Oliver Wendell Holmes was a physician and Harvard professor who rose to literary acclaim on the strength of his essays, poetry and novels, many of which drew on his medical knowledge. In this, Holmes' third and final novel, a young man who has suffered through a number of awkward romantic encounters develops a toxic and deep-seated fear of women.

"A Mortal Antipathy" is a medical fiction novel by Oliver Wendell Holmes. Maurice Kirkword, Esq. a young gentle man had rented some rooms of a building in the Stoughton University community. But his reclusive ways and vague answers soon piques the curiosity of the community. A rumour soon developed that Maurice Kirkwood was the subject of a strange, mysterious, unheard-of antipathy to something, nobody knew what; and the whole neighborhood naturally resolved itself into an unorganized committee of investigation...

A Mortal Antipathy