Odd leaves from the life of a Louisiana swamp doctor

This book is a series of sketches that follow the outlandish misadventures of Dr. Madison Tensas--Lewis' literary persona. Using dialect, comic imagery, folklore, picturesque autobiography, and the form of the mock oral tale, Lewis presents a vigorous--even grotesque--vision of the southern backwoods, where life was often violent and brutal, somtimes shockingly funny, and always wildly different from the polished society of townsmen and wealthy planters.