A horror story that, like many great works, can be read in adolescence, in adulthood, and in old age… providing diverse readings with the same text; this is the richness of the classics.
We meet a medical student who becomes involved in a business that —at the time the author wrote— was illegal, yes, but not uncommon: the theft of corpses to sell them to students or professors of medicine, for study purposes. This is how science has advanced on more than one occasion, often with little regard for morality.
Even though it is a short text, R. L. Stevenson’s magnificent writing immerses us in the mind and conscience of Fettes, the student in question, who knows very well the reasons behind these thefts and gradually becomes involved in this macabre business; and if at first he was somewhat confused, he ends up committing these profanations consciously and culpably.
The novelist revisits the theme of human freedom and personal choice, as he did in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, in this case through a horror story that, for fans of the genre, will be a great pleasure to read.