The body thief

In 1820s London, orphan Gabriel Swift arrives in the city to study with the great anatomist Edwin Poll. His apprenticeship ultimately reveals a dark and less noble side to medicine: laws severely restrict the dissection of bodies, making their acquisition for study a terrible and cruel business. Opium addiction and his love for a prostitute make Swift easy prey for the ambitions of Lucan, the city's greatest body thief. Gabriel begins selling bodies and extorting money, and his ambition leads him to murder. A classic horror story, The Body Snatcher masterfully recreates the sinister world of the London underworld, where everything and everyone is for sale, and stealing a life is easier than one might imagine.