The Body-Snatcher

The Body Snatcher is a short story by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894). First published in the Pall Mall Christmas ”Extra” in December 1884, its characters were based on criminals in the employ of real-life surgeon Robert Knox (1791–1862) around the time of the notorious Burke and Hare murders (1828). A group of friends share a few drinks, when an eminent doctor, Wolfe MacFarlane, enters. One of the friends, Fettes, recognizes the name and angrily confronts the new arrival. Although his friends all find this behaviour suspicious, none of them can understand what might lie behind it.