{"product_id":"morgue-the-paris-morgue-and-the-lost-stories-of-the-unknown-dead","title":"Morgue","description":"\u003cb\u003e'Fascinating . . . Crowds will form'\u003c\/b\u003e MARGARET ATWOOD, on X\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e*\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003ePeer through the enormous window and you will see twelve marble slabs.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eOn each slab lies a corpse.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e For over one hundred years, from 1804, the unknown dead of Paris were publicly displayed at the world's first morgue. Wherever they were found, their bodies were brought to the morgue and laid out for exhibition in the hope that one of the many visitors - overa million a year - might identify them.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Told across twelve overlapping stories, Morgue brings the long-forgotten dead back to life. These are the ordinary inhabitants of nineteenth-century Paris - laundry women, day labourers, widows, writers, courtesans - and through them, Catriona Byers unspools a gripping and immersive narrative of a city in turmoil and a society in flux.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Drawing on over a decade of research, Byers presents a panoramic view of the glittering underbelly of Paris. Through true tales of crime, tragedy, murder and revenge, she reveals how the century's greatest breakthroughs - from photography and forensics to horror fiction and psychology - were born of human struggles with love, loss and the relentless search for a better future.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eMorgue\u003c\/i\u003e is an intimate study of human ingenuity and art, loneliness and grief - of all that moves us, and the shadows we cast. It is a landmark debut offering an electrifying account of the birth of modern life.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e'This gripping, indeed often thrilling, work by Catriona Byers proves that well-researched, pacily written works of sociological history can indeed make crackingly good books'\u003c\/b\u003e ANDREW ROBERTS, author of \u003ci\u003eNapoleon and His Marshals\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Unity Books","offers":[{"title":"Morgue : The Paris Morgue and the Lost Stories of the Unknown Dead","offer_id":50917949309125,"sku":null,"price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0625\/6679\/3413\/files\/978-1-3985-4790-2.jpg?v=1794194315","url":"https:\/\/unitybooks.myshopify.com\/products\/morgue-the-paris-morgue-and-the-lost-stories-of-the-unknown-dead","provider":"Unity Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}