For a person who studied contemporary American women's fiction, I know a lot about the Victorian period, especially the New Poor Laws--that's what the dude wrote his dissertation on, and good spouses make good editors. Or something like that. Actually, we would offer polite criticism like "these two sentences should be two paragraphs." And the critiqued would yell, "It's perfectly fine the way it is; you don't know anything." Following a generous period of sulking, the critiqued would take the editor's advice. It was like clockwork. But I digress. I just meant to say, I know a little about the historical and cultural period in which our tale is set.This book offers a fairly interesting sketch of a subject that is near and dear to my heart, the functioning of medical colleges. I know that the orphaned dead would end up in the medical schools of Philadelphia (from Skeleton Stories); I'd really love to do more research on how the place where I work dealt with the procurement of subjects.
Ultimately, I thought this book lacked organization. Sometimes it felt like the author had no clear direction. Lots of backtracking. Lots of interruptions for whole chapters that were meant to provide context, but it wasn't woven together terribly well...or maybe non-fiction isn't meant to be read in half hour spurts on the bus.
It was fine but I never felt like I opened up the book to find out what happened next...and it was a tale of a lurid court case. I really should have wanted to find out, but the court sections were dense and had the Newgate stink about them.
Non-fiction: 2
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