If I had to choose one book that influenced me the most, it would be The English Patient.

Not because of the plot, or even the well-known romance, but because of how it changed the way I think about history—how we carry it, how we hold on to it, and how it quietly shapes us over time.

Some books tell a story and end when you close the final page. This novel felt different. It stayed with me because it did not treat history as something distant or finished. Instead, history feels present, almost physical. The past does not sit politely in the background; it seeps into every page.

What influenced me most was Ondaatje’s idea of history as something broken and incomplete. In the novel, history is not clean or factual. It is fragmentary, damaged, and half-remembered—much like the burned body of the “English patient” himself. Memory replaces a clear timeline. The past survives through feelings, stories, and traces rather than dates and explanations.

This reminded me of how people in close relationships communicate. Lovers often develop a shared language—private references, half-finished sentences, meanings that do not need to be explained. What matters is not clarity for outsiders, but understanding between those who share the experience. History in this novel works in much the same way.

This idea strongly connected with my own experience studying Classics at university, especially reading Histories by Herodotus. He did not write history as a neat sequence of events. He wandered. He told stories within stories. He included rumours and personal accounts. History, for him, was something human and alive.

In The English Patient, this idea becomes literal. The English patient carries a copy of Herodotus for years, filling the margins with notes, maps, and memories. One book becomes a personal archive. History is not something he studies from a distance; it is something he lives inside.

Reading this made me realise that we all carry history in similar ways—not only in books, but in our bodies, our memories, and the objects we keep. Like the shared language of lovers, much of this history only makes sense to us. It is personal, partial, and often unspoken.

That is why the image of a well-worn book matters so much in this novel. A book filled with notes and marks becomes more than a text. It becomes a quiet record of a life, written in a language only the reader fully understands.

For me,  The English Patient influenced the way I think about the past. History is not just something that happened long ago. It is something we carry with us, often without noticing, quietly shaping who we are.

Learning Support

Key Vocabulary

influence
To change the way someone thinks or feels.
• This book influenced the way I think about history.

palpable
Something you can strongly feel, even if you cannot touch it.
• There is a palpable sense of history in the novel.

seep into
To slowly spread or enter something.
• The past seeps into every page.

fragmentary
Existing in broken or incomplete pieces.
• His memories were fragmentary.

half-remembered
Not clearly or fully remembered.
• She recalled half-remembered stories from childhood.

from a distance
Without personal involvement.
• He does not study history from a distance.

well-worn
Used many times over a long period.
• It was a well-worn book with notes in the margins.

Useful Language Patterns

• “Not because of X, but because of Y”
  Not because of the romance, but because of how it treats history.

• “Something does not sit in the background”
  The past does not sit politely in the background.

• “This idea becomes literal”
  In the novel, this idea becomes literal.

• “Something quietly shapes us”
  Our experiences quietly shape who we are.

Discussion Questions

• What book or movie influenced you the most in your life?

• Did it influence how you think, or just how you felt at the time?

• Do you agree that we carry history in our memories and bodies?

• Do you keep objects that remind you of the past? Why?

• Have you ever written notes in a book? How does that change the book?