Customer Reviews

The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck

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"The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck" is a Gothic novel-medical thriller with horror elements. Written by Alexander Laing, as "a medical student", I found this novel to be years ahead of its' time, that time being the mid-1930's. Michael Crichton, Robin Cook, and the like, knowingly or unknowingly owe a large debt to Mr. Laing here.

The plot involves this creepy physician, in an out-of-the-way Maine medical school, not one but two psychopaths, a "locked room" murder mystery, "monsters" (the term was once used for babies with severe, disfiguring birth defects)...how can this list NOT make you a bit curious?

The tone of the book is spot-on. Verisimilitude drips from the pages, being liberally sprinkled with medical jargon and footnotes. The atmosphere is mostly one of dread; our narrator, the unfortunate David Saunders, offers bits of humor here and there, getting bone-dry and dark as hell as the book unfolds.
I discovered this novel on a list of classic horror tales...it seems anyone who has read this had enjoyed it. Add me to the list.

I found out that Centipede Press published this, and bought a copy.
For those of you unfamiliar with this small press, your day has just been made. Go check out their website and have your mind blown.

My copy is a luxuriantly bound hardcover, leather on the spine, fabric covered boards. Signed by William Hjortsberg ('Falling Angel", which became the film "Angel Heart"), he writes quite simply one of the best introductions I have ever read...maybe because he writes about discovering the fact this novel was written by his college English professor! Great way to start the book.

There are additional essays at the end, and the Lynd Ward art from the original hardcover is lovingly reproduced.

Read this novel however you can, but consider yourself lucky if you do that with this edition...

"The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck" is a Gothic novel-medical thriller with horror elements. Written by Alexander Laing, as "a medical student", I found this novel to be years ahead of its' time, that time being the mid-1930's.
The plot involves this creepy physician, in an out-of-the-way Maine medical school, not one but two psychopaths, a "locked room" murder mystery, "monsters" (the term was once used for babies with severe, disfiguring birth defects)...how can this list NOT make you a bit curious?
The tone of the book is spot-on. Verisimilitude drips from the pages, being liberally sprinkled with medical jargon and footnotes. The atmosphere is mostly one of dread; our narrator, the unfortunate David Saunders, offers bits of humor here and there, getting bone-dry and dark as hell as the book unfolds.
I discovered this novel on a list of classic horror tales...it seems anyone who has read this had enjoyed it.
Add me to the list.

The late fantasy and horror writer Karl Edward Wagner once published a list of essential novels in the old Twilight Zone magazine. It sent me scurrying into countless book stacks at academic libraries in search of these novels since I had never heard of most of them. I will say the ones I've managed to find were all winners; there wasn't a dull book among the lot of them. So, in an eff0rt to broaden my horizons, I'm going to take a breather from Operator 5 and look at another book published the same decade Jimmy Christopher was trying to save the country.
The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck was first published in 1934. The author, Alexander Laing, published many books in his lifetime, but he's largely forgotten today. The book was quite popular in it's day, going through several editions. In the 1960's it was published as an abridged edition, so many people who have had the opportunity to read it are unfamiliar with the 376 page, footnoted, original. Fortunately, it's been reprinted, but you can still find cheap editions.
The novel involves the disappearance and murder of one of the professors of "The Maine State College of Surgery". The book is narrated from the point of view of a senior medical student who is keeping a diary about the strange goings-on leading up to the death of Wyck. The narrator is also secretary to one of the other professors at the college and is privy to a lot of faculty gossip. There's also plenty of small town Peyton Place politics. And, of course, the book takes place right in the heart of Steven King country.
In some ways, Dr. Gideon Wyck is similar to Dr. House: cold, aristocratic, and demanding. One of the founding instructors at the college, he generally gets what he wants.
The actual murder of Wyck isn't discovered until half-way through the book. By this time, we've been shown countless people who would want Gideon Wyck dead. So who is the killer? Is it Wyck's daughter Marjorie? Could it be Pendergast, the medical student whom Wyck expelled for cheating on an exam? Is it the nurse Muriel, who might have had a thing going on with the old rascal? And what about Mike Connell, whose arm was amputated by Wyck? The list is extensive.
Furthermore, we learn about Wyck's secret laboratory where he was conducting experiments on poor pregnant women. Experiments which soon bear evil fruit in the still births of deformed infants. The book never delves too deeply into this area, but it is a chilling reminder of how close the Nazi were to experimenting on concentration camp inmates.
The novel is also a mirror of its time. There is an entire chapter devoted to an autopsy of an tuberculosis victim. The significance of this chapter strikes home as one of the students taking part in the examination is himself suffering from an advanced stage of the same disease. It's a good thing to remember how TB was once a death sentence for many people until the discovery of antibiotics.
I've often wondered why Karl Edward Wagner chose certain books for his list. My guess for Cadaver would be that it reflected his own experiences at medical school. The novel is filled with detailed information about the daily life of medical students. I doubt if much has changed since the time it was written.
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