Buried Alive: The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fear
by Jan Bondeson
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"Readers of Edgar Allan Poe's tales - just think of The Premature Burial - may comfort themselves with the notion that Poe must have exaggerated: surely people of the 1880s could not have been at risk of being buried alive? But such stories filled medical journals as well as fiction, and fear in the populace was high. It was speculated, from the number of skeletons found in horrible, contorted positions inside their coffins, that ten out of every one hundred people were buried before they show more were dead." "With over fifty illustrations, Buried Alive explores the medicine, folklore, history, and literature of Europe and the United States to uncover why such fears arose and whether they were warranted. Jan Bondeson looks at legends from the Renaisance of thieves awakening supposedly deceased women when they try to steal the women's jewelry, as well as people awakening on the way to their funerals or even later in the graveyard. He then looks at the bizarre nineteenth-century security coffins with bellropes or escape hatches, and the macabre waiting mortuaries for decaying corpses, as well as the writers who were inspired to use themes as premature burial in their work. Finally, he questions whether our medical criteria today for determining if someone is dead are truly reliable."--Jacket. show lessTags
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A fun popular history about the historical and literary reactions (mainly late 18th and 19th centuries) to the fear of being buried alive. By turns gruesome and amusing. It seems very well researched, but I found some inconsistencies in the text that make me wonder how many errors there might be. However, I was reading it purely for entertainment, and it served its purpose admirably.
This is a little more academically driven than I wanted - I expected a book more like Mary Roach's books on death - but it was still very interesting, thoroughly researched, and well written. I could see this being used in a classroom setting but it might be a little daunting for the casual reader.
Interesting, but the narrative was a little dry and repetitive. Generally the last half of a chapter was almost a repeat of the first part.
Fascinating subject, but unfortunately the writing is rather dry.
This book disappointed me. It seemed to dwell on fictional accounts far more than on real events.
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Author Information
24+ Works 1,540 Members
Jan Bondeson, M.D., also holds a Ph.D. in experimental medicine. He is the author of "A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities" & other works. (Bowker Author Biography)
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Buried Alive: The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fear
- Original title
- Buried alive : The terrifying story of our most primal fear
- Original publication date
- 2002-05-17
- Important places
- Leichenhaus, Munich, Bavaria, Germany
- Epigraph
- The unendurable oppression of the lungs—the stifling fumes of the damp earth—the clinging of the death garments—the rigid embrace of the narrow house—the blackness of the absolute Night—the silence like a sea that o... (show all)verwhelms—the unseen but palpable presence of Conqueror Worm—these things, with the thought of air and grass above, with memory of dear friends who would fly to save us if but informed of our fate, and with consciousness that of this fate they can never be informed—that our hopeless portion is that of the really dead—these considerations, I say, carry into the heart, which still palpitates, a degree of appalling and intolerable horror from which the most daring imagination must recoil. We know nothing so agonizing upon Earth—we can dream of nothing half so hideous in the realms of nethermost Hell.
—Edgar Allan Poe, "The Premature Burial." - First words
- In classical antiquity, the absence of a heartbeat was the accepted sign of death.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Warn thee, that one day, thou for death must look.
- Blurbers
- McGrath, Patrick
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Statistics
- Members
- 458
- Popularity
- 66,247
- Reviews
- 6
- Rating
- (3.85)
- Languages
- Dutch, English, German, Spanish
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 4
