The artificial man

In Short

Clare Winger Harris’s 1929 science fiction short story The Artificial Man charts the horrific descent of George Gregory, a brilliant college student who loses a leg in a football game. Convinced that physical injury inevitably destroys spiritual and mental integrity, George falls into severe depression and bitterness. He loses his fiancée, Rosalind, to his friend Dr. David Bell. Obsessed with proving his dark philosophy, George undergoes voluntary surgeries over several years to replace almost every organ and limb with mechanical substitutes. The story has endured as an early, vivid depiction of cyborg technology that grapples directly with the ethics of human augmentation and bodily identity.

The Story

George Gregory begins as an enviable young man at Austin College—captain of the football team and a star debater who argues that right thinking ensures bodily perfection. During a Thanksgiving football game, however, he suffers a catastrophic injury that results in the amputation of his right leg below the hip. Despite the loving support of his sweetheart, Rosalind Nelson, and his loyal friend, medical student David Bell, George falls into a deep, morose fixation. He insists that losing a piece of his flesh has damaged his soul and stolen his mental poise.

Though he learns to walk expertly on an artificial leg, tragedy strikes again just before his wedding when a truck accident leaves him with internal injuries and costs him an arm. Dr. Bell aids in his recovery, using an experimental artificial kidney to save his life. As George recovers physically, his personality sours into malice. He harbors intense hatred toward David, realizing that Rosalind is growing distant from him and falling in love with the young doctor instead. One evening along a river path, George aggressively demands that Rosalind set a wedding date, but she shrinks from the touch of his artificial arm and breaks their engagement. George pursues her in a rage, but David intervenes, rescuing Rosalind from her frantic, irrational ex-fiancée.

Three months later, George corners David in his medical office. He announces his intention to remove as much of his natural body as possible and replace it with artificial machinery to discover how little flesh is needed to chain a soul to earth. When David refuses to perform such horrific operations, George vows to find someone else. Five years pass, during which David and Rosalind marry and raise a family while George disappears from their lives.

One afternoon, a strange, diminutive man enters David’s operating room. Revealing himself as George, he locks the door and dramatically unclasps his own artificial limbs, stripping down to a scarred torso and a heavily mutilated head lacking a nose and ears. He reveals that a German surgeon replaced his heart with a double-valve pump and linked his limbs to an electric control board on his chest. Driven by vengeance and madness, George attacks David with mechanical strength. A junior colleague, Lucius Stevens, breaks down the door with two police officers. Recognizing that the chest control board governs the automaton's movements, Stevens strikes it with an axe, disabling the control system. Mortally damaged by the blow, the dying George recites a final confession: he admits his original philosophy was correct all along—it was not the initial physical loss that destroyed him, but his own mind choosing to surrender to despair.

How It Unfolds

A fall from grace George Gregory, a star athlete and intellectual who preaches that right thinking guarantees physical well-being, suffers a severe leg injury during a Thanksgiving football game, resulting in an amputation that shatters his confidence.

The descent into bitterness While recovering with an artificial limb, George insists to his grieving fiancée, Rosalind, that losing bodily tissue erodes his soul, and a second terrible car accident forces the amputation of an arm and the installation of an artificial kidney.

A terrifying proposal After Rosalind breaks their engagement and chooses his friend Dr. David Bell, a furious George visits David's clinic, demanding the doctor systematically replace the rest of his natural body with machine parts.

Return of the mechanical man Five years later, George returns to David's hospital as an unrecognizable, disfigured cyborg who detaches his own limbs and boasts of his artificial heart pump before launching a deadly attack.

The final realization Subdued by police and a junior doctor who smashes his chest control panel, the dying George confesses before he passes away that his downfall was caused by his corrupted mindset rather than his lost limbs.

The People

• George Gregory: A dominating college athlete and debater whose rigid belief in the harmony of mind and body turns toxic when he is injured. Unable to cope with physical impairment, he drives away those who love him and surrenders to a terrifying obsession with artificial self-modification.
• Rosalind Nelson: George's affectionate fiancée who attempts to reassure him that losing a limb does not alter his identity or her love. Overcome by his growing malice and terrifying demeanor, she finds herself drawn to the gentle, devoted care of his friend.
• Dr. David Bell: A steadfast medical student turned surgeon who works tirelessly to save George's life after multiple accidents. He rejects George's mad request to dismantle his remaining flesh and later faces his former friend's murderous vengeance.
• Lucius Stevens: A quick-thinking young intern who senses David's peril, summons law enforcement, and figures out how to neutralize George's mechanical body during the final struggle.

In Its Own Voice

“Losing part of my body has made me lose part of my soul. I’m not what I was. My mental attitude has changed as a result of this abominable catastrophe.”

George explains his despair to Rosalind after losing his leg in a football game.

“I am going to find out how much of this mortal coil I can shuffle off and still maintain my personal identity as a piece of humanity here on earth.”

George reveals his morbid quest to Dr. Bell in the physician's office.

“Behold in me an artificial man who lives and breathes and has his being with a minimum of mortal flesh! My various parts can be mended and replaced as you would repair the parts of your automobile.”

Years later, George boasts of his cybernetic transformation after removing his own limbs in the operating room.

What It's Really About

The core conflict of the story lies in the philosophical dilemma of bodily identity and human consciousness. George begins with the optimistic premise that the mind commands the body, but once he suffers physical trauma, he flips to an unhealthy fatalism, believing that bodily damage irrevocably corrupts the spirit. His story serves as a warning against letting physical loss define human worth. Beneath the dramatic plot, the narrative explores early science-fiction concerns about cybernetics and medical technology. It asks whether replacing natural organs with artificial mechanisms strips away humanity, ultimately showing that George’s true destruction stems not from his machine parts, but from his own bitterness and lack of spiritual resilience.

Why Read It Today

The Artificial Man offers modern readers a fascinating, historical perspective on cyborg fiction from an era when technologies like artificial kidneys and heart pumps were purely theoretical. Published in a 1929 pulp magazine, it delivers a fast-paced narrative that reads like a classical horror tale blended with speculative medical science. Readers will enjoy its dramatic atmosphere, Gothic undertones, and straightforward, propulsive storytelling.

The story does carry some of the melodrama and period conventions typical of early twentieth-century popular fiction. Characters often express their emotions in heightened, theatrical language, and the plot moves with swift, sensational turns rather than deep psychological subtlety. However, these period touches only add to its vintage charm. It stands as an impressive, visionary piece of early science fiction written by one of the pioneering women of the genre, offering a surprisingly modern reflection on what truly defines the human soul.