The Body Snatcher and Other Stories - Softcover

Stevenson, R L

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0753808617 ISBN 13: 9780753808610

Publisher: PHOENIX PAPERBACK, 1999

Synopsis

The Body-Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson - Short Ghost Stories. The Body Snatcher (1884) is a short story by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. First published in the Pall Mall Christmas "Extra", in December 1884, the story is based on characters in the employ of Robert Knox, around the time of the Burke and Hare murders. The story begins with a group of friends sharing a few drinks, when an eminent doctor, Wolfe MacFarlane, enters. One of the friends, Fettes, recognizes the name and angrily confronts the new arrival. Although his friends all find this behaviour suspicious, none of them can understand what might lie behind it. It transpires that MacFarlane and Fettes had attended medical school together, under the famous professor of anatomy, Robert Knox. Their duties included taking receipt of bodies for dissection, and paying the pair of shifty and suspicious men who supplied them. On one occasion, Fettes identifies a body as that of a woman he knew, and is convinced she has been murdered. But MacFarlane talks him out of reporting the incident, lest they are both implicated in the crime. Later, Fettes meets MacFarlane at a tavern, along with a man named Gray, who treats MacFarlane in a rude manner. The following night, MacFarlane brings Gray's body along as a dissection sample. Although Fettes is now certain that his friend has committed murder, MacFarlane again convinces him to keep his silence, persuading him that if he is not courageous enough to perform such manly deeds as these, he will end up as just another victim. The two men make sure the body is comprehensively dissected, destroying any forensic evidence. Fettes and MacFarlane continue their work, without being implicated in any crime. However, when a shortage of bodies leaves their mentor in need, they are sent to a country churchyard to exhume a recently buried woman. As they are driving back with the body seated between them, they begin to feel nervous and stop to take a better look. They are shocked to discover that the body between them is that of Gray, which they thought they had destroyed.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Scotland, 1815. Fettes, a young medical student, is learning more than he ever wanted to know about corpses. He is shocked to realize that the corpses they are using in class are not donated, but rather stolen from fresh graves--and now he must get himself a new one. Fettes thinks he's up to this terrifying task, but he can't anticipate what will happen that night--or the body that will haunt him for the rest of his life. Adapted from the short story by Robert Louis Stevenson, this easy-to-read, edge-of-your-seat version will grab reluctant readers who expect a good scare!  

About the Author:

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. His most famous works are Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. A literary celebrity during his lifetime, Stevenson now ranks among the 26 most translated authors in the world. His works have been admired by many other writers, including Jorge Luis Borges, Bertolt Brecht, Marcel Proust, Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry James, Cesare Pavese, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Jack London, Vladimir Nabokov, J. M. Barrie, and G. K. Chesterton, who said of him that he "seemed to pick the right word up on the point of his pen, like a man playing spillikins."

About this edition

• Publisher: PHOENIX PAPERBACK
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0753808617
• ISBN 13: 9780753808610
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256