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Review
"Lisa Rosner ... has carried out a fascinating 'CSI' style investigation... Her remarkable discoveries-told in her new book, The Anatomy Murders-[have] unraveled poignant details which bring to 'life' the personalities of some of the pair's unfortunate and, until now, largely anonymous victims."-Evening News, Edinburgh "An engaging, readable, and comprehensive account of this famous case."-Journal of British Studies "Rosner has delivered the definitive account in both detail and interest."-ForeWord "This book provides us with a history of 1820s Edinburgh as much as it does of the Burke and Hare murders. The sense Rosner gives her readers of time and place is extraordinarily well done. Beautifully written."-Social History of Medicine "This will be enjoyed by true crime fans as well as British history buffs. Engaging, atmospheric, and tantalizing."-Library Journal
Product Description
Up the close and down the stair, Up and down with Burke and Hare. Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief, Knox the man who buys the beef. -anonymous children's song On Halloween night 1828, in the West Port district of Edinburgh, Scotland, a woman sometimes known as Madgy Docherty was last seen in the company of William Burke and William Hare. Days later, police discovered her remains in the surgery of the prominent anatomist Dr. Robert Knox. Docherty was the final victim of the most atrocious murder spree of the century, outflanking even Jack the Ripper's. Together with their accomplices, Burke and Hare would be accused of killing sixteen people over the course of twelve months in order to sell the corpses as "subjects" for dissection. The ensuing criminal investigation into the "Anatomy Murders" raised troubling questions about the common practices by which medical men obtained cadavers, the lives of the poor in Edinburgh's back alleys, and the ability of the police to protect the public from cold-blooded murder. Famous among true crime aficionados, Burke and Hare were the first serial killers to capture media attention, yet The Anatomy Murders is the first book to situate their story against the social and cultural forces that were bringing early nineteenth-century Britain into modernity. In Lisa Rosner's deft treatment, each of the murder victims, from the beautiful, doomed Mary Paterson to the unfortunate "Daft Jamie," opens a window on a different aspect of this world in transition. Tapping into a wealth of unpublished materials, Rosner meticulously portrays the aspirations of doctors and anatomists, the makeshift existence of the so-called dangerous classes, the rudimentary police apparatus, and the half-fiction, half-journalism of the popular press. The Anatomy Murders resurrects a tale of murder and medicine in a city whose grand Georgian squares and crescents stood beside a maze of slums, a place in which a dead body was far more valuable than a living laborer.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As a native of Edinburgh with an interest in its history and the history of medical science I thought this book would provide a new perspective on this infamous episode. From that respect I was not disappointed. The way the differerent characters killed by Burke and Hare are used to link to the bigger picture of life for the poor in the city at that time is well done. The underlying currents portrayed in the book from the political issues between the defence and prosecution lawyers to the infighting between the surgeons are well described. The only issue, small as it is, are the slight Americanisms that crept in within some of the descriptions which an editor in the UK may have changed. As the author is from North America one can let that issue go and not let it stand in the way of a good record of the whole Burke and Hare phenomenom. Altogether a good read which will, hopefully, persuade the reader to discover more about he dark side of Edinburgh during its role in the European Enlightment.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I found this book increasingly annoying to read. I did read the reviews on here before purchasing this book and one reviewer stated that Lisa Rosner used a lot of quotations which didn't make for pleasing reading. I didn't think too much of this but I had no idea how much I would agree with this reviewer. Almost every line includes a quotation from someone or other and it really distracted me from the history of the crimes themselves.
Lisa Rosner has really done her research into Burke and Hare and it really shows, however in my opinion I would have liked her to piece together the story from her own words and not just place quotations here and there and everywhere. It just doesn't make for a good read.
I commend Lisa for the amount of research she has obviously conducted and she would certainly gain high marks if this was an exam paper but it isn't, it's a book.
I feel I am being a little harsh, I am sure there would be lots of people who would read through this with no problems but I am not one of those people unfortunately.
Lisa Rosner has really done her research into Burke and Hare and it really shows, however in my opinion I would have liked her to piece together the story from her own words and not just place quotations here and there and everywhere. It just doesn't make for a good read.
I commend Lisa for the amount of research she has obviously conducted and she would certainly gain high marks if this was an exam paper but it isn't, it's a book.
I feel I am being a little harsh, I am sure there would be lots of people who would read through this with no problems but I am not one of those people unfortunately.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Not only a study of Burke and Hare (and their female partners), the anatomists (who purchased the bodies of the murder victims) and the victims themselves - but also a fasinating insight into the society and culture of the times that puts the crimes into context
eg (irish) immigration, poverty, resurrectionists, police techniques, dissection/surgical study, justice system, contemporary media publications and the Anatomy Act.
eg (irish) immigration, poverty, resurrectionists, police techniques, dissection/surgical study, justice system, contemporary media publications and the Anatomy Act.
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