In 1816 London, Napoleon has been defeated
and troops have returned, including teenaged Will Starling, who survived the
wars as assistant to the decent surgeon Alec Comrie. Will now serves Comrie in
the city, still in strained circumstances.
Medical science has turned to the utility
of anatomy, but material for research and teaching is scarce. Body-snatchers procure
subjects from robbing graves—sometimes from murder—but they are not the only bad
actors. Flamboyant, privileged Doctor Dionysius Atherton is trying to raise the
dead by applying newly harnessed electricity to fresh cadavers.
From this ghoulish world of science and
crime, young Will Starling tells his own tale, as your “Wery Umble Narrator.”
Vivid scenes of wretched urban poverty, wanton cruelty, and selfless heroism march
past to a grim ending.
