THE DOCTOR AND THE DEVILS : Time Life Reading Program, SPECIAL EDITION

Welsh poet & writer Dylan Marlais Thomas (1914 – 1953), hard-drinking & ever bar present, hailed as a major 20th century Welsh poet, wrote wrote chiefly in the English language. This novel shows his rhythmic, ingenious command of words & imagery is evidenced in his prose as well. A semi-Gothic tale of a medical school physician/teacher short on lab cadavers, and, the consequent criminal responses by either digging them out of graves, or, killing them fresh to sell them to the medical school. The work, set in early 19th century Edinburgh, famous for schools of medicine, is based on true story of Dr. Knox for whom Burke and Hare, who in 1828 Edinburgh, Scotland, murdered at least 16 people to sell their bodies for anatomical dissection. Screen script adapted to 1985 horror film, The Doctor and The Devils, produced by Mel Brooks.