The Resurrectionist
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Review
"'Marries a gruesome and thrilling horror story to an intense brooding meditation on the most profound metaphysical questions.' Sydney Morning Herald"
Daily Telegraph
'A classically claustrophobic Gothic chiller.'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
101 of 108 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Although getting off to a reasonable start this book soon becomes more than a little frustrating. Having read a number of other reviews on this site I am left a little mystified and anyone expecting a cross between Lovecraft and Dickens will be mightily disappointed.
The story, as has been written elsewhere, takes us through the protagonists decline from anatomists assistant to drug addicted bodysnatcher but forgets to create a deep enough back story for the reader to actually care. All the characters in the book are made largely uninteresting owing to a lack of depth and it is a little bit of a cheat to say that just because the books subject is a little macabre that this is a spine tingling page turner. Buyer beware because it is not. It's not that the novel is badly written, it's actually the opposite, but no time is given to plot or character development and there is no feeling that the main characters fall from grace is at any point anything other than a trite and rather linear progression. One minute Gabriel Swift is a gentleman entering London society, an anatomists apprentice at the dawn of the age of discovery; the next he's a murdering opium addict. Lucan, Mr Poll, Charles, etc etc. There are charcters here somewhere. "If only" would sum up this novel nicely.
It is hard not to suspect that either it has been over-edited or the author was only allowed to write a novel of a certain length for some reason. Either way both story and characters are thin and sickly creatures and it is a shame that a writer who clearly has some talent ultimately has produced a work that leaves this reader wishing for more.
The second part of the story, mentioned in a few reviews is also a little odd and when reading the book, the jump from one story to another is at first confusing. It seems almost as if part 2 were written because someone somewhere asked for a happier ending.
The story, as has been written elsewhere, takes us through the protagonists decline from anatomists assistant to drug addicted bodysnatcher but forgets to create a deep enough back story for the reader to actually care. All the characters in the book are made largely uninteresting owing to a lack of depth and it is a little bit of a cheat to say that just because the books subject is a little macabre that this is a spine tingling page turner. Buyer beware because it is not. It's not that the novel is badly written, it's actually the opposite, but no time is given to plot or character development and there is no feeling that the main characters fall from grace is at any point anything other than a trite and rather linear progression. One minute Gabriel Swift is a gentleman entering London society, an anatomists apprentice at the dawn of the age of discovery; the next he's a murdering opium addict. Lucan, Mr Poll, Charles, etc etc. There are charcters here somewhere. "If only" would sum up this novel nicely.
It is hard not to suspect that either it has been over-edited or the author was only allowed to write a novel of a certain length for some reason. Either way both story and characters are thin and sickly creatures and it is a shame that a writer who clearly has some talent ultimately has produced a work that leaves this reader wishing for more.
The second part of the story, mentioned in a few reviews is also a little odd and when reading the book, the jump from one story to another is at first confusing. It seems almost as if part 2 were written because someone somewhere asked for a happier ending.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was so disappointing. It is very well-written, very descriptive and creates a dark and chilling atmosphere. However, there is very little plot and the characters are just not interesting. I constantly had to backtrack to refresh my memory on who was who as they all seemed so bland and similar. I didn't get the last bit of the book. Other than explaining why it was titled the resurrectionist it seems as if it was cobbled on to the end from a different novel altogether.
56 of 61 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
James Bradley's portrait of one man's descent into a hell of his own making, and his seduction by the darker side of life, has left me reeling. Gabriel Swift arrives in London in 1826 to work alongside one of the city's great anatomists, preparing corpses for lecture - but his increasing involvement with the resurrectionists of the book's title sets him on a different path. At once a claustrophic page-turner, there's something unusually classical here as well - the novel is Dickensian in its detail, and its characters often feel as if they walked straight out of a Shakespearean tragedy into the underside of 1820s London. Lucan, overlord of the city's illegal trade in human bodies, is majestically drawn - but it's Gabriel's slow slide away from innocence, and the way Bradley twists and plays with the reader's sympathy, that truly haunts. The moment when the reader finally understands how far Gabriel has come, how the city has corrupted him, how he has been touched and tainted by the things he has seen and done, comes upon you so viciously and abruptly that it's a moment I'm still brooding on.
Deeply addictive - and one of the most pleasingly unsettling novels I've read in years.
Deeply addictive - and one of the most pleasingly unsettling novels I've read in years.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Boringly dull and disappointing.
The Resurrectionist
I came to this novel with high expectations that were very quickly dashed. Read more
I came to this novel with high expectations that were very quickly dashed. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Bibliophile
Confusing and depressing
This is the first time I've ever felt compelled to write a review, but unfortunately it is for all the wrong reasons. Read more
Published 4 months ago by one hundred
Disappointing in the extreme
Why does this book carry such an accolade on its cover?
I have read two chapters and am here writing my review already.
For a start, the research is faulty. Read more
I have read two chapters and am here writing my review already.
For a start, the research is faulty. Read more
Published 8 months ago by White Rose
Fall of Man
The dark world of the early days of anatomy and those who supplied them with the bodies. Gabriel Swift starts the book as an apprentice, preparing bodies for anatomy lectures, but... Read more
Published 8 months ago by soffitta1
Very Disappointed
I was very much looking forward to this book as the subject very much interests me and I love good historic fiction. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Sarah
Disappointing Indeed - Don't Bother
Having recently read Rutherford's 'London', I was really looking forward to this. In my opinion it was awful. I fought me way through to the end. The jump to Australia is bizarre. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Knightrider
They don't want rubber sheets, they want straightjackets.
Gabriel Swift arrives in London in 1826, to study as an apprentice with Edwin Poll - the famous surgeon and anatomist. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Craobh Rua
Bizzare
its a really interesting book, but i think a lot of the authors when they write about the eighteenth century Britain, base thier characters in the middle classes. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Sontee
Sublime
I do agree with some of the reviewers that the characterisation and plotting was maybe a little thin.
However, the language was sublime. Read more
However, the language was sublime. Read more
Published on 25 Oct 2009 by nik_green
Mysterious and cryptic, but frustrating
I think this book is too mysterious for its own good. "And yet between us there is much unsaid, omissions and questions unpursued," is a typical line from this book and I kept... Read more
Published on 16 Oct 2009 by SAP
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