Magnificent Obsession

Robert Merrick has lived for pleasure, indifferent to what it costs anyone else. His life is spared only because a much-admired surgeon, known for his eccentric ways, gives up his own life in the effort. Facing a debt he can never repay, Merrick begins to rethink everything he has done. After reading the surgeon's private papers, he starts a program of charitable giving that he carries out anonymously, guided by what he has learned there.

At its core, this is a story about redemption and the quiet sacrifices that come with it. Its tone is spiritual, and that tone shapes both Merrick's change of heart and the lives his generosity reaches. Lloyd C. Douglas, a Lutheran minister before he turned to writing novels, built the book around these ideas.

The novel has been adapted for both the stage and the screen, including a 1935 film starring Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor and a 1954 remake with Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman.