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Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing And The Search For Genius (2009)

by Colin Dickey(Favorite Author)

3.71 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1932961860 (ISBN13: 9781932961867)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Unbridled Books

review 1: With the coming of romanticism and phrenology, 19th century weirdos found a new hobby--collecting the heads of the famous and noteworthy. Previously, cabinets of curiosity contained taxidermied colonial people, or two-headed cows, but devotees of Gull and Goethe now felt compelled to grave-rob Hadyn, Beethoven, Swedenborg, Sir Thomas Browne, Geronimo....and study and display their heads. Dickey examines these phenomena in the context of their times, as well as chronicles the unbelievable conspiracies and idiotic plans that led to the theft in the first place. As a rule, decapitating a corpse is going to be a lot more difficult and a lot messier than the average 19th century romantic college student ever thinks.
review 2: Reason for Reading: I read a lot of f... moreiction and non-fiction taking place during Victorian times and was interested in what this book had to offer from that time period especially on the topic of Phrenology. I also simply have a taste for the morbid.Cranioklepty concentrates on man's fascination with human skulls and what they can tell us about the criminal, insane and especially the genius. The book covers the time period from 1790 through the early 1900s though the lasting effects take us right through the 20th century up to a 2009 law suit. Cranioklepty concentrates on the post death lives of famous people, especially Joseph Haydn, Thomas Browne, Mozart, and Beethoven. Each of these individuals had their head stolen from the grave, used for scientific purposes, traveled the world, or went missing for a time as they were hidden away by collectors.The book tells a fascinating chronology from the scientific point of view as Phrenology first appeared on the scene as the New Science. This "science" was able to prove the intellect of individuals but it always had its detractors. As science disproved Phrenology and it became a parlour game, science moved onto craniology which at that time was concerned with the size of the skull and the brain cavity to prove a person's intellect.A fascinating study of the people involved scientifically and those who collected skulls, as well as the stories of the stolen skulls as their journey lasted sometimes over a hundred years, amusing anecdotes (one including an ancestor of the Presidents Bush) and descriptions of preparing a head for examination of its skull (that are not for the weak of stomach) make for a bizarre yet dramatic read. less

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