Possessing the Dead explores the disturbing history of the cadaver trade in Scotland, England and Australia.
London, 1868- visiting Australian Aboriginal cricketer Charles Rose has died in Guy's Hospital. What happened next is shrouded in mystery. The only certainty is that Charles Rose's body did not go directly to a grave. Written with clarity and verve, and drawing on a rich array of material, Possessing the Dead explores the disturbing history of the cadaver trade in Scotland, England and Australia, where laws once gave certain officials possession of the dead, and no corpse lying in a workhouse, hospital, asylum or gaol was entirely safe from interference. With a rare blend of curiosity, delight in the unexpected and an eye for detail, award-winning historian Helen MacDonald brings to life this gruesome past to reveal the chicanery at play behind the procuring of bodies for dissections, autopsies and collections.
By:
Helen MacDonald Imprint: MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PRES Country of Publication: Australia Dimensions:
Height: 236mm,
Width: 153mm,
Spine: 23mm
Weight: 402g ISBN:9780522857351 ISBN 10: 0522857353 Pages: 304 Publication Date:01 June 2010 Audience:
General/trade
,
College/higher education
,
ELT Advanced
,
Primary
Format:Paperback Publisher's Status: Unspecified
Helen MacDonald is the author of the critically acclaimed Human Remains.
Reviews for Possessing The Dead: The Artful Science of Anatomy
MacDonald is that rare and precious commodity: a crack historian with a taste for the bizarre. --New York Times Book Review