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    The Resurrectionist
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    The Resurrectionist
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    The Resurrectionist
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Resurrectionist

    Written by James Bradley

    Narrated by Stan Pretty

    3/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    London, 1826. Leaving behind his father's tragic failures, Gabriel Swift arrives to study with Edwin Poll, the greatest of the city's anatomists. It is his chance to find advancement by making a name for himself. But instead he finds himself drawn to his master's nemesis, Lucan, the most powerful of the city's resurrectionists and ruler of its trade in stolen bodies. Dismissed by Mr Poll, Gabriel descends into the violence and corruption of London's underworld, a place where everything and everyone is for sale, and where - as Gabriel discovers - the taking of a life is easier than it might seem.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherW. F. Howes Ltd
    Release dateJan 1, 2009
    ISBN9781407433189
    Unavailable
    The Resurrectionist
    Author

    James Bradley

    James Bradley is a writer and critic. His books include the novels Wrack, The Deep Field, The Resurrectionist, Clade, and Ghost Species; a book of poetry, Paper Nautilus; and The Penguin Book of the Ocean. Alongside his books, James has an established career as an essayist and reviewer, whose work has appeared in publications including The Guardian, The Monthly, Sydney Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement, Meanjin, and Griffith Review. His fiction has won or been shortlisted for a wide range of Australian and international literary awards, and his nonfiction has been shortlisted twice for the Bragg Prize for Science Writing and nominated for a Walkley Award. In 2012, he won the Pascall Award for Australia’s Critic of the Year. He is currently an Honorary Associate at the Sydney Environment Centre at the University of Sydney.

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    Reviews for The Resurrectionist

    3/5

    141 ratings21 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I was really excited to read this book for two reasons: it's written by an Australian and is about the trade in stolen bodies used by anatomists in the 1800s.I was really impressed that an Australian author could conjure the essence of London in the 1800s and was captivated by his writing early in the book. I'm fascinated by the topic of resurrectionists (grave robbers who steal recently buried bodies and sell them to anatomists who dissect them for science) and I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of this book.I was disappointed in the direction in which the author decided to take the main character, and was confused when he appeared in Australia with a different name many years later. This part of the plot seemed disjointed and I felt unsatisfied by the conclusion. I understand the author was exploring the themes of death, murder and rebirth, but I just didn't like where he chose to take the plot.James Bradley is an certainly an accomplished author and if he publishes another book I'll definitely want to check it out!
    • 4/5
      An interesting and fairly dark story. Gabriel Swift's life starts out badly and, despite some lucky breaks, mostly, it gets worse. Not quite a 'page turner' but I enjoyed the story and its telling.
    • 1/5
      I very rarely give up on reading a book, but I was so bored, unengaged and uncaring about the characters and the plot in this book that I gave up on page 225. Now I love a Gothic novel, but this was just list of autopsies, dis-interments, death, sometimes murder, broken up every so often with the odd slice of the London underworld, which does not a Gothic novel make.
    • 3/5
      I was led on to James Bradley after reading his review of John Wyndham’s posthumously-released novel Plan For Chaos in The Australian a few years ago, and found that he has a thoughtful and interesting blog, City of Tongues, and a Twitter account well worth following. He’s renowned as Australia’s leading literary critic, but is also the author of three novels, and after reading his critical work for the past three years I thought it was worth reading one of them. So there you go, authors – all that tweeting and blogging and doing extra writing for newspaper literary supplements really does pay off. (Figuratively, anyway. I bought this copy from a second-hand bookstore.)Set in the dark and dreary Dickensian London of the early 19th century, the novel follows Gabriel Swift as he is apprenticed to Mr Poll, an anatomist in the fledgling science of the human body. Mr Poll appears largely driven by the pursuit of knowledge itself, though most of his students are surgeons or doctors in training, with plenty of practical applications for their studies. The constant procurement and dissection of corpses is somewhat uncomfortable, but it’s part of becoming a doctor, no different from medical studies in modern universities, and it’s all done legally – except when it isn’t. The novel really begins to unfold as Gabriel falls afoul of the politics between Mr Poll, some of his apprentices and his former rivals, and finds himself caught up in the murky world of corpse procurement. Up in the lecture theatre, the science of the human body is a world of gentlemen; down at street level, it’s run by grubby thugs and criminals. (There were at least two scenes I feared were about to verge into necrophilia). The story is clearly at least partly inspired by Burke and Hare, though that’s a piece of history I wasn’t overly familiar with, so it didn’t impact much upon my reading of the book. (Come to think of it, it was Bradley who dismissed Jamrach’s Menagerie as being less of a novel for being based on true events, which I didn’t agree with at all. But anyway.)The Resurrectionist is, above all, a deeply atmospheric novel. Bradley is an author who deals greatly in his narrator’s thoughts and feelings and internal conflict, with much of his interaction with other characters playing out in summary rather than scene. While I sometimes had trouble following the precise thread of the narrative, and the motivations of various characters, I very much enjoyed the bleak, foggy, dark London nights that the story unfolds in. (Actually, it strongly reminded me of the film The Piano.) There’s a surprising shift in tone and scene in the final quarter of the novel, but one which I thought was quite appropriate and worked very well.Bradley’s writing style – at least in this novel – was a little too heavy for my tastes. At least half the text is devoted to what’s going on inside Gabriel’s head at any given time; it’s a novel built on introspection and philosophising. This may be how Bradley typically writes his fiction, or it may have been an attempt to capture a 19th century style. In any case, despite my own preferences, The Ressurectionist is an objectively solid novel, and I’ll read some of Bradley’s others before delivering the backhanded compliment that I enjoy his work as a critic more than his work as an author.
    • 4/5
      Gabriel Swift is a student of anatomy in London during the 1820s, dependent on the goodwill of his guardian. He is a likeable character at first, appearing considerate and kind, yet with an unfortunate tendency to submit to other men’s stronger wills. By accident he becomes complicit in the shady dealings of the body snatchers who supply the anatomists with a ready stream of corpses on which they can practise their craft. Through a series of events Gabriel sinks deeper and deeper into the dark London underworld, gradually abandoning his humanity in favour of easy money.There is no denying that James Bradley paints a very dark picture of London towards the end of the Georgian era, and very atmospheric it is too. His prose often is a joy to read, and with his protagonist Gabriel Swift he has given the reader someone who is very eloquent and examines his feelings frequently, taking us into his confidence. Gradually a more unpleasant side to his character is revealed, as he becomes more and more involved in the dark dealings of the body snatchers himself. His situation created ambivalent feelings in me because I couldn't help feeling a certain empathy towards him, but I also often felt like shouting at him to shake him out of his passivity. It is painful and infuriating in equal measures to watch as he slips ever further away from a previously upheld morality, allowing the lure of easy money to become the thought foremost in his mind when it is presented to him, forsaking his humanity in the bargain; in the most unpleasant passages the novel recalls the notorious deeds of Burke and Hare in Edinburgh. Even to himself he shies away from admitting what he has done, only ever calling it ‘the thing’. When eventually his past seems to catch up with him, and he is shunned by everyone in the colony, I only felt that he was receiving his just deserts, and could not feel sorry for him. At the very end he talks about being remade, yet personally I can’t see it: at no point does he express remorse for the crimes he has committed, and, no matter where he goes, I feel his secret will always follow him. With his actions, Gabriel has broken the most basic moral code there is, and there will be no redemption for him.
    • 3/5
      The story of one man's descent into a nightmare of self-loathing in which his humanity and compassion is sucked out of him. The novel has a brilliant sense of time and place with excellent moody atmospheric writing

      The slippery, shifting nature of the storyline with its first person narrative and prose style can be difficult to get into initially but you are soon hooked in by the captivating writing. For example consider the opening sentences:

      In their sacks they ride as in their mother’s womb: knee to chest, head pressed down, as if to die merely to return to the flesh from which we were born, and this a second conception. A rope behind the knees to hold them thus, another to bind their arms, then the mouth of the sack closed about them and bound again, the whole presenting a compact bundle, easily disguised, for to be seen abroad with such a cargo is to tempt the mob.

      I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of the book but I felt the plot became disjointed, fragmented and inconsistent and ultimately I felt unsatisfied with the unexpected coda.
    • 2/5
      Bit of a difficult read this one. Slow an didnt seem to pick up at all. Didnt like the fact it was broken down into so many small segments. No decent chapters.
    • 4/5
      This is a very well written book. The style is very crisp and makes you feel like every word matters. This in turn means that, rather than getting annoyed by the way the narrative jumps around, giving you information piecemeal-fashion, you are quickly drawn into the story, wanting to know more. However, I never felt sympathy for the character or connected to him in any way which meant that once the plot developed I lost some interest. I also felt that the ending was very disorientating.
    • 1/5
      I am sorry to say that I have given up on this book entirely. I stopped at page 197 because I was bored. The book is said to be a brooding Gothic horror, in my eyes it is just brooding. A book isn't interesting because it deals with loads of corpses being dug up. It was found lacking.
    • 3/5
      Took me quite a while to get into it, but enjoyed it in the end. Some of the rather graphic descriptions were a little disturbing though...
    • 2/5
      Bit of a difficult read this one. Slow an didnt seem to pick up at all. Didnt like the fact it was broken down into so many small segments. No decent chapters.
    • 1/5
      Really disappointing. I gave up after 120 pages as I just couldn't get into it at all. My main problem was that all the characters were very forgettable, so when I made the mistake of putting it down to go about my daily life, and came back to it eight hours later, I had forgotten what had happened in the part I'd already read. I've never been so glad that I got a book from the library and didn't spend money on it!
    • 3/5
      I bought the book a while ago as I thought the subject sounded interesting and different, but after hearing very mixed reviews I put off reading it. I am not sure how I feel about it now that I have finally finished it. It was certainly very atmospheric and conveyed a chilling feel to aspects of Victorian London. I liked the short chapters, however, I felt there were a few too many characters introduced which got a little confusing along the way especially as many of them were only fleeting visitors and not very rounded. It was interesting to see Gabriel's life unfold in such a devastating way and I certainly learnt something about the life of bodysnatchers which is not something I'd even thought baout before. I thought the second half of the book was quite well done and completely different but it was not nearly as atmospheric. It was nice to round everything off but it could just as well have been told as an epilogue at the end.
    • 2/5
      Such a promising subject and indeed the first half of the book was intriguing and a good read but the second part was completely redundant and effectively spoiled the whole. I'd be loathe to recommend it.
    • 4/5
      I am not sure how I became aware of this book. But the subject intrigued me: Snatching bodies from the grave for medical dissection in Victorian London. I had it on my wishlist and tried to order it in the USA. No dice. It hasn't been published here. It also has just terrible reviews and ratings, so I wasn't interested in getting a new one from the Book Depository.I ended up getting a 'used' copy on Amazon.com - but it was one that turned out not to be used at all.It was with great trepidation that I read the book - expecting the horrible-ness to rear its head at any moment. I read the whole thing and never saw a sign of it. I really enjoyed the book, though the subject was ookie.The story is told in very simple prose, without a lot of detail or backstory for the minor characters. The setting is done well, and it helps if the reader has some knowledge of Victorian life and the conventions followed in books; though the story isn’t a long dense tome, as some often are. The POV character has the Victorian distance that can come across as lifeless, but in this case it wasn't.The description of the dead, their retrieval, handling, washing, dissection, and the mopping up afterwards was straightforward, and not drawn out to be ghoulish on purpose. Given the subject it was impossible not to feel squeamish now and then.The POV is an apprentice to a famous Anatomist in London. Gabriel Swift is an orphan whose guardian sent him to be Mr. Poll's apprentice. It is obvious from the names used that there are issues of class and familiarity between Mr. Poll, his junior associate Charles, and between Mr. Swift, and the other apprentice Robert. They are not spelled out however, and it is up to the reader to be aware of them and watch for the other clues in the text. This is a book you have to work at, perhaps that and the subject is why it has such a low rating.In any event the house where the dissections are done has another crooked character, Mr. Tyne the Butler, and the same type of men, the Resurrectionists, come to the door at night bringing their wares. What they do is illegal, so they must be furtive, and it takes a person of a certain disposition to retrieve and deliver the dead. When they are done with them, the remnants are taken off and burned, so they are never returned to their graves, and their family is often unaware they are missing.The story tells of Gabriel's learning the ropes with Mr. Poll and at the house. He has trouble with some of the more sinister denizens, including a Resurrctionist named Lucan who is at odds with Mr. Poll. Gabriel’s difficulties with these men will come back to haunt him.Gabriel also learns London and how to have a good time as a young man with money and steady employment. Given his standing he spends time with barmaids and actresses. He falls in love with one, and its unfortunate that she is also a prostitute, allowing wealthy men to fund her meager existence.Mr. Poll charges Doctors and Students to attend his lectures and view the dissections. I am not sure what path to advancement the apprentices have, since without schooling they are unlikely to be able to become doctors or Anatomists. During the daytime the apprentices go with Mr. Poll and Charles as they minister to the sick and dying in the slums, as well as the wealthy in their homes. Throughout all the professional adventures, Gabriel is not happy, comfortable or really interested.Gabriel does find he likes socializing, and during one of his visits to a friend of Charles, Thomas May, he is introduced to Opium. It is easily bought in a flask at the pharmacists. Gabriel falls under the sway of drugs, drink, and the actress/prostitute. He also ends up keeping Charles' secrets.By day Charles is a professional with an engagement to Poll's daughter, by night he crawls the pubs and clubs and theaters and is also a fancier of the actress. When her friend's son dies after a terrible injury, Gabriel earns the hatred of Mr. Tyne in the house when the dead body of the child is rejected for dissection.The rejection costs the Resurrectionist and the 'butler' money, and earn Gabriel their hatred. Gabriel never mentions the child's connection to Charles. Later when the butler has maneuvered to have Gabriel dismissed, Charles never stands up for him.Once dismissed Gabriel leaves off any pretense at being civilized and wallows in the gutter. He pawns his belongings and gambles to fund his drinking and drugging. We follow Gabriel as he falls lower and lower in both his mode of living, and it what he does to earn money. Eventually he ends up becoming a Resurrectionist himself, and working for the evil Lucan. There is a falling out, and Gabriel becomes involved in murder, and in a new way of supplying bodies to the Anatomists. Eventually he runs afoul of his cohorts and they take drastic revenge. Gabriel survives, barely, but breaks the law by stealing food, is caught and transported to Australia. The authorities are never aware of his previous gruesome activities.The last part of the book jumps 10 years when Gabriel has completed his sentence and is living in Australia, under an assumed name. He is a drawing teacher and pretending to be the man (Charles’ friend) who was an artist and introduced Gabriel to Opium. Gabriel spent 7 years at hard labor for stealing, but has never confessed or paid for his other crimes. A chance encounter with Robert, the man he was an apprentice with, causes suspicion among the Australians. Many are also former criminals or descendents of criminals, but all their pasts are known. Gabriel in their midst is keeping his past and his crime a secret. It causes them to withdraw from him and he loses his students. The book leaves Gabriel struggling to have to remake his life again, all without benefit of absolution. Where does one go when you have been rejected by Australia, the land of convicts ?I really enjoyed the book. It was well written, not too long or dense, and it didn’t minimize or exploit the work with the dead. The setting was well done, and the characters who were explored were interesting. It was definitely a horror story and quite effective.
    • 5/5
      The protagonist,Gabriel Swift who lives in London in the 1820's,is employed as an Anatomist's apprentice.He unpacks the bodies after delivery and cleans them ready for his master Mr Poll to cut up in his lectures. Through a series of unfortunate events he gets into the hands of the 'Body-Snatchers' and is finds himself working for them.As the book progresses he falls lower and lower and is finally involved in several murders.Some of the scenes described in the book are almost unbearably graphic,but are crucial to the story.It brings to life for the reader what must have been the true underbelly of Georgian London. The second section of the book (which I will not give away) was for me a little disappointing.I felt it lacked the fire of the earlier part and was a slight let-down.An excellent and exciting read nevertheless.
    • 1/5
      Tryingly trite. Promising theme, badly written and silly plot. Like a parody of Dickens at his worst. Read Slammerkin instead, it's infintely better.
    • 3/5
      The potential for the story was enormous. Taking the reader into the dark underworld of corpse-trading in the 19th Century, the protagonist is Gabriel, apprentice to a surgeon/anatomist who buys his specimens from the resurrectionists of London.My main frustration was that too often, be it regarding character or plot strands, there was too much allusion, and not enough dedication to development. By the end of the book there were too many unfinished elements -it felt like the author wasn't quite sure what his motivation was for writing this particular story.This said, I was drawn to the subject matter enough to want to continue reading, even if I was ultimately left unsatisfied.
    • 1/5
      Dreadful!!
    • 4/5
      The first part of the novel is fabulous. It's deeply dark and gothic; there's something gruesome but intriguing unrolling before your very eyes. From the cover you already know this is 1800s England. The reader is led to London with Gabriel Swift as our narrator. Gabriel wants to make his own way in the world following previous support from his Guardian and he ends up involved in a world of resurrectionists and stolen bodies; moving from one trade to another. He meets lively and violent characters along the way in his pursuit of something the reader isn't party to. According to the dust jacket it is a hell of his own making within the London underworld. Hell or not, it's truly gripping for the reader. Apparently this novel is a story of love unfulfilled but it's difficult to ascertain which love is unfulfilled. His love for his masters, guardians, friends, lovers, life or drugs. Very complex and with vivid imagery, some scenes leave little to the imagination (to my glee) and then unfortunately we get to the second part. In the last 70 pages I then became bitterly disapointed. I found it that unsatisfying it's enough to have brought it down to 3 stars; however the first part was fantastic to warrant a wobbly 4. I don't feel the second part was needed. I know it was designed to complete Gabriel's story and the results of breaking boundaries both morally and physically, yet I liked the way the first part ended. It would've left the reader to explore and entertain lots of different possibilities. However, Bradley obviously wanted us to explore this extra part of Gabriel's life, which for me spoiled it but for others might be the icing on this rather exquisite cake.
    • 4/5
      Having read some other reviews at the outset of this book, I thought I would not like it - but reality was that on finishing I concluded it was a reasonable read. I think the unusual, to me anyway, setting was partly responsible for that liking, and the development structuring was interesting as well. I enjoyed it but can understand that it may not appeal; to everyone - I did however find one reviewers comment that the author was 'pretentious' in style and character development misplaced - for me it made compelling reading and credible coverage.