 85, 112, 113
English patient's, 115, 244-46
English patient and Katharine's, 144
du Maurier, Daphne. See Rebecca
dust storms, types of (whirl, column, and sheet), 17. See also sandstorms

E
“the earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage,” 290
eau de cologne, 202-3
eccentrics, 265
echo: “For echo is the soul of the voice exciting itself in hollow places” (Christopher Smart), 21, 250, 303
Eighth Army, 70, 78
El Taj, desert town, 136, 137-38
goal of English patient's journey to rescue Katharine, 249-50
electrical system of Naples mined, 276, 278-81
Ellington, Duke, 169
English culture and customs
Suffolk tutors Kip in, 184
parallels with Indian, 185
protect Clifton, 237
Kip's knowledge of, 267, 283
English patient (Ladislaus de Almásy)
mystery of identity
  • identity and nationality unknown, 28-29, 95, 96
  • schooling in England, 165
  • ability to speak German, 95
  • Caravaggio's speculation about, 117, 121, 163-166, 169
  • uses third person, refuses to admit identity, 244, 247
  • admits, 252
character and background
  • childhood, 20-21
  • has the “abstract madness of autodidacts,” 111
  • hatred of nations, 138-39
  • kept codes of behaviour separate, 144
  • hatred of ownership, 152, 238
  • nationlessness, 176-77
  • drunkenly disgraces himself, 239, 244-46
  • views about God, 241, 250
  • considers whole life not cursed, but a gift, 257
as explorer
  • feelings for desert, 177, 240-41
  • discoverer of lost oasis of Zerzura, 134, 135-40
  • mapmaker, 145
  • author of Récentes Explorations dans le Désert Libyque, 235, 241
  • first expedition to Williamson's three wadis, 139-41
  • skilled as pilot, 165, 168
  • life in Cairo between expeditions, 244-45
  • ritual transition between city and desert, 150-51, 245-46
  • story of final expedition, 167-75
  • taken into custody by English in El Taj, 250
  • explains Cliftons' crash at Gilf Kebir, 256-57
as spy, 163-65, 253-55
crash and rescue
  • rescued for sake of his knowledge, 18, 21, 22
  • path from Siwa, where Bedouin delivered him to Allies, to villa, 95-96
  • journey to canyon of guns, 19
  • describes crash that led to burns, 5, 175
at Villa San Girolamo
  • reposes like a king, 14
  • uncertain of occupants, activities of household, 84
  • wishes to See himself in mirror, 99-100
  • happy, briefly, at condensed milk, 176-77
  • “citizen of morphia,” 243
  • uses hearing aid, 15, 88, 89, 113, 115, 285
and Hana
  • initial shyness gives way, 42
  • drunk, kisses Hana on cheek after party, 115
  • tries to draw her out with books, 253
  • begins telling Hana his story, 17
  • notices Hana's shell-shock, 95-96
  • as Hana's despairing saint, 45
  • See also under Hana
and Katharine Clifton, 150-58, 229-240
  • meets, 142, 229
  • falls in love, 143-45
  • first intimacy, 152
  • obsessed by, 153, 154-56, 235
  • sexual relationship, 152, 170-71, 173, 236, 239
  • violence in relationship, 149-50, 152, 153-54, 244
  • break up, 156-57, 171-72, 238
  • reunification after plane crash, 171, 173, 174
  • leaves her in Cave of Swimmers, 169, 248-49
  • sanctifies her impending death, 260-61
  • walks to El Taj to find help, 249-50
  • promises to return, 170
  • imagines himself her Wepwawet, or jackal-deity, 258
English love of Africa, 33
English military take English patient into custody when reaches El Taj, 250-51
English spy, nickname for Almásy, 165
English wood thrush's whistle, 112
enlistment, Kip's, 182, 199-201
Eppler, German spy whom Almásy guided across desert, 164-65, 254
Erith, where Kip defuses new type of bomb that killed Suffolk, Morden, and Harts, 190-95
Esau (type of bomb), 183
Kip defuses, 210-216
eternally dying, English patient, 115
eucalyptus for memory, kept by Ezra Pound, 95
euthanasia, Hana administers to dying soldiers, 83-84
Exmoor, chosen for bomb-disposal training by Suffolk, 185
exploration of desert. See desert exploration
explosion heard during party in English patient's room, 109, 110, 112, 113, 121-22
explosions, sounds of always cause Hana and Caravaggio to fear for Kip, 74
eye of a needle, 288
eyes
Kip likely does not know colour of Hana's, 219
don't reflect character well, 219
English patient touches Katharine's with tongue, 259-60

F
face
English patient examines his in miror, 152
Katharine's most revealing, 144
family, Hana's lack of, 85, 130
Suffolk's sapper unit as, 189
father complex, Hana admits to in jest, 84
Felhomaly, 170
Fenelon-Barnes, explorer
keeper of Arab slave girl, 138
wishes to leave his name on desert, 139
fir tree, English patient reminds Kip of, 218-19
fire
heart as organ of, 97
English patient himself is alight, 5, 175
Asia consumed by in Kip's eyes, 284, 286
flares
used by Kip to view frescos in church in Arezzo, 71-72
soldiers use to See Sistine Chapel, abusing permission to visit, 77-78
light sappers' faces as under attack while in river, 129
“Flight of Emperor Maxentius,” (fresco), 72
Florence and surrounding area still display “last vices of war,” 29
food
Hana tells Caravaggio they will need more, 33
Kip's habits, 74, 86-87, 126-27, 266
Caravaggio dislikes Kip's cooking, 266
Ford cars (A-type), used in desert explorations, 139
fork
weapon Katharine uses to stab English patient, 153
Kip catches daughter's as it falls, 302
fortresses, 69, 95
fountain
only running water at villa, 32, 89
Hana sits in, waits for deluge, 89-90, 92
fury. See anger
G
Gabbice Mare
Marine Festival of the Virgin Mary, 78-80
Kip returns, 292
gaine (initiating charge of bomb), 182, 183
use of second as “joke,” 194-95, 197-98
gardening, English patient advises Hana on, 124
gardens
English patient's room as, 3, 4
at Kew, English patient's favorite, 9
botanical garden in Cairo (Groppi), 157
Katharine describes those of her childhood, 161-62
English patient's talk of, 163
Bermann's description of Asian, 170
English patient's stories were of Katharine's, 236
Kip's wife has nurtured, 299
gatepost, Katharine hits head on in Groppi Park, 158, 171
gelato, Caravaggio remembers Hana's refusal to have tonsils out, 29-30
gem-cutters possess same “hardness and clarity” as sappers, 110
General's mistress (Anna), 35-39
generals, Hana's disdain for, 84
Geographical Society, London, supporter of desert explorers, 133-34
geomorphology, 246
Georgian Bay (Ontario), 91-92, 128, 296
German Institute (of Florence), 59
Germans
English patient enters service of, 253
retreat from Italy “brilliant and terrible,” 274-76
mine citizens of Naples into cave, 275
Gershwin, George and Ira (songwriters), 109
Gestapo, 35
ghost
Caravaggio describes English patient as, 45
English patient said to be Hana's, 28
English patient imagines his with Katharine before they meet, 258-59
Kip appears as to English patient, 297
Gilf Kebir
English patient's final journey, 167, 172-73, 256/
English patient's mapping work, 135, 139-41
Giotto (painter), English patient's extensive knowledge of, 95
giraffes in desert cave paintings, 169
glass bottles of ointment, carried on yoke, 9-10
gramophone, 84, 107, 112
Granth Sahib (Indian holy book), 271
Grappelly, Stéphane (songwriter), 243, 244
groan, of orgasm, Kip's 126-27
Groppi Park, 153, 157-58, 173
gunpowder, Indian knowledge of, 209
guns
Bedouin take English patient to identify buried, 20-21
Kip's “casual handling” of, 88
made from metal collected from Hindu households, 118
wet and bright, Kip's and Hardy's, 63-64
Kip disarms himself, 287
Gyges (Herodotus's story of), 232-3
Gypsy Moth. See Moth

H
hair
Hana cuts hers, 49-50, 51
Kip's (and turban), 185, 188, 217, 218, 287
washing at Villa San Girolamo, 217
English patient's thinning, 236
Kip imagines Hana's has grown longer, 300
Hana
background and character
  • passion for gardening, 43
  • plays piano, 63-65
  • as child, 29-30, 32
  • age (20), 13
  • writes Clara of plans to return home, 296
  • in later life, 301-2
as nurse, 48-51
  • accused of desertion, 41-42
  • called bitch, 83
  • horrific experiences, 178
psyche
  • comes out of what had happened during the war, 14
  • shell-shocked, 28, 95-96, 253
  • comes alive in moments before sleep, 35-36
  • sadness, 44-45, 270, 271, 272
  • rejection and reacceptance of mirrors, 49-52
  • prefers rest to sleep, 48-49
  • changes war has wrought in her, 81
  • pregnancy and abortion; conversations with her child, 82, 83
  • relationship with father of her child, 85
  • “steps away” from self as female, 85
  • non-talkativeness, 85
  • tastes and smells her own skin (reawakening), 90
  • wish to die, 103
  • declares personal forever at war with public, 292
decision to stay at Villa San Girolamo, 13, 28, 29, 41-42, 51-52
at Villa San Girolamo
  • “mad and unconcerned with safety,” 13-14
  • lives at Villa San Girolamo like nomad and vagrant, 13-14
  • sleeps in hammock taken from dead soldier, 47
  • keeps journal in odd blank spots in books, 61, 118, 209
  • birthday celebration, 265-69
  • able to relax, 267
and English patient
  • first meet, 41, 48, 85
  • initial shyness gives way, 42
  • declares love for, 45
  • desire to save, Seeking to hide in him, 52
  • indifference to Caravaggio's revelation of patient's identity, 165-66
  • takes Kip's ladybird to, 207
  • See also under English patient
and Caravaggio
  • trembles to think he made journey just to find her, 31
  • tells him not to ask her to leave Villa San Girolamo, 33
  • reminds Caravaggio of wife, 39
  • he finds her sobbing; she rebuffs his advances before he makes any, 44
  • love for him, 61
  • See also under Caravaggio
and Kip
  • awareness of his body, 72-73, 74, 127
  • watches him at night with field glasses, 76
  • helps him defuse mine near villa, 100-103
  • spills her heart then falls asleep in his lap, 103-6
  • enraged and insulted that he lies about explosion, 114-15
  • makes him guess her feelings for him, 115
  • relationship develops, 125-130
  • sexual relationship, 125-30, 225-26
  • describes in journal, 209
  • play hide-and-seek, 220-25
  • evasive with him about her previous life, 268
  • sings “La Marseillaise,” 269
  • assesses the differentness of his nature, 272-73
  • lifelong awareness of Kip's final departure, 282
  • reaches out, watching him prepare to leave Villa San Girolamo, 288
and father (Patrick)
  • his death breaks her “the way a man dismantling a mine broke,” 41
  • discusses his death with Caravaggio, 82
  • still can't talk about, 266
  • wishes she could have nursed him on his deathbed, 296
  • See also under Patrick
happiness
English patient's at condensed milk, 176-77
Hana's, with Kip, 129
Hardy, Sam, 63-64, 191-92
assists Kip in defusal of Esau bomb, 211-16
“happiest in cocoon of regimental discipline,” 213
keeps Kip human, 216
billeted near town, 73
victim of explosion during party, 122
harpoons, found in desert, 19
Hart, Lorenz (songwriter), 107-8
Harts, Fred, 177-78, 184, 186
hatred
akin to sadness, 45
English patient's of nations, 138-39
English patient's of Katharine, 172, 173
Katharine's for English patient, 150, 151
hawk
English patient's stories slip like, 4
English patient appears like to Caravaggio, 116
healer, Bedouin, with yoke of glass bottles of ointments, 9-10
hearing aid
English patient's use of, 15, 88, 89
sleeps with it on high, to be “secure in his own awareness,” 113
Kip snips wire, 115
English patient rips out, wishes to hear no more at news of Hiroshima, 285
heart
as organ of fire, 97
of plant that fills with fluid if cut out, 155
Hermann (type of bomb), 183
Herodotus as man of the desert (English patient's vision), 118-19
Herodotus, The Histories, 1890 edition
as English patient's commonplace book, 16-17, 58, 94-95, 133, 172, 246
Hana reads journal entry after English patient falls asleep, 97-98
English patient denies Katharine's request to borrow, 231
as English patient's guide to society, 150, 246
English patient leaves with Katharine in cave, 174, 249
as holy book to Kip, 294
Katharine reads Candaules-Gyges story from aloud, 118-19, 232-24, 240
heroism
Caravaggio's, 27
early sappers', 184
Kip's brother's, 200
English patient's, 254
hide-and-seek, Hana and Kip play, 220-25
hills, English patient shouts Katharine's name to the rocks, 250
hipbones of Christ, English patient's as, 3
Hiroshima, 282-87
Histories. See Herodotus
history, “the past,” explorers' relationship with, 142
Hodge, Sir Oliver (novelist), 187
hollow at base of woman's neck, 162
Madox gives proper name (vascular sizood), 241
Holy Trinity (Lord Suffolk, Miss Morden, and Mr. Fred Harts), 178, 189
Home Farm (Suffolk's retreat), 185, 189-90
Homer, Poliziano as translator, 57
“Honeysuckle Rose” (song), 243, 244
honour, Katharine values, 238
hopscotch, Hana plays, 15
Horlicks, 193
hospitals
Caravaggio's in Rome, 27-29
Santa Chiara (Pisa), 6, 40-41
sea hospital, 95
Women's College Hospital, Hana's alma mater, 49
Hôtel Claridge, 243
“How Long Has This Been Going On” (song), 107, 109
Humber (Suffolk's vehicle), 184, 185, 189

I
iconoclast, Katharine tells English patient he is not, 173
identity. See under English patient
India
family traditions (birth order preordains occupation), 182
culture's parallels to English, 185
where “mathematics and mechanics [are] natural traits,” 188
birthday customs, 267
Kip guides Hana through verbally, 270-71
notions of justice, 285
inhuman, Katharine accuses English patient of being, 238
injuries, Katharine's from crash, 173, 248, 257, 259-6
insanity. See madness
insomnia. See sleep
internationality, 176-77
interrogation, of English patient by English military, 95, 96
Isaiah (painting in Sistine Chapel), face wise and unforgiving, stills Kip, 77-78
Isaiah, book of (Bible), quoted, 294
Italian campaign
Kip is assigned to, 195
use of sappers for other duties, 195-96
sappers' role in 70-71, 274-76

J
jackal, Almásy as, 258-59
jail, Kip's brother sentenced to, 200
jazz
Caravaggio discourses upon, 107
great years, 243
Jekyll, Gertrude, 95
joke (sapper terminology), 101
in Erith bomb, 191, 193, 194-95, 197
joke
distributed to sappers, 211-12
English patient's, 155-56, 177
journal, Hana keeps in odd blank spots in books, 61, 118, 209
judgment, of youth upon old age, 116
justice, Indian versus Western, 285
K
kara, 126, 221
Katharine. See Clifton, Katharine
Kesselring (Albert), Field Marshal, consideration of hot oil as weapon, 69
Kew Garden, English patient's favorite, 9
Kim (Rudyard Kipling)
Hana reads to English patient, 93
he admonishes her to read slowly, 94
Hana sees Kip and English patient as reversal of; and herself as Kim, 111
Hana writes in, 118
Kipling, Rudyard. See Kim
Kipling cake, 191, 202
Kip (Kirpal Singh)
background
  • birthplace, 76, 280
  • family, upbringing, childhood, 203, 201, 225-26
  • brother, 200, 217, 270
  • washes hands constantly, habit of Punjab, 76
  • reasons for joining British army, 182
character and personality
  • cheerful vitality, 73, 74, 75, 209
  • habit of leaping down stairs, 220
  • eating habits, 74, 86-87, 126-27, 266
  • awareness of “everything except what was temporary and human,” 218
  • relationship to the natural world, 86-87
  • “one of the charmed” who can “replace loss,” 271-72
  • ability to “hide in silent places,” 200-201
  • age (26), 74, 120
  • turban and hair, 185, 188, 217, 218, 287
  • immaculate in uniform, 74
  • nighttime temperament different from day, 270
  • origins of nickname, 87
  • plays with but refuses to feed Caravaggio's dog, 73
  • calmness, 126
race
  • as representative of all Asia, 217
  • set apart by his race, 181, 187-88, 196-97
  • on politics of Asia, 217
  • separateness by virtue of race, 283
  • Hana describes Kip as like the “brown eye of a Susan,” 103
  • importance in decision to drop nuclear bomb, 286
  • Kip muses on his “brownness,” 105
  • Kip's makes soldiers hesitate to call him “sir,” 213
  • as origin of self-sufficiency, 196-97
career as sapper, 177-78
  • selection and training, 177, 181, 183-90, 187-98
  • unravels thoughts of mine's creator as defuses bomb, 99
  • being used by British, 121
  • defuses Erith bomb, 190-95
  • defuses Esau bomb, 210-16
  • lightening cannot frighten, 278
  • ability to find the “capacity for accident in a room,” 111
  • ability to clear mind while working, 191, 194, 272-73
  • Italian campaign a place to hide, 195-96
  • sleeps with figures in church, awaiting trial of Naples' mined electrical system, 279-81
at Villa San Girolamo
  • arrival, 63-65
  • self-sufficiency a comfort to Hana, 72-73
  • rushes to stop Hana at piano, fearing a mine, 75-76
  • always brushes teeth outside, 86
  • location of tent, 124
departure and afterward
  • reaction to news of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 282-87
  • departure from Villa San Girolamo, 288-89
  • family photograph left behind, 291
  • crashes and is thrown into river, 295-96
  • catches daughter's fork as it falls, 302
and Suffolk
  • befriended by, 184-90
  • judges “best of the English,” 185, “adores” him
  • first real gentleman he's met, 186
and Hana
  • annoyed by her imposition of responsibility on him, 104
  • if could touch her would be sane, 112, 113
  • terrified and angry that she “tried to damage her life so casually,” 113
  • fears becoming “pregnant” with her, 114
  • love for, 128, 197
  • as replacement for Suffolk, Morden, and Harts, 197
  • shows her a ladybird, 207
  • nighttime conversations unpredictable and varied, 270
  • refuses to let Hana in, 288-89, 293-94
  • thinks of her years later, 299-301
and English patient
  • Hana tries to keep apart, 88-89
  • shares condensed milk grudgingly, 176
  • as English patient's David (of biblical story), 116
  • friendship/conversations, 218-19
  • feels he is carrying with him on motorbike, 294
and Caravaggio
  • follows Caravaggio at night, 73
  • catches fuze, saves Caravaggio's life, 208
  • cooking not to Caravaggio's taste, 266
kipper (source of Kip's nickname), 87
knight of Ravenna (statue), 135
Kufra Oasis, 174
kurta, 287
L
“La Marseillaise”
Caravaggio remembers Hana's performance in Toronto, 53
/
Hana sings again for Kip, 268-69
ladybird (insect), 207
Lahore, 209, 280. See also Punjab
lake, signs of ancient, in desert, 169
Last of the Mohicans, 11-12, 61
laughter, Kip's, when danger has passed, 208
lavendar, 112
Le Stanze per la Giostra, painting of Simonetta Vespucci (Polizano), 57
lectures presented by explorers to Geographical Society, 133-34
Leonardo da Vinci, 57
“let the dead bury the dead,” 286
letters between Hana and Clara, 91, 292-93, 295-96
library at Villa
description of, 11
Caravaggio discovers Kip defusing mine, 74
at Villa San Girolamo, predominantly Italian books, with random English ones, 221
Libya, nature of the word, 257
Libyan Desert.See desert
lice, 217
lies, 117, 152
light bulbs at back of figures in church in Naples, 279, 281
light
Hana opens Villa San Girolamo to light and spring, 13-14
candlelight doesn't carry far, 112
lack of in Villa San Girolamo, 220
of lightning brighter than sunlight, connected to new word “nuclear,” 277
lightening no threat to Kip compared with daily work, 278
lights (arc), 192, 196
lion, white, is Hana's sentinel in hospital in Pisa, 40-41
liquid oxygen used in bomb defusal, 211-15
Little Birds, Oasis of, name for Zerzura, 136
livlihood, Hana and English patient's, 7
looting, Hana accuses Caravaggio of jocularly, 84-85
Lorna Doone (novel), 185
“Love is so small is can tear itself through the eye of a needle,” 288
love
English patient describes its effects, 97
Caravaggio posits object of must be smarter than lover, 120
depth of Hana and Kip's for each other, 127
Hana looks to Caravaggio to explain her “sinking into,” 129, 130
Kip's for his ayah, 226
English patient tells how ones falls in love, 119, 229
English patient falls in love with Katharine, 234
hidden, secret, 238, 239 See also under individuals
lovers
forgiveness granted to, 170
English patient and Katharine become, 236
Hana and Kip as, 125-130, 225-26
low-altitude bombs (dormant), 183
luck, role in Kip's safe defusion of Erith bomb, 193, 198
lyres played by Bedouin, 21-22
M
machine guns. See guns
madness
of sappers, 129
of English patient, 156
of Geoffrey and Katharine Clifton, 173
Madox, 97, 135
temperament, character, 162, 241, 242-42
teaches English patient how to fly, 168
relationship with English patient, 162, 237, 240
departure for England , 241, 244-46
death, 138-39, 240-42
makeup, English patient uses pigment from cave paintings as, 248
“Manhattan” (song, by Lorenz Hart), 108
maple sugar, spile Hana gave to Kip, 291
maps
how places are named on, 140-41
ends of earth are never on, 141
role in English patient's life, 145
map of Countisbury (home of Suffolk's friend) enchants Kip, 190
Madox leaves to English patient, 241
cartography of lives, English patient's belief in, 261
Marmite, 95
married man, may not look into wife's face for days, 4
“Marseillaise.” See “La Marseillaise”
Marston Magna (Madox's home), 240, 241
Maxentius (Emperor), fresco of flight, 72
“May God make safety your companion,” 240, 250
mechanical ingenuity of Indian culture, 188
mediaeval records destroyed, 276
mediaeval scholars used in war, 69
mediaeval warfare, 96
Medici, Lorenzo, English patient imagines stories about, 56-57
Melville, Herman (Pierre), 188
metronomes, common place for mines, 75
Michelangelo, 57
middle age, character not fully formed by, 121
military objects and insignia, Kip strips himself of, 287
milk, Hana pours over Kip's hand and arm, 123. See also condensed milk
Miller, Glenn, Kip reports death of, 76
Milne, A. A., “Buckingham Palace,” (When We Were Very Young), 211, 213, 304
Milton, John, Paradise Lost, 144
minarets, English patient and Katharine hear in early morning, 154
mines and bombs
in Villa, 11
Kip defuses in library, 74
Kip sees everywhere, 75
regional differences in manufacture, 89
Kip defuses in field near villa; Hana aids him, 98-102
Kip defuses Erith bomb, 190-95
Kip defuses Esau bomb, 210-16
of unimaginable scale in Italy and North Africa, 274
made of all sorts of materials, 274
miniature world, Hana builds for herself from hammock, shoes, and dress, 47
mirage, desert, English patient's knowledge of, oneness with, 246
mirrors
Hana removes to empty room in Villa, 23
Hana's rejection and reacceptance of, 49-52
Hana carries to English patient, 99-100
English patient discourses upon, 141-42
English patient examines himself in, 152-53
Kip does not use, 219
miss, English patient doesn't miss Katharine yet, 158, 171
Model-A Fords, used in desert explorations, 139
Monterchi, soldiers made ill by water during war, 69-70
moon
forgetting to look at in desert, 4
Madox asks if English patient likes, in desert, 240-41
moondial, “a place where the weak can enter the strong,” 81-82
moonlight, 130
only light to make trompe l'oeil in English patient's room Seem real, 31
hot, dries trees, 157
Morden (Miss), 177-78, 181-82,184, 186, 187-98
helps Kip at chalk horse by imposing a tea break, 201-3
drinking habits, 191
Moro (river), 129
morphine
part of a balanced diet, with condensed milk, 177
promise of false limbs, 116
tablets, 174
Caravaggio administers extra to English patient, 163, 166, 247-48
and English patient
  • describes effect, 161
  • makes Caravaggio appear as Madox 247
and Caravaggio
  • See under Caravaggio
mortality, English patient shares with Caravaggio, but not with Hana and Kip, 253
Moth (Clifton's plane), 150, 172-73, 256-57
named Rupert Bear, 143
relative quiet of, 241
motorbike (Triumph), 71
Kip uncovers, 288
rides south, 290, 291, 293
motorcycle. See motorbike
mouths, as revealers of character (not eyes), 219
muck, nickname for liquid oxygen, 214
mud problematic for sappers, 70, 104, 129, 211
murder, Caravaggio asks if English patient committed against Geoffrey Clifton, 252
murder-suicide, Geoffrey Clifton's plan for, 171
Museo Archeologico Nazionale, 278
music
Kip listens to on radio to focus his mind while working, 98-99, 101, 102
Kip's use as white noise, 194
Western, Kip sings, 127 See also Songs
“My Romance” (song), 107-8
“My Sweet” (song), 243
mysteries (books), Kip finds plots too transparent, 111
Mysteries of the Rosary, 277
N
NAAFI, 182, 211
Nagasaki, 284
naked, English patient finds Katharine's body, 169, 170
naked woman (Katharine) in Cairo welcomes rain, 141
names
English patient and Caravaggio discuss theirs, 116
rivers without bridges Seemed to lack, 129
desert makes English patient wish to erase, 139
lovers' given by mapmakers to new places, 140-41
English patient's failure to give Katharine's correctly prevents her rescue, 250-51
English patient and Katharine's different views of, 170
Naples, 274-76
church where Kip stays with human figures awaiting explosion, 278-81
nationlessness
of explorers, 135, 136, 138-39, 176-77
Kip's, 176-77
nations
English patient's hatred of, 138-39
Madox died because of, 242
See also nationlessness
neck, hollow of, 162. See also Bosphorus
needle, eye of, 288
Nomads. See Bedouin
novels begin “with hesitation or chaos,” not the order of histories or other books, 93
nuclear bomb dropped, 282-87
nuclear, Kip hears new word on radio, 277
O
Oasis of Little Birds, name for Zerzura, 136
oasis, English patient can smell before seeing, 6
obsession, English patient's with Katharine, 153, 154-55, 235
odour of sickness, in English patient's hands, 8
Odysseus, 240, 241, 242
oiled cloths, Bedouin wrap English patient in, 6
onions, Kip eats, 86, 87
Operation Salaam, 254
orgasm, Kip's, 126-27
ownership, English patient's hatred of, 152, 238
Oxford, mediaeval scholars recruited during war, 69
oxygen (liquid), used for bomb defusal, 211-15
P
pack, English patient misinterprets Katharine's offer to carry, 151-52
painting, Kip feels within one with Hana sleeping on his lap, 104-5, 114
parachute
as Katharine's shroud, 170
English patient uses to escape burning plane, 175
English patient wraps Katharine in, 248
Paradise Lost (Milton), 144
parrots, Cairo's street of, 145
Patrick (Hana's father)
character and personality, 82-83, 90-91, 296
death, 90-91, 92, 293, 295-96
funeral wishes 82-83
party in English patient's room, 107-10
paws
smell of dogs', 8
Caravaggio's hands as, 109
peacock bone, as healer of skin, 10, 34
Pelmanism (card game), English patient played as child, 20-21
penis
English patient's, sleeping like seahorse, 3
Caravaggio clowns uses as key, 38
“Pennsylvania six-five-oh-oh-oh” (snippet of song), 127
penthrite wax, 183
Peter Pan, 197
pets, Caravaggio befriends during burglaries, 209. See also dogs; birds
pewter thimble of saffron, Katharine wears as reminder of English patient, 239
photographs
checked by Gestapo, 35
incomprehensible to Bedouin, 143
of Kip's family, 291
physical attraction, Hana's to Kip, makes her feel awkward in Villa, 125
piano, Hana plays, 62-65, 75-76
pickpockets, great ones born with 2nd and 3rd fingers same length, 55
Pico della Mirandola, 57
Pico, Hana's nickname as kid, 57
picric acid, 183
Piero della Francesca (painter), 69, 70-72
Pierre, or the Ambiguities (Melville), 188
pink of English patient's mouth in black body, 247
Pisa, Santa Chiara Hospital, 6, 40-41
pistol, used by Suffolk for bomb defusion, 186-187
placenta, skin water bag sloshes like, 249
plane crash
Geoffrey and Katharine Clifton's, 171, 172-73, 256-57
English patient's, 5, 167-68, 174-75
planes
Bedouin's knowledge and use of, 5
role in desert expeditions, 142, 229
Madox's buried, 168, 174
See also Moth
plant that will produce fluid when heart is cut out, 155
Plato, 57, 58
Pliny, 272
plums
Hana feeds English patient, 4, 45-46
Kip Sees danger in their poisonous pits, 111
gardens, in Cairo, meeting place for English patient and Katharine, 153
poetry of desert, 240-41
Polizano, English patient decides once lived at Villa San Girolamo, 56-57
Pompeii, 278
Porlock (village in Devon), 185
postcard from Katharine to English patient, 154
Pound, Ezra, 95
power, Kip wields uneasily, 196-97
pregnancy
Hana's, 82, 85
Kip's [figurative]: fears he will become pregnant with Hana, 114
preoccupation, signs of, 4
prison, wicker, English use to contain English patient, 251. See also jail
privacy, English patient/Almásy contemplates how compromised his was, 255
propinquity, English patient attributes relationship with Katharine to, 150
punch, Katharine punches English patient in face, 152
Punjab, Kip's birthplace, 76
Q
Queen of Sadness, Kip's (Queen of Sheba), 72
quilter key, 213
R
race
Hana describes Kip as like the “brown eye of a Susan,” 103
importance in decision to drop nuclear bomb, 286
Kip set apart by, 196-97
Kip muses on his “brownness,” 105
Kip's makes soldiers hesitate to call him “sir,” 213
Kip's awareness of his otherness, 187-88, 196-97
See also under Kip
radio, lack of electricity prevents use of, 108. See also crystal set; music
raft, English patient thinks must build after plane crashes in desert, 18
rain
nearly constant during Kip's Italian campaign, 70
welcomed by Katharine naked, 141, 156
Ravenna, knight of (statue), 135
Ravenna, statue of knight, 135
Raymond, or Life and Death (novel), 187
razor blade, English patient is cut by when blindfolded, 22
reading. See books
Rebecca (du Maurier), used as codebook by German spy, 164-65, 254
Récentes Explorations dans le Désert Libyque (Almásy), 235
Reinhardt, Django (songwriter), 243
reputation, English patient's, 230-31
rewire
Kip promises to rewire English patient's hearing aid, 115
Hana remembers Kip's promise, 209
rich, rules of their world, 122-23
Richmond Park (London), base for sapper unit, 185
rifle
Kip shoots at fountain, threatens English patient with, 282-85
See also guns
rifle sight
Kip uses as binoculars, 77-78, 79-80
lacks, 291
rivers
Seem nameless without bridges, 129
Hana's desire to swim in with Kip, 129
Kip's experience of during war, 129
Hana has her own, 130
of India, 271
robberies, Caravaggio's, 208-9
rock, water appears as in Asian gardens, 170
Rodgers, Richard (songwriter), 108
rogue gaze, 110, 111
Rome, Caravaggio in hospital, 27-28
Rommel, English patient calls “brilliant,” 254
Royal Engineers, bomb disposal units established, 182
Rupert Bear. See Moth
S
sadness
akin to hate, 45
of geography, 296
Kip's Queen of (Queen of Sheba), 72
Hana's, 270, 271, 272
sail, oldest known, on reed boat in Nubian rock drawings, 19
saints
English patient is Hana's despairing saint, 3
warrior saints, 217
Salaam, Operation, 254
San Giovanni a Carbonara (church in Naples), where Kip stays with human figures, awaiting explosion, 279-81
sandstorms, 136-37
Sansepolcro, where soldiers used crossbows, 69
Sansom, code name for spy, 165
Santa Chiara Hospital (Pisa), 6, 40-41
Santa Trinità Bridge, explodes while Caravaggio crosses, 60
sapper. See Kip
sappers
skills and culture of, 110
history of the specialization in the British Army, 182-84
unnerved by night spent as only people in whole city of Naples, 276, 278-81
role in Italian campaign, 70-71, 274-76
Saracens, 96
sarong, Caravaggio tricked into trying on when robbery interuppted, 208
Satan (type of bomb), 183, 190
Savonarola, 57
scarecrow built from crucifix, 207
Scarlet Pimpernel, Hana thinks of Caravaggio as, 55
scars, lovers share, 153, 156, 158
“screeching of bats,” (Herodotus), Bedouin's Arabic as, 140
scrounging, Hana discusses with Caravaggio, 84-85
sea hospital, 95
self-sufficiency, Kip's, 126, 127, 128
semen, of dancing boy, given as gift (of water) to English patient, 23
sexual pleasure of words (according to C), 120-21
sexual relationship
English patient and Katharine's, 152, 170-71, 173, 236, 239
Hana and Kip's, 225
shadow used as compass, 249
Shand, Sergeant; leader of expedition to view Sistine Chapel, 77-78
Sheba, Queen of, Kip's love for (in Piero della Francesca fresco), 70-72
shell shock, 41
Hana can read signs of in Kip, 178
Hana's, 28, 95-96, 253
shells (snail), as lights for Hana's birthday dinner, 267-68
sherry, 191
shroud, Katharine made her own, wrapping herself in parachute material, 170
Sikh. See Kip
Sikhs, brutalized by Japanese (inter-Asian conflict), 217
silence
of desert, 240, 241
of death, 240, 241
unnerving in emptied city of Naples, 278-79
created within the noise of Kip's motorbike, 293
Siloam (pool in Jerusalem), bridged by wood from Tree of Good and Evil, 70
Singh, Kirpal. See Kip
Sistine Chapel, Kip visits; stilled by face of Isaiah, 77-78
Siwa, place where English patient is delivered to Allies by Bedouin, 95
Skootamatta River (Ontario), 128, 130
slave girl, kept by Fenelon-Barnes, 138
sleep
and English patient
  • penis sleeps like a seahorse, 3
  • sleeplessness, 5
  • falls asleep holding lit candle, 62
  • sleeps with hearing aid on high, to be “secure in his own awareness,” 113
and Hana
  • comes alive in moments before sleep, 35-36
  • sleeps in hammock taken from dead soldier, 47
  • prefers rest to sleep, 48-49
  • Caravaggio finds asleep in the library, 81
  • desire for, 103
  • depth of while in Kip's lap, 106
  • Hana's and Kip's contrasted, 128
  • sleeplessness, 130
and Kip
  • sleeps near a statue each night during campaign up coast, 103-4
  • ability to turn from memories and sleep, 129-30
  • sleeps with figures in church, awaiting trial of Naples' electrical system, 279-81
sleeplessness. See sleep
slide, Kip slides under falling fuze; Caravaggio will remember forever, 208
sling, Kip suggests creating one to carry English patient around in, 89
Smart, Christopher. See echo
smell
of an oasis, 6
of dogs' paws, 8
of the dead, 29
of cordite, 110, 112
See also odour
Smoke Lake (Ontario), 130
snail shells, as lights for Hana's birthday dinner, 267-68
sobbing, Hana's, 44. See also tears
“Solitude” (song by Duke Ellington), 169
Solomon, King (fresco in church in Arezzo), 70-71
Somerset, Madox's home, 162
Songs
“Honeysuckle Rose,” 243, 244
“How Long Has This Been Going On” (George and Ira Gershwin), 107, 109
“La Marseillaise,” 53, 268-69
“Manhattan” (Lorenz Hart), 108
“My Romance” (Lorenz Hart), 107-8
“My Sweet,” 243
“Solitude” (Duke Ellington), 169
“Souvenirs,” 243
“When I take my sugar to tea,” 64
“Souvenirs” (song), 243
Spam, shared by mediaeval scholar with Kip, 71
spies in desert, 168, 251, 252
See also under Bagnold; Caravaggio; Clifton, Geoffrey; English patient; Eppler
Stations of the Cross, 277
statues
coolness of, 90
Kip trusts only this “race of stones,” sleeps near one each night during campaign up coast, 103-4
comfort Kip in Naples, 279-81
steam, used in bomb defusion, 199
Stendahl, Charterhouse of Parma, 93, 222, 273
stone, coolness of fountain; of statues, 90
Suffolk (Lord), 87-88
befriends Kip, 184-90
death, 190-96
habits and habitat, 184-87
Kip's teacher, 177-78
has the “abstract madness of autodidacts,” 111
suicide, Madox's, 241-42
suicide-murder, planned by Geoffrey Clifton, 171
suitcase, English patient misinterprets Katharine's offer to carry, 151-52
sundial, Caravaggio jokes that Hana was born with one in her head, 81
sunlight, 89, 156, 277
surnames, English use of to address each other, 88
Swift, Miss (Suffolk's aviatrix friend), 185, 186, 190
swimmers in desert cave paintings, 169. See also Cave of Swimmers
T
Tacitus, Annals, Hana reads to English patient, 93
tags, military ID, as charms to Bedouin, 29
Tassili, desert site of rock engravings showing water, 18
tea
Kip's love for, 86
role during desert explorations, 136, 137
teams, explorers divided into by war, 168
tears, 44, 129, 157
tennis shoes, one of two things Hana has taken from others during war, 47, 50
thief. See under Caravaggio
thimble of saffron, Katharine wears as reminder of English patient, 239
third eye of salvation, 58
third person, used for the dead; English patient's use for himself 247
three-dimensional gaze, Kip's, 110
thunderstorms, Kip's return to villa with each evening, 276-77
time, Caravaggio and Hana play guessing game from her childhood, 81
TNT, 183
Tolstoy, 237, 241, 242
Tommasoni, Ranuccio, man who commands Caravaggio's thumbs removed, 55, 59
tongue, English patient's touch on Katharine's seems to bring her to life possessed by a demon, 260
tonsils, Hana refuses to have out as a child, 29-30
Toronto, Caravaggio tells stories of to Kip, 268. See also under Hana; Caravaggio
Toscanelli (mapmaker), 57
train, Caravaggio's journey by to Villa San Girolamo, 29
Tree of Good and Evil, used to bridge Siloam, 70
Triumph. See motorbike
trompe l'oeil
in English patient's room, 3, 4, 31
in library of villa, 74
desert as, 259
trust, Suffolk's of Kip, 186
turban, Kip's, 185, 188, 217, 218, 287
Tuscany, English patient's knowledge of topography, 88-89
U
unhappiness, English patient's, 155. See also sadness
uniform, Kip is only one who remains in, 74
Upper America, Hana calls Canada, 76
Uweinat
approached from new direction shows Zerzura, 140
halfway point across desert, crawling with Allies when Almásy leads Eppler across, 164-65
site of Madox's buried plane, 168
V
vaccination scar, Katharine's, 156, 158
vascular sizood, 241
Verdi, Guiseppe, Caravaggio reminds Hana that she once loved, 32
Vespucci, Simonetta, 57
Via di Santo Spirito, 59
Villa Bruscoli, as name of their villa; stories invented about history, 56-57
Villa Medici, neighbors Villa San Girolamo, 12
Villa San Girolamo
condition of, 6-8, 12-14
wartime history of, 27, 28, 29
rooms painted as different seasons, 29
said to have ghost in garden, 28
gardens, 42-43
description of grounds, 124
violence between English patient and Katharine, 149-50, 152, 153-54, 244
Virgilian man, 89
Virgin Mary, Marine Festival of; touches Kip, 78-80
vulnerability, moondial as symbol of, 81-82
W
Wadi Sura, desert site of rock engravings showing water, 18
walk to Kip's tent, 125, 130
walls, built by English patient and Katharine against each other, 155
war
in desert, 19, 20-21
divides nation of explorers into “teams,” 168
in Italy. See Italian campaign
jingoist support for, 242
mediaeval: World War II as last one, 69
warrior saints, 217
water
as exile in the desert, 19
cursed, 22
in hidden or buried towns in desert, 22
pianos need in Canada, 63
Monterchi's “bad,” 70
best in desert is that which is drunk, 141
Clifton brings Katharine in night, after nightmare, 149
Katharine's love for, 153
appears as rock in Asian gardens, 170
weakness, Kip and Hana both deny their own, 114
weapons
cutlery seems to Kip's daughter, 301
Kip leaves all behind, 290
Kip and English patient discuss, 88-89
See also guns
weeping, 44, 129. See also tears
Wepwawet, jackal-deity, 258-59
Westbury (England), chalk horse, 181
wet dreams, Kip's, 225
“When I take my sugar to tea” (song), 64
When We Were Very Young, 211, 213, 304
whiskey, Miss Morden downs large one first so can later sip at sherry, 191
winds, types of in desert, 16-17
wine
Hana rations herself a small amount late each night, 7
Caravaggio knocks over carafe, reminds him of blood, 58
Caravaggio “scrounges” for Hana, who “badly needs a serious drink,” 84
Kip acquires for party, 107-9
Kip produces 3 bottles for Hana's birthday, and opens all, 267
wink, Morden's wish to bestow on Kip, 189
woman's neck, hollow at the base (vascular sizood), 162
women, Bedouin villages without, 21, 22
Women's College Hospital, Hana's alma mater, 49
Woolwich, site of bomb disposal research department, 183
words
power of, 120-21, 234
English patient's life governed by, 231
Katharine's love of, English patient's distrust of, 238
Madox's reverence for, 243
worm, Caravaggio calls Hana “dear worm,” her father's endearment, 108
worm pickers, Hana remembers as a child, 55
wormwood, 112, 124
wounds
inflicted by Katharine on English patient, 153-54
Katharine's from plane crash, 173, 248, 257, 259-6
writings of explorers, 136, 143, 240
Z
Zam-Zammah cannon, 118
Zerzura, lost oasis of, 134, 135-40
discovery of, 140
zinc bars, 239; Madox is finally coaxed into one, 244

 

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