In the Land of Pain is a collection of notes by Alphonse Daudet chronicling the pain and suffering he experienced from tabes dorsalis, its effects on his relationships with friends, family, and other people, and the various drugs he took and physical treatments he underwent in his fight against the disease. Daudet originally began making these notes for a projected book, but none of the material was published in his lifetime. He planned to use the title La Doulou, a Provençal word for pain. The collection was published in French in 1930 in a volume titled La Doulou : 1887–1895 et Le Trésor d'Arlatan: 1897, and translated into English in 2002 by Julian Barnes.
“Pain is always new to the sufferer, but loses its originality for those around him.”
Douleur toujours nouvelle pour celui qui souffre et qui se banalise pour l'entourage.
La doulou: (la douleur), 1887-1895 (Paris: Librairie de France, 1930) p. 16; Julian Barnes (ed. and trans.) In the Land of Pain (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002) p. 19.
