Rest in Pieces
The Curious Fates of Famous Corpses
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- ¥1,100
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- ¥1,100
発行者による作品情報
In the long run, we're all dead. But for some of the most influential figures in history, death marked the start of a new adventure. The famous deceased have been stolen, burned, sold, pickled, frozen, stuffed, impersonated and even filed away in a lawyers office. Their fingers, teeth, toes, arms, legs, skulls, hearts, lungs and nether regions have embarked on voyages that criss-cross the globe and stretch the imagination.
Counterfeiters tried to steal Lincolns corpse. Einsteins brain went on a cross-country road trip. And after Lord Horatio Nelson perished at Trafalgar, his sailors submerged him in brandy which they drank.
From Mozart to Hitler, Rest in Pieces connects the lives of the famous dead to the hilarious and horrifying adventures of their corpses, and traces the evolution of cultural attitudes towards death.
‘A historically beguiling, stranger-than-fiction compendium.' Elle
'Deliciously morbid and delightfully macabre... required reading for those of us who intend, one day, to die.' Ben Schott, author of Schott's Original Miscellany
'If really, we're all sitting in the undertaker's waiting room, then Rest in Pieces is the perfect easy read, preparation for the moment when the nurse steps out of the shadows and quietly calls your name.' Simon Winchester, bestselling author of Skulls and The Professor and the Madman
'There is something here to dismay everyone.' Times Literary Supplement
'A tasty, sharp, wonderfully unusual book. I enjoyed it like a jar of perfect dill pickles: when the mood strikes, nothing else will satisfy.' Mary Roach, author of Gulp and Stiff
'The world is awash with legendary body parts, from Einstein's brain to Napoleon's most intimate organ, and this wildly entertaining account proves that the fate of the grisly relics tells us a huge amount about history - and ourselves.' Tony Perrottet, author of Napoleon's Privates
'Marvelously macabre... A fascinating foray into the way of all flesh.' Kirkus Reviews
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Repeatedly illustrating with a hearseload of case studies that "final resting place" is a relative term, Lovejoy (a contributing writer for the Schott's Almanac series) digs up a litany of strange-but-true tales of the postmortem adventures of all manner of famous corpses throughout history. In many cases, the cadavers or their skeletons were left intact, but others weren't so lucky Napoleon and Rasputin reportedly both lost their penises after death (and for the record, Dillinger's is not at the Smithsonian). The fate of some bodies, such as those of Ted Williams, Lenin, Eva Per n, and Hunter S. Thompson, are fairly well-known, but readers will be surprised to learn the story behind the disappearance of Geronimo's skull (as well as its alleged link to the Bush family) and the curious travels of Dorothy Parker's remains (both the Algonquin Hotel and the New Yorker passed on hosting them until, via a bizarre and circuitous route, the NAACP stepped forward and claimed them). Buoyed by rigorous research and wry humor, Lovejoy's compilation is sure to fuel more than a few cocktail party conversations. B&w illus. throughout.
