Included below is a collection of Dr. Laszlo Kreizler testimonials from other characters in the Alienist books. For basic information about Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a character analysis of Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, or quotes made by Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, please use the menu.
Dr. Laszlo Kreizler Testimonials
By Edith Roosevelt
Edith was the second wife of Theodore Roosevelt, one of Dr. Kreizler’s friends within the books. Although she doesn’t interact with Dr. Kreizler at all in the books, she provides an idea of what sort of man Laszlo is like amongst friends.
The Alienist, 4:
He didn’t want to attend the funeral, though Edith Roosevelt would have liked him to. She has always been truly partial to the man she calls “the enigma”, the brilliant doctor whose studies of the human mind have disturbed so many people so profoundly over the last forty years. Kreizler wrote Edith a note explaining that he did not much like the idea of a world without Theodore, and, being as he’s now sixty-four and has spent his life staring ugly realities full in the face, he thinks he’ll just indulge himself and ignore the fact of his friend’s passing. Edith told me today that reading Kreizler’s note moved her to tears, because she realized that Theodore’s boundless affection and enthusiasm […] had been strong enough to touch a man whose removal from most of human society seemed to almost everyone else unbridgeable.
By Stevie Taggert
Dr. Kreizler is Stevie’s guardian and the pair share a close bond, similiar to a father/son relationship. The following quotes or statements were made by Stevie in reference to Dr Kreizler’s character.
The Angel of Darkness, 59:
At that point all eyes, including mine, turned to the back of the courtroom to get a glimpse of what was, for most of them, a familiar sight: the renowned alienist Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, one of the most hated yet respected men in the city, charging in, his long hair and cloak billowing behind him and his eyes burning with coal black fire. I had no way of knowing that one day I’d become accustomed to that sight too; all I knew then was that he was the damndest person, with the damndest nerve, that I ever saw.
The Angel of Darkness, 60:
At that he pointed in my direction and, for the first time, actually looked at me – and I’m not sure I’m up to describing all that was in the look: His eyes sparkled with a message of hope, and the smallest, quickest smile told me to have courage. All in a rush and for the first time in my life, I felt like someone over the age of fifteen truly gave a goddamn about my existence.
The Angel of Darkness, 61-2:
I quickly got the feeling that I was providing him with something more than statistics – the man was enjoying himself. That was the real secret of his success with kids: it wasn’t charity work to him, it wasn’t the kind of wooden-nickel generosity you’d get from mission types. What made troubled children, rich and poor, trust the Doctor so much was the fact that he was getting something out of helping them. He loved it all, really loved spending time and effort on his young charges, in a way that was at least partly selfish. It was like they made the miserable parts of the adult world what he inhabited so much of the time – the prisons, madhouses, hospitals, and courtrooms – easier to take: gave him hope for the future, on the one hand and pure and simple amusement, on the other. […] Everybody’s got an angle, is all I’m saying, and the fact that the Doctor’s was so obvious and uncomplicated made it all the easier to trust him.
The Angel of Darkness, 625:
I get the feeling, sometimes, that the Doctor feels guilty about never getting me to give up the smokes; but I was a nicotine fiend long before I ever met the man, and, caring and patient as he always was, there were just some things about my early life what even his kindness and wisdom couldn’t undo. I don’t hold him responsible, of course, or love him any the less for it, and it makes me sad to think that my physical predicament only gives him one more reason to vex himself; but again, I guess it’s that very vexing, and the ability to keep working through it toward a better sort of life for our miserable species, what makes him such a very unusual man.