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The Body Snatcher
An uncanny thriller from the acclaimed author of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Medical school students Fettes and Macfarlane are charged with the unenviable task of receiving and paying for the institution’s research cadavers. When Fettes recognizes the dead body of a woman he saw alive and well just the day before, he suspects murder. Macfarlane, however, insists that the authorities would never believe they had nothing to do with her death. Reluctantly, Fettes agrees to keep quiet, but soon regrets his decision when another familiar corpse turns up—and takes on a life of its own.
Medical school students Fettes and Macfarlane are charged with the unenviable task of receiving and paying for the institution’s research cadavers. When Fettes recognizes the dead body of a woman he saw alive and well just the day before, he suspects murder. Macfarlane, however, insists that the authorities would never believe they had nothing to do with her death. Reluctantly, Fettes agrees to keep quiet, but soon regrets his decision when another familiar corpse turns up—and takes on a life of its own.
22 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1884
132 people are currently reading
3,223 people want to read
About the author
Robert Louis Stevenson
5,384books6,651followersRobert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer, and a leading representative of English literature. He was greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling and Vladimir Nabokov.
Most modernist writers dismissed him, however, because he was popular and did not write within their narrow definition of literature. It is only recently that critics have begun to look beyond Stevenson's popularity and allow him a place in the Western canon.
Most modernist writers dismissed him, however, because he was popular and did not write within their narrow definition of literature. It is only recently that critics have begun to look beyond Stevenson's popularity and allow him a place in the Western canon.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 533 reviews
November 8, 2019
”To bodies that had been laid in earth, in joyful expectation of a far different awakening, there came that hasty, lamplit, terror-haunted resurrection of the spade and mattock.�
A group of friends have a habit of getting together in a hotel tavern to drink and tell tall tales, but sometimes the true stories are the ones that are more frightening than those spawned from the most vivid imaginations. The curiosity of one of the friends, a writer, is roused when he sees his friend Fettes brace an eminent doctor named Wolfe Macfarlane. The words exchanged make Macfarlane flee and, by his pale countenance, make the writer believe there is much more to his friend Fettes than he knows.
It doesn’t take the writer long to find the string of the story and follow it back to its ghastly beginnings.
You see, Macfarlane and Fettes worked for the famous, or should I say infamous, anatomist Robert Knox.
Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1850, twenty-two years after the shocking events of 1828 that terrified not only the whole city, but also unnerved the entire country. Stevenson was a sickly child, but when he was well enough to play, I’m sure his voice bounced off the brick faces of the buildings along his street, along with the voices of the other children, as they chanted.
Robert Knox, the very same Robert Knox that Stevenson uses in this story, like most doctors of the time who are interested in studying human anatomy, is always short of bodies. They employ men to procure those bodies for them; underlings like Macfarlane and Fettes would have been charged with dealing with these unsavory characters who arrive in the dead of night with their bulky, long packages smelling of damp earth and decay. Now, Stevenson doesn’t name these men in his story, but in real life they were William Burke and William Hare. There are all kinds of difficulties in acquiring enough bodies to meet the demands of the anatomy school, but also it is very lucrative.
”Thus, under the dripping trees, and environed by huge and moving shadows, they reached the scene of their unhallowed labours.�
They have to be Johnny-on-the-spot to dig up those freshly buried corpses from the graveyard. It isn’t something you can do in daylight. It is something that can only be done after all the hardworking people of Edinburgh had snuffed out their candles. It has to be shocking to grieving relatives to go out to the gravesite to visit their recently departed father or daughter or aunt only to find a pile of dirt next to the open grave where they had seen them buried just the day before.
Has their loved one become a vampire?
No, just thieves, very disgusting thieves at that.
Stevenson vividly describes that ride back into town with the body wedged between them. ”The drenching sackcloth would flap icily about their faces.� That graveyard dirt is still mired in the crevices of their fingers, their hearts about to jump out of their chests at every lurid shadow or eerie sound.
Knox did not care where the bodies came from, nor did he want to know.
Burking was actually a term that was added to the lexicon. And what is with the creepy priest behind the door?
As Edinburgh begins to realize this epidemic of missing corpses, they start to hold vigils throughout the night over their recently departed friends and family. This puts a crimp in Burke and Hare’s midnight activities. The other problem is that digging up graves is backbreaking work. With so many wretched people walking around just waiting to die anyway, why not skip the burial and snatch them before the scythe of the Grim Reaper can find them. Walter Scott put it best.
”Our Irish importation have made a great discovery of Oeconomicks, namely, that a wretch who is not worth a farthing while alive, becomes a valuable article when knockd on the head & carried to an anatomist; and acting on this principle, have cleard the streets of some of those miserable offcasts of society, whom nobody missed because nobody wishd to see them again.�
Before they are caught, Burke and Hare murder 16 or so people. Knox must have been delighted over the freshness of his anatomy subjects. Hare turns state's evidence against Burke. Burke is convicted and hanged. His body is, of course it would only be fitting, turned over to be dissected. You can still visit Burke, or at least what is left of him, at the Edinburgh Medical School.
There be Burke, a little worse for wear.
Knox is not convicted by the courts; after all, he knew nothing of where the bodies were coming from, but he is found guilty by the population of Edinburgh. Mobs run Knox and Hare and his wife (she actually helped them find victims) out of town. Knox is never able to find work at a university again.
Corpse snatching is not just happening in Scotland, but is common throughout the world in Victorian times and before (Burke and Hare actually operated at the end of the Georgian Era), as doctors desperately try to determine how the human body works. Certainly their efforts advance the understanding of the human body, and that leads to breakthroughs in surgery and medicine, but there is no escaping the unsavory nature of how they procured their anatomy subjects.
It would be too much to ask of an Edinburgh born writer not to use the plot of a homegrown horror like this one in one of his own stories. Stevenson’s descriptions are wonderful, and certainly this is a fun Gothic tale, but the supernatural element in the ending might seem contrived to a modern reader. At the time it was published in 1884, I can assure you that many readers would have felt their superstitious natures stirred, and their tea might have shook as it was brought to their lips.
There is also a really good novel about body snatching that I read several years ago by Tim Curran called if anyone is interested in learning more about this foul trade.
3.5 stars out of 5
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:
A group of friends have a habit of getting together in a hotel tavern to drink and tell tall tales, but sometimes the true stories are the ones that are more frightening than those spawned from the most vivid imaginations. The curiosity of one of the friends, a writer, is roused when he sees his friend Fettes brace an eminent doctor named Wolfe Macfarlane. The words exchanged make Macfarlane flee and, by his pale countenance, make the writer believe there is much more to his friend Fettes than he knows.
It doesn’t take the writer long to find the string of the story and follow it back to its ghastly beginnings.
You see, Macfarlane and Fettes worked for the famous, or should I say infamous, anatomist Robert Knox.
Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1850, twenty-two years after the shocking events of 1828 that terrified not only the whole city, but also unnerved the entire country. Stevenson was a sickly child, but when he was well enough to play, I’m sure his voice bounced off the brick faces of the buildings along his street, along with the voices of the other children, as they chanted.
Up the close and doun the stair,
But and ben wi' Burke and Hare.
Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief,
Knox the boy that buys the beef.
—�19th-century Edinburgh skipping rhyme
Robert Knox, the very same Robert Knox that Stevenson uses in this story, like most doctors of the time who are interested in studying human anatomy, is always short of bodies. They employ men to procure those bodies for them; underlings like Macfarlane and Fettes would have been charged with dealing with these unsavory characters who arrive in the dead of night with their bulky, long packages smelling of damp earth and decay. Now, Stevenson doesn’t name these men in his story, but in real life they were William Burke and William Hare. There are all kinds of difficulties in acquiring enough bodies to meet the demands of the anatomy school, but also it is very lucrative.
”Thus, under the dripping trees, and environed by huge and moving shadows, they reached the scene of their unhallowed labours.�
They have to be Johnny-on-the-spot to dig up those freshly buried corpses from the graveyard. It isn’t something you can do in daylight. It is something that can only be done after all the hardworking people of Edinburgh had snuffed out their candles. It has to be shocking to grieving relatives to go out to the gravesite to visit their recently departed father or daughter or aunt only to find a pile of dirt next to the open grave where they had seen them buried just the day before.
Has their loved one become a vampire?
No, just thieves, very disgusting thieves at that.
Stevenson vividly describes that ride back into town with the body wedged between them. ”The drenching sackcloth would flap icily about their faces.� That graveyard dirt is still mired in the crevices of their fingers, their hearts about to jump out of their chests at every lurid shadow or eerie sound.
Knox did not care where the bodies came from, nor did he want to know.
Burking was actually a term that was added to the lexicon. And what is with the creepy priest behind the door?
As Edinburgh begins to realize this epidemic of missing corpses, they start to hold vigils throughout the night over their recently departed friends and family. This puts a crimp in Burke and Hare’s midnight activities. The other problem is that digging up graves is backbreaking work. With so many wretched people walking around just waiting to die anyway, why not skip the burial and snatch them before the scythe of the Grim Reaper can find them. Walter Scott put it best.
”Our Irish importation have made a great discovery of Oeconomicks, namely, that a wretch who is not worth a farthing while alive, becomes a valuable article when knockd on the head & carried to an anatomist; and acting on this principle, have cleard the streets of some of those miserable offcasts of society, whom nobody missed because nobody wishd to see them again.�
Before they are caught, Burke and Hare murder 16 or so people. Knox must have been delighted over the freshness of his anatomy subjects. Hare turns state's evidence against Burke. Burke is convicted and hanged. His body is, of course it would only be fitting, turned over to be dissected. You can still visit Burke, or at least what is left of him, at the Edinburgh Medical School.
There be Burke, a little worse for wear.
Knox is not convicted by the courts; after all, he knew nothing of where the bodies were coming from, but he is found guilty by the population of Edinburgh. Mobs run Knox and Hare and his wife (she actually helped them find victims) out of town. Knox is never able to find work at a university again.
Corpse snatching is not just happening in Scotland, but is common throughout the world in Victorian times and before (Burke and Hare actually operated at the end of the Georgian Era), as doctors desperately try to determine how the human body works. Certainly their efforts advance the understanding of the human body, and that leads to breakthroughs in surgery and medicine, but there is no escaping the unsavory nature of how they procured their anatomy subjects.
It would be too much to ask of an Edinburgh born writer not to use the plot of a homegrown horror like this one in one of his own stories. Stevenson’s descriptions are wonderful, and certainly this is a fun Gothic tale, but the supernatural element in the ending might seem contrived to a modern reader. At the time it was published in 1884, I can assure you that many readers would have felt their superstitious natures stirred, and their tea might have shook as it was brought to their lips.
There is also a really good novel about body snatching that I read several years ago by Tim Curran called if anyone is interested in learning more about this foul trade.
3.5 stars out of 5
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:
October 13, 2021
I love this lil short story, it gets the vibe of "this is wrong" perfectly while not throwing it in your face. This is also inspired by a part of history I'm fascinated by, so the morbid curiosity was sated!
December 13, 2022
The Body Snatcher is Stevenson's fictitious retelling of Burke and Hare murders which shocked the Edinburgh society in the early 19th century. Burke and Hare duo were employed by Professor Robert Knox, a leading anatomy Professor, to supply dead bodies for dissection. But the ways and means these two criminals adopted to procure bodies to "sell" them to the professor were more than appalling. Stevenson has taken some of these incidents from Burke and Hare trials and created this short Gothic horror story.
The story started well, setting a good pace for the dreadful developments. The two characters of Fette and Macfarlane (reminding me of Burke and Hare) got a good grip on me. I was taking a frightful yet curiously interesting ride with them through their disturbing conduct when I was cruelly called to a stop by the ridiculous supernatural ending! Perhaps, it was all due to the shortness of the story that Stevenson had to cut short the story in that most unrealistic manner. But that ending destroyed it all for me! *sigh*
The story started well, setting a good pace for the dreadful developments. The two characters of Fette and Macfarlane (reminding me of Burke and Hare) got a good grip on me. I was taking a frightful yet curiously interesting ride with them through their disturbing conduct when I was cruelly called to a stop by the ridiculous supernatural ending! Perhaps, it was all due to the shortness of the story that Stevenson had to cut short the story in that most unrealistic manner. But that ending destroyed it all for me! *sigh*
April 11, 2017
Frankly, I can't judge the anatomists of the time as far as stealing dead bodies is concerned. They wouldn't have been able to carry out the research without them, (which in the long run only benefited humanity) and religious superstitions and emotional attachments ensured they won't have enough of them otherwise.
Based on true incidences. See Jeffrey's review for details.
Based on true incidences. See Jeffrey's review for details.
January 31, 2019
"No rest for the wicked."
First published in 1884, the characters herein "were based on criminals in the employ of real-life surgeon Robert Knox (1791-1862) around the time of the notorious Burke and Hare murders. (1828)"
THE BODY-SNATCHER is an eerie classic tale that begins when old friends having drinks bring up the name of a Dr. Wolfe Macfarlane, a well known London physician who soon, surprisingly....to one....enters the Inn.
An angry confrontation quickly develops between two old students of medicine bringing back haunting memories of murder and grave robbing that resulted in a shocking discovery.
"Have you seen it again?"
November 2, 2019
The supernatural punch line at the end makes the whole story ridiculous.
February 3, 2020
Fettes, a drunken Scotsman with an interest in medicine, meets with his friends every evening to drink together at the inn. Wolfe Macfarlane, a famous doctor from London, came to the inn to treat a sick patient. Fettes is very upset when he sees Macfarlane. tells the ghastly story of their bad judgement and crimes as medical students. It's not surprising that Fettes drinks five glasses of rum every night to forget.
October 9, 2020
Meh. This short story had no real “creep� factor. The 1945 movie with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi creep me out, big time! I’m not one who usually likes the movie over the book but in this case, the movie was much better. 💀
June 30, 2021
The Body Snatcher was better than I expected!
It’s a short story and I was able to read it in an hour. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote this back in 1884.
This short story is based on the murders set in Edinburgh, Scotland by William Burke and William Hare. They committed up to 16 known murders and maybe more!
They would kill people (prostitutes, drunks, homeless, etc) that others wouldn’t possibly miss and sale the corpses to Dr. Robert Knox. He would then use these corpses for dissection for his anatomy lectures.
In this retelling of this historical true crime case, students Fettes and Macfarlane are “helping� Dr. K round up bodies for his anatomy classes. They were going to graveyards in the beginning, but then Macfarlane decides to do something different one night.
I kind of like the way this one ended. I wasn’t expecting that and I’m glad to finally get to this old tale of greed and murder!
It’s a short story and I was able to read it in an hour. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote this back in 1884.
This short story is based on the murders set in Edinburgh, Scotland by William Burke and William Hare. They committed up to 16 known murders and maybe more!
They would kill people (prostitutes, drunks, homeless, etc) that others wouldn’t possibly miss and sale the corpses to Dr. Robert Knox. He would then use these corpses for dissection for his anatomy lectures.
In this retelling of this historical true crime case, students Fettes and Macfarlane are “helping� Dr. K round up bodies for his anatomy classes. They were going to graveyards in the beginning, but then Macfarlane decides to do something different one night.
I kind of like the way this one ended. I wasn’t expecting that and I’m glad to finally get to this old tale of greed and murder!
November 6, 2019
“No rest for the wicked.�
Stevenson’s short story The Body Snatcher was actually published in the Christmas edition of the Pall Mall Gazette in 1884. Yes, you’ve read correctly: A Christmas edition. But then, a lot of 19th century ghost stories had a Christmas background, as Victorians apparently liked it to pass their Yuletides gathering round a blazing fire and listening to as well as spinning yarn about spectres, apparitions and other supernatural phenomena. In fact, the most well-known ghost story of all times is called A Christmas Carol and dates from that very period.
The Body Snatcher is losely based on the real-life case of two so-called resurrection-men, Burke and Hare, who went farther than their competitors in their zeal to procure fresh bodies for Edinburgh medical students and anatomists, the Scottish capital at that time being one of the centres of European medical studies and therefore promising an unwaning and urgent need for fresh bodies so that graves within the city and about it were often secured by mortsafes, i.e. gridiron cages fixed above freshly-dug graves. Burke and Hare did not wait for people to die and then dig out their earthly remains but they actually greatly precipitated the natural process in a couple of cases, and the same is true of the men whom the two medical students in this story, Fettes and Macfarlane, have fallen in with. Fettes at first only has slight suspicions, which he placidly ignores, but which one day are corroborated beyond any doubt when his henchmen bring him the body of a woman, Jane Galbraith, whom he saw in sound health the very day before. He does not raise hue and cry, however, but partly out of cowardice, partly out of indifference condones in the crime by paying the price that is demanded for the body and asking no questions. From there to helping his friend Macfarlane dispose of the body of a man, John Gray, the latter has murdered for personal reasons, it is but a small step. Thereby becoming guilty to nearly the same degree as his fellow-student, he is destined to experience the same gruesome, and supernatural, retribution.
Stevenson is an uncontested master of the English language and evokes an eerie and baleful atmosphere that hovers over the story like the frown of doom, and he manages to build up his tale towards a very mysterious and striking ending. And yet, this is not the major attraction of this tale, which rather lies in the description of the gradual process in which Fettes, not too nice a moral chooser in the first place, becomes entangled in a net of guilt and complicity from which there is hardly any escape. Stevenson has the eye of a fine psychologist here:
Being in the wrong place, at the wrong moment, and not having the firmness to resist a minor temptation, or, what is even less, to leave undone what would be done by a nobler, braver man? Is this the root of evil in a person’s development? This is certainly an unsettling possibility, but still Stevenson suggests that the predispositions in a person’s character might also play a role in having him tend towards or away from snares that may bring about a deeper fall eventually. It is here that the story foreshadows one of the author’s unchallenged masterpieces, :
If we remember that Jekyll and Hyde are not two separate persons but that, as the name of the second gentleman implies, one is secretly part and parcel of the other and that therefore the Hyde is always present in the Jekyll, we can easily trace the connection between Fettes, who is respected but hardly respectable, and Jekyll, who has lived respectably but grown weary of his very respectability. In short, this tale sheds some fascinating light on how Stevenson develops his own view on human nature, and this I found more intriguing than the story as such.
All in all, this was easily the best of the November horror stories I enjoyed this year in our group’s reading circle.
Stevenson’s short story The Body Snatcher was actually published in the Christmas edition of the Pall Mall Gazette in 1884. Yes, you’ve read correctly: A Christmas edition. But then, a lot of 19th century ghost stories had a Christmas background, as Victorians apparently liked it to pass their Yuletides gathering round a blazing fire and listening to as well as spinning yarn about spectres, apparitions and other supernatural phenomena. In fact, the most well-known ghost story of all times is called A Christmas Carol and dates from that very period.
The Body Snatcher is losely based on the real-life case of two so-called resurrection-men, Burke and Hare, who went farther than their competitors in their zeal to procure fresh bodies for Edinburgh medical students and anatomists, the Scottish capital at that time being one of the centres of European medical studies and therefore promising an unwaning and urgent need for fresh bodies so that graves within the city and about it were often secured by mortsafes, i.e. gridiron cages fixed above freshly-dug graves. Burke and Hare did not wait for people to die and then dig out their earthly remains but they actually greatly precipitated the natural process in a couple of cases, and the same is true of the men whom the two medical students in this story, Fettes and Macfarlane, have fallen in with. Fettes at first only has slight suspicions, which he placidly ignores, but which one day are corroborated beyond any doubt when his henchmen bring him the body of a woman, Jane Galbraith, whom he saw in sound health the very day before. He does not raise hue and cry, however, but partly out of cowardice, partly out of indifference condones in the crime by paying the price that is demanded for the body and asking no questions. From there to helping his friend Macfarlane dispose of the body of a man, John Gray, the latter has murdered for personal reasons, it is but a small step. Thereby becoming guilty to nearly the same degree as his fellow-student, he is destined to experience the same gruesome, and supernatural, retribution.
Stevenson is an uncontested master of the English language and evokes an eerie and baleful atmosphere that hovers over the story like the frown of doom, and he manages to build up his tale towards a very mysterious and striking ending. And yet, this is not the major attraction of this tale, which rather lies in the description of the gradual process in which Fettes, not too nice a moral chooser in the first place, becomes entangled in a net of guilt and complicity from which there is hardly any escape. Stevenson has the eye of a fine psychologist here:
”’[…] This second little matter flows clearly from the first. Mr. Gray is the continuation of Miss Galbraith. You can’t begin and then stop. If you begin, you must keep on beginning; that’s the truth. No rest for the wicked.�
A horrible sense of blackness and the treachery of fate seized hold upon the soul of the unhappy student.
‘My God!� he cried, ‘but what have I done? and when did I begin? To be made a class assistant � in the name of reason, where’s the harm in that? […]’�
Being in the wrong place, at the wrong moment, and not having the firmness to resist a minor temptation, or, what is even less, to leave undone what would be done by a nobler, braver man? Is this the root of evil in a person’s development? This is certainly an unsettling possibility, but still Stevenson suggests that the predispositions in a person’s character might also play a role in having him tend towards or away from snares that may bring about a deeper fall eventually. It is here that the story foreshadows one of the author’s unchallenged masterpieces, :
”He was incapable of interest in the fate and fortunes of another, the slave of his own desires and low ambitions. Cold, light, and selfish in the last resort, he had that modicum of prudence, miscalled morality, which keeps a man from inconvenient drunkenness or punishable theft. He coveted, besides, a measure of consideration from his masters and his fellow-pupils, and he had no desire to fail conspicuously in the external parts of life. […] For his day of work he indemnified himself by nights of roaring, blackguardly enjoyment; and when that balance had been struck, the organ that he called his conscience declared itself contented.�
If we remember that Jekyll and Hyde are not two separate persons but that, as the name of the second gentleman implies, one is secretly part and parcel of the other and that therefore the Hyde is always present in the Jekyll, we can easily trace the connection between Fettes, who is respected but hardly respectable, and Jekyll, who has lived respectably but grown weary of his very respectability. In short, this tale sheds some fascinating light on how Stevenson develops his own view on human nature, and this I found more intriguing than the story as such.
All in all, this was easily the best of the November horror stories I enjoyed this year in our group’s reading circle.
Read
October 31, 2023The second I started this short, I was reminded of ‘The Body Snatcher� staring the inimitable Boris Karloff. I looked it up, and to my surprise, it is indeed loosely based on the book. Exciting!
|| "You can't begin and then stop. If you begin, you must keep on beginning: that's the truth. No rest for the wicked."
Written in 1884, this is a tale that will chill the bones! Basically, a group of friends are having a few drinks with a doctor in a local pub. One of the friends recognizes the local health services purveyor and, funny enough, worked with him in medical school. The friend, Fettes, used to ahem ‘run the logistical side� of providing the doctor with bodies so he could run tests on them. Unethical or progressing science at the time? You’ll have to decide.
As these things go, conscience starts to play a big role, certain people in-the-know are beckoned to keep silent about the doctor's procurements, and evidence is tampered with. There is one curiosity, though. What happens when the body evidence you thought you destroyed comes back to haunt you? Creepy, indeed.
|| "The more things are wrong the more we must act as if all were right."
This was a fun and interesting little haunt of a story. I did have a hard time (at points) following this one for some reason. The flow of the writing was sort of disjointed to an extent, but the insults cast between the characters were so much fun and dignified. There is always a certain charm to these types of books. The scientist or doctor is always attempting to ‘finish their work�, but meddlesome family, colleagues, and friends ultimately thwart their progress, leaving them no choice but to ramp up the timeline, which leads to some sort of catastrophic mistake(s).
So, the next time your professor asks you to obtain a corpse, it’s probably time to go to the registrar and change your course.
A great short to end the spooky season. 🎃
~~~Happy Halloween~~~
📝 | Extra | 📝’s
� Observation: Does every RLS novel start at a bar or detail a drunkard?
� Fun and exciting.
� The book cover and illustrations were amazing.
🎵| Soundtrack |🎵
� Philip Glass � London Fog
� Philip Glass � When the Dream Comes
� Philip Glass � The Crypt
� | Rating | �
� 4 out of 5
|| "You can't begin and then stop. If you begin, you must keep on beginning: that's the truth. No rest for the wicked."
Written in 1884, this is a tale that will chill the bones! Basically, a group of friends are having a few drinks with a doctor in a local pub. One of the friends recognizes the local health services purveyor and, funny enough, worked with him in medical school. The friend, Fettes, used to ahem ‘run the logistical side� of providing the doctor with bodies so he could run tests on them. Unethical or progressing science at the time? You’ll have to decide.
As these things go, conscience starts to play a big role, certain people in-the-know are beckoned to keep silent about the doctor's procurements, and evidence is tampered with. There is one curiosity, though. What happens when the body evidence you thought you destroyed comes back to haunt you? Creepy, indeed.
|| "The more things are wrong the more we must act as if all were right."
This was a fun and interesting little haunt of a story. I did have a hard time (at points) following this one for some reason. The flow of the writing was sort of disjointed to an extent, but the insults cast between the characters were so much fun and dignified. There is always a certain charm to these types of books. The scientist or doctor is always attempting to ‘finish their work�, but meddlesome family, colleagues, and friends ultimately thwart their progress, leaving them no choice but to ramp up the timeline, which leads to some sort of catastrophic mistake(s).
So, the next time your professor asks you to obtain a corpse, it’s probably time to go to the registrar and change your course.
A great short to end the spooky season. 🎃
~~~Happy Halloween~~~
📝 | Extra | 📝’s
� Observation: Does every RLS novel start at a bar or detail a drunkard?
� Fun and exciting.
� The book cover and illustrations were amazing.
🎵| Soundtrack |🎵
� Philip Glass � London Fog
� Philip Glass � When the Dream Comes
� Philip Glass � The Crypt
� | Rating | �
� 4 out of 5
August 18, 2017
Brilliant story. If you ever heard about the Burke and Hare murders of Edinburgh this is you story. Well paced and what a horrific ending. Absolute page turning story with appalling historic background. Absolute recommendation!
February 13, 2020
Robert Louis Stevenson takes an Edgar Allen Poe bent in this atmospheric short story. As the title suggests, this is the account of two medical students who are obtaining cadavers in an unscrupulous manner. I found myself quite wrapped up in the narrative and I liked the twist at the end.
**
After participating in a discussion group on this story, I have decided I looked at this story in far too simple a light. I have upgraded my rating from 3 to 4-stars.
**
After participating in a discussion group on this story, I have decided I looked at this story in far too simple a light. I have upgraded my rating from 3 to 4-stars.
July 20, 2020
Breve relato inspirado en los resuccionistas Burke y Hare.
A diferencia de lo que ocurría en otros páises, donde cualquier cuerpo que no fuese reclamado podría ser "utilizado para la ciencia", en el caso de Reino Unido, sus prestigiosas universidades tenían que pugnar entre ellas para conseguir la "materia prima" a diseccionar en sus clases. Desde la "primera donación" del Parlamento británico en 1542, hasta su regulación con el Acta de Anatomía de 1832, solo podían disponer legalmente de los cuerpos de los condenados a muerte, mercado que se redujo considerablemente con la revocación del "Bloody Code"-a partir de 1815- y otros cambios legales -a partir de 1823- que redujeron las ejecuciones, hasta el punto en que universidades como la de medicina de Edimburgo, solo podía acceder legalmente a 2 o 3 cuerpos al año.
Este nicho de mercado fue avistado y aprovechado por algunos individuos, como los famosos William Burke y William Hare (los asesinatos de West Port, Edimburgo) que en 1827 regentaban una pensión y ante la muerte fortuida de un pobre huesped, sin saber qué hacer con el cuerpo, decidieron ofrecerselo al doctor Knox -un profesor de anatomía de la zona-. Ante los pingües beneficios, decidieron poner en marcha la empresa, crearon su propio método de producción, conocido posteriormente como "burking" o "método Burke" -matar oprimiendo el pecho de la víctima hasta afixiarla- y acabaron suministrando 16 "frescos" cadáveres en el plazo de un año, hasta que fueron detenidos. La historia de estos individuos y de las mafias de profanadores salteadores de tumbas tan extendidas en la época, inspiraron el relato El ladrón de cadáveres de Stevenson.
El breve relato de Stevenson trata el tema de la moralidad. La dualidad entre Fettes, el decrépito y fracasado "matasanos", que no pudo superar un hecho ocurrido cuando era un brillante estudiante de medicina, frente a Macfarlane, el prestigioso doctor que ha triunfado, compañero de aventuras de Fettes en aquella época y al cual no le afectó -moralmente- los hechos acontecidos.
A través de Fettes vamos viendo primero sus dudas sobre el dudoso origen de los tratos realizados, pero es mejor ver, oir y callar, ... no preguntar, ¡solo son cuerpos para la ciencia!. Hasta que ya no es un "simple cuerpo" el que te hace dudar. Una tensión que va en aumento alcanzando la cúspide en esa escena final que supone la confirmación de las sospechas y deja al lector desosegado.
Sinceramente me ha gustado más buscar los origenes de esta historia basada en hechos reales que el propio relato de Stevenson. Aún así puede resultar entretenido.
De los relatos recogidos en la edición de Valdemar de El extraño caso del doctor Jekyll y Mr. Hyde, y otros relatos de terror, donde se encuentra este relato, me gustó más Markheim, que El ladrón de cadáveres.
Valoración: 5/10
Lectura: julio 2020
A diferencia de lo que ocurría en otros páises, donde cualquier cuerpo que no fuese reclamado podría ser "utilizado para la ciencia", en el caso de Reino Unido, sus prestigiosas universidades tenían que pugnar entre ellas para conseguir la "materia prima" a diseccionar en sus clases. Desde la "primera donación" del Parlamento británico en 1542, hasta su regulación con el Acta de Anatomía de 1832, solo podían disponer legalmente de los cuerpos de los condenados a muerte, mercado que se redujo considerablemente con la revocación del "Bloody Code"-a partir de 1815- y otros cambios legales -a partir de 1823- que redujeron las ejecuciones, hasta el punto en que universidades como la de medicina de Edimburgo, solo podía acceder legalmente a 2 o 3 cuerpos al año.
Este nicho de mercado fue avistado y aprovechado por algunos individuos, como los famosos William Burke y William Hare (los asesinatos de West Port, Edimburgo) que en 1827 regentaban una pensión y ante la muerte fortuida de un pobre huesped, sin saber qué hacer con el cuerpo, decidieron ofrecerselo al doctor Knox -un profesor de anatomía de la zona-. Ante los pingües beneficios, decidieron poner en marcha la empresa, crearon su propio método de producción, conocido posteriormente como "burking" o "método Burke" -matar oprimiendo el pecho de la víctima hasta afixiarla- y acabaron suministrando 16 "frescos" cadáveres en el plazo de un año, hasta que fueron detenidos. La historia de estos individuos y de las mafias de profanadores salteadores de tumbas tan extendidas en la época, inspiraron el relato El ladrón de cadáveres de Stevenson.
El breve relato de Stevenson trata el tema de la moralidad. La dualidad entre Fettes, el decrépito y fracasado "matasanos", que no pudo superar un hecho ocurrido cuando era un brillante estudiante de medicina, frente a Macfarlane, el prestigioso doctor que ha triunfado, compañero de aventuras de Fettes en aquella época y al cual no le afectó -moralmente- los hechos acontecidos.
A través de Fettes vamos viendo primero sus dudas sobre el dudoso origen de los tratos realizados, pero es mejor ver, oir y callar, ... no preguntar, ¡solo son cuerpos para la ciencia!. Hasta que ya no es un "simple cuerpo" el que te hace dudar. Una tensión que va en aumento alcanzando la cúspide en esa escena final que supone la confirmación de las sospechas y deja al lector desosegado.
Sinceramente me ha gustado más buscar los origenes de esta historia basada en hechos reales que el propio relato de Stevenson. Aún así puede resultar entretenido.
De los relatos recogidos en la edición de Valdemar de El extraño caso del doctor Jekyll y Mr. Hyde, y otros relatos de terror, donde se encuentra este relato, me gustó más Markheim, que El ladrón de cadáveres.
Valoración: 5/10
Lectura: julio 2020
February 8, 2020
It was a cras tibi which re-echoed in his soul, that two whom he had known should have come to lie upon these icy tables.
I enjoyed the writing and the suspense in this very short tale. Part ghost story, part insight into historical study of anatomy, it makes you think: do we still benefit today from medical discoveries that were made at the hands of mercenaries and professionals willing to turn a blind eye? Chilling.
I enjoyed the writing and the suspense in this very short tale. Part ghost story, part insight into historical study of anatomy, it makes you think: do we still benefit today from medical discoveries that were made at the hands of mercenaries and professionals willing to turn a blind eye? Chilling.
October 17, 2022
Will I never feel the way I felt when I read The Monkey's Paw? That's what I'm looking for.
This had a very lovely flow of prose but ultimately it felt tired and trite. The "twist" is ineffective because it's telegraphed so clumsily. This is a study in how not to write suspense. There's a vague sense of atmosphere but perhaps Stevenson does it better when it's a full-length novel.
This had a very lovely flow of prose but ultimately it felt tired and trite. The "twist" is ineffective because it's telegraphed so clumsily. This is a study in how not to write suspense. There's a vague sense of atmosphere but perhaps Stevenson does it better when it's a full-length novel.
September 4, 2023
This was a really creepy story. I can’t say I really liked it. But it certainly left a big impression.
I don’t wanna say too much about it but the title kind of tells you what it’s about. I seem to find that these early horror novels from long ago don’t really seem to do it for me. I’m not sure why that is.
The story isn’t that long and I suppose if you like Reading about bodysnatching Gravedigging creepy characters you might like this. One thing that did get me was the atmosphere. It was dark and it was eerie and I mean if you’re at home alone and reading this you’re gonna be creeped out.
But I just wasn’t really into it. The genre isn’t really my thing and the subject matter was rather distasteful.
Creepy? Yes. Spooky? Yes. Moody? Yes. A little dated? I found it so. Slow moving? I found it so.
A little hard to understand in places? I found it so in many points. I think at the end of the day I’m just the wrong audience.
I don’t wanna say too much about it but the title kind of tells you what it’s about. I seem to find that these early horror novels from long ago don’t really seem to do it for me. I’m not sure why that is.
The story isn’t that long and I suppose if you like Reading about bodysnatching Gravedigging creepy characters you might like this. One thing that did get me was the atmosphere. It was dark and it was eerie and I mean if you’re at home alone and reading this you’re gonna be creeped out.
But I just wasn’t really into it. The genre isn’t really my thing and the subject matter was rather distasteful.
Creepy? Yes. Spooky? Yes. Moody? Yes. A little dated? I found it so. Slow moving? I found it so.
A little hard to understand in places? I found it so in many points. I think at the end of the day I’m just the wrong audience.
March 1, 2020
I didn't expect to like this but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
November 2, 2022
I love to read books that I have either seen the movie or listened to on OTR (old time radio), sometimes they are just as written but a lot of the times, the director changes several things which can put another it into a not so sinister light. In this case the book is more dark, if you can get darker by Body Snatching. The book has an ending that is mysterious which I did not remember but when googling the 1945 movie it had a kind of spin like the book but more decisive. The movie version had my favorite horror actor, Boris Karloff and he is teamed with Bela Lugosi. There was a positive aspect to that movie concerning a patient but also murder was there to get "the merchandise". What a word that gives chills up my back to the sound of that concerning bodies for dissection. I can hear the women in the movie and radio program using that word lightly, they had taken the word from Stevenson's story. The radio version was the less dark of the three and I have heard many radio versions over the years. So to sum it up Stevenson brought a chilling topic to his readers with the dark side of human nature and what lengths one would go to advance science. Morals, values and conscience must guide humanity otherwise what we condone today will change the path ahead, which might not be for the better. I have just recently started reading his stories and look forward to more.
This is one version from Suspense OTR , November 24, 1942
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert
Reread November 2, 2022
In the story the doctors that deal in buying merchandise of bodies and also do the snatching themselves, the younger doctor who first felt troubled about fresh murdered victims being sold but the older young doctor leads him not to feel badly. This older doctor had killed a man named Gray who was mean to him and had some kind of control over him. Then one night digging up a farmer's wife but later finding it was Gray who was long gone and dissented. A ghost. The younger doctor gave up being a medical man but the other is favorite in London but not too happy to see the other doctor later in life. The radio and movie version centers on the selling of a young girl that is found out and the doctor informed the police after they came to investigate.
This is one version from Suspense OTR , November 24, 1942
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert
Reread November 2, 2022
In the story the doctors that deal in buying merchandise of bodies and also do the snatching themselves, the younger doctor who first felt troubled about fresh murdered victims being sold but the older young doctor leads him not to feel badly. This older doctor had killed a man named Gray who was mean to him and had some kind of control over him. Then one night digging up a farmer's wife but later finding it was Gray who was long gone and dissented. A ghost. The younger doctor gave up being a medical man but the other is favorite in London but not too happy to see the other doctor later in life. The radio and movie version centers on the selling of a young girl that is found out and the doctor informed the police after they came to investigate.
November 4, 2019
Basierend auf dem realen Fall der West-Port-Morde, erzählt Stevenson eine finstere Kriminalgeschichte rund um das despektierliche Geschäft des Leichenhandels zu akademischen Zwecken. Wie man lernt, gab es zu diesen Zeiten wohl öfters einen Mangel an geeigneten Objekten. Da hieß es dann Eigeninitiative zeigen und selbst ein wenig nachzuhelfen, damit die Anatomievorlesung keine rein theoretische Angelegenheit wurde.
Einem durch zahlreiche TV-Leichen gestählten Leser wird angesichts der makabren Einzelheiten kaum der Schrecken in die Glieder fahren. Doch finde ich die Story von der Stimmung her ziemlich gelungen. Das Ende wirkt mit dem Rückgriff auf übernatürliche Einflüsse etwas konstruiert und lässt bei mir noch einige Fragen offen.
Einem durch zahlreiche TV-Leichen gestählten Leser wird angesichts der makabren Einzelheiten kaum der Schrecken in die Glieder fahren. Doch finde ich die Story von der Stimmung her ziemlich gelungen. Das Ende wirkt mit dem Rückgriff auf übernatürliche Einflüsse etwas konstruiert und lässt bei mir noch einige Fragen offen.
October 14, 2023
One of my favorite spooky stories by one of my favorite writers. Though not as well known as Stevenson's novella "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," it is a chilling exposé of corruption in the medical industry, as it details the crimes of two assistants for a gross anatomy lab at the Edinburgh medical school. Essentially an exploration of the modern ghoul motif, this is a twisted tale of grave robbing and worse that was inspired by the West Port murders committed by Dr. Knox and his henchmen Burke and Hare. The story itself inspired the brilliant 1945 film of the same name starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.
It first appeared in 1884 for the Christmas edition of the "Pall Mall Gazette," and then posthumously reprinted in the 1905 three-story collection "Tales and Fantasies."
Go and find a copy to read on a stormy night for a quick indulgence of your ghastly literary pleasures.
It first appeared in 1884 for the Christmas edition of the "Pall Mall Gazette," and then posthumously reprinted in the 1905 three-story collection "Tales and Fantasies."
Go and find a copy to read on a stormy night for a quick indulgence of your ghastly literary pleasures.
January 17, 2023
You know that the story did it right when you can not guess what is coming, despite the tale being age-old and innumerably adapted. However, this story doesn't feel like Stevenson, but more like Poe. The macabre is done just right, and the sense of moral dilemma that the story invokes is satisfactory, not as much as you can ask for, but still, it's not always on the face. It is one of those brilliant instances of creeping up behind you, making you uncomfortable and aware of its presence, but not in a way that will make you want to break out of the tension and turn around to look it in the face but will jump out at you just at the moment you get a bit relaxed, in a way you were never expecting it.
March 22, 2017
What does it take to be a resurrection man. Was that job good for the medical industry or just plain bad.
February 29, 2020
Very creepy story. Stevenson really set the tone well. The ending caught me by complete surprise.
September 26, 2012
Robert Louis Stevenson, most well know for the famous Jekyll & Hide, has crafted a creepy, atmospheric, and elegantly written short story about grave robbery. This entertaining story contains only one real flaw which is that it leads to a rather disappointing ending.
October 26, 2022
“They bring the body, and we pay the price.�
This is a short, morbid tale about the acquisition of bodies for medical students to dissect. But where exactly do the bodies come from? That head you’re dissecting looks quite familiar.
This is a short, morbid tale about the acquisition of bodies for medical students to dissect. But where exactly do the bodies come from? That head you’re dissecting looks quite familiar.
October 28, 2016
2.5
Just okay. Well written but a little boring.
June 21, 2018
This is essentially a tale based loosely on the escapades of Burke and Hare who worked for the infamous anatomist Robert Knox, supplying his private medical school in Edinburgh with dead bodies for dissection. It was common that bodies for medical research were dug up from recent burials, but Burke and Hare's corpses were uncannily fresh - and that's because they weren't grave robbers... instead they created corpses through murder.
It was too much of a temptation for Edinburgh-born novelist not to write about this homegrown horror when he was asked to create a 'shilling shocker' for Christmas. As always, his writing is fabulous and the Gothic elements even better, but for me, this short story was just a bit too...well, short. If it had been a more developed piece like the glorious then I am positive it would have received a higher rating from me. It felt rather rushed and the ending was anticlimactic. Back in the day this was written, I'm sure it would have played more on the superstitions of the contemporary reader, and even today, the foul exploitative business of grave robbing is quite nasty - but this was just not nearly as good as what I'm used to with Stevenson, although an interesting historical document nonetheless.
After Burke and Hare had murdered up to 15 unfortunates from the Edinburgh slums, they were finally convicted. And although both were equally guilty, Hare was set free whilst Burke was hanged and then very fittingly dissected. You can pop in and visit Burke (or what's left of him) at the Edinburgh Medical School. Nice.
If you want a fun and concise summary of the escapades of Burke and Hare, watch the Horrible Histories song - it's great.
It was too much of a temptation for Edinburgh-born novelist not to write about this homegrown horror when he was asked to create a 'shilling shocker' for Christmas. As always, his writing is fabulous and the Gothic elements even better, but for me, this short story was just a bit too...well, short. If it had been a more developed piece like the glorious then I am positive it would have received a higher rating from me. It felt rather rushed and the ending was anticlimactic. Back in the day this was written, I'm sure it would have played more on the superstitions of the contemporary reader, and even today, the foul exploitative business of grave robbing is quite nasty - but this was just not nearly as good as what I'm used to with Stevenson, although an interesting historical document nonetheless.
After Burke and Hare had murdered up to 15 unfortunates from the Edinburgh slums, they were finally convicted. And although both were equally guilty, Hare was set free whilst Burke was hanged and then very fittingly dissected. You can pop in and visit Burke (or what's left of him) at the Edinburgh Medical School. Nice.
If you want a fun and concise summary of the escapades of Burke and Hare, watch the Horrible Histories song - it's great.
November 3, 2019
Mir gefällt die Geschichte immer noch sehr gut, sowohl was Sprache als auch was die Geschichte angeht. Das liegt nicht zuletzt daran, dass es sich um eine Art True Crime-Story handelt. Inspiriert haben Stevenson zwei Leichenräuber und Mörder namens Burke und Hare, die zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts in Edinburgh Leichen für den Arzt Robert Knox „besorgten�.
Insbesondere Burke hat es zu nachhaltigem Ruhm geschafft: Im Gegensatz zu seinen Opfern, deren Leichen bei Obduktionen zerteilt und wer weiß wo geendet sind, weiß man das Burke sehr genau. Man kann sich sein Skelett heute in einem Museum in Edinburg anschauen
und an anderer Stelle ein Buch, dessen Einband angeblich aus Burkes Haut besteht (siehe )
Selbst in der englischen Sprache hat sich Burke verewigt, denn mit „to burke� wird eine Tötungsart beschrieben, die er zu aktiven Zeiten praktizierte.
Ja, das Ende ist etwas absurd und unerklärlich. Aber Stevenson wollte wohl eine Novelle mit einer „unerhörten Begebenheit� schreiben und hat dann etwas übertrieben.
Insbesondere Burke hat es zu nachhaltigem Ruhm geschafft: Im Gegensatz zu seinen Opfern, deren Leichen bei Obduktionen zerteilt und wer weiß wo geendet sind, weiß man das Burke sehr genau. Man kann sich sein Skelett heute in einem Museum in Edinburg anschauen
und an anderer Stelle ein Buch, dessen Einband angeblich aus Burkes Haut besteht (siehe )
Selbst in der englischen Sprache hat sich Burke verewigt, denn mit „to burke� wird eine Tötungsart beschrieben, die er zu aktiven Zeiten praktizierte.
Ja, das Ende ist etwas absurd und unerklärlich. Aber Stevenson wollte wohl eine Novelle mit einer „unerhörten Begebenheit� schreiben und hat dann etwas übertrieben.
February 7, 2020
How does one make the transition from good to evil? In The Body Snatchers, Stevenson argues that we should beware of that first step, as the transition is a gradual trip down the slippery slope.
We fool ourselves into believing that there isn't a problem � avoidance is tempting � until we discover that our silence gets us trapped in quicksand. As Fettes observed, "Had that idea been broached to him in words, he would have recoiled in horror; but the lightness of [Dr. Mcfarlane's] speech upon so grave a matter was, in itself, an offence against good manners, and a temptation to the men with whom he dealt. Fettes was a willing accomplice, averting his eyes rather than acknowledging that he had been involved with murder.
Fettes would have given the world to have been a little braver at the time, but it did not occur to him that he might still be brave. Yes, he made questionable decisions, but at each step Fettes could have said no. Sometimes it is convenient to believe we don't have choices.
The Body Snatchers is a story of moral courage, something we see too little evidence of. Stevenson asks what courage is, what moral courage and bravery are, and suggests that their absence corrupts. At its ending, one imagines something out of the Tell-tale Heart or Picture of Dorian Gray: one cannot cheat and kill with impunity.
Maybe Wilde played on the theme of this story and took the name of his protagonist from it.
The Body Snatchers is more or less believable until the ending, when it crosses into the supernatural. Does it gain or lose power in doing so? I would have liked Fettes to become more believably aware of the ways that he had been corrupted. I may be in a minority in this regard, though.
I read this book as part of GR's Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) group.
We fool ourselves into believing that there isn't a problem � avoidance is tempting � until we discover that our silence gets us trapped in quicksand. As Fettes observed, "Had that idea been broached to him in words, he would have recoiled in horror; but the lightness of [Dr. Mcfarlane's] speech upon so grave a matter was, in itself, an offence against good manners, and a temptation to the men with whom he dealt. Fettes was a willing accomplice, averting his eyes rather than acknowledging that he had been involved with murder.
Fettes would have given the world to have been a little braver at the time, but it did not occur to him that he might still be brave. Yes, he made questionable decisions, but at each step Fettes could have said no. Sometimes it is convenient to believe we don't have choices.
The Body Snatchers is a story of moral courage, something we see too little evidence of. Stevenson asks what courage is, what moral courage and bravery are, and suggests that their absence corrupts. At its ending, one imagines something out of the Tell-tale Heart or Picture of Dorian Gray: one cannot cheat and kill with impunity.
Maybe Wilde played on the theme of this story and took the name of his protagonist from it.
The Body Snatchers is more or less believable until the ending, when it crosses into the supernatural. Does it gain or lose power in doing so? I would have liked Fettes to become more believably aware of the ways that he had been corrupted. I may be in a minority in this regard, though.
I read this book as part of GR's Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) group.
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