Rest in Pieces: The Curious Fates of Famous Corpses - Hardcover

Marvelously macabre... A fascinating foray into the way of all flesh * Kirkus Reviews * 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 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 There is something here to dismay everyone * Times Literary Supplement * 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 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 A historically beguiling, stranger-than-fiction compendium * Elle *

In the long run, were 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.