Anatomy: A Love Story

“The man with the hat shook his knife over the vial until a single drop of Davey’s blood fell into the liquid within. The liquid became dark and then changed color to a brilliant, glowing golden yellow. It illuminated the faces of the three men, who were all smiling now.”

The sudden appearance of the three cloaked men introduces elements of the supernatural to the historical fiction novel. Davey is a poor resurrectionist, and his abduction by the expensively dressed men builds suspense and develops the theme of The Brutality of Corruption. Dr. Beecham’s “brilliant, glowing golden yellow” tonic also makes its first appearance in the Prologue, but the liquid’s true properties as the elixir of immortality aren’t revealed until the novel’s ending.

“She would breach the world between life and death, using electricity to reanimate flesh. What were miracles, but science that man didn’t yet understand? And didn’t that make it all the more miraculous that the secrets of the universe were out there, codes one might decipher if smart enough, tenacious enough?”

Hazel’s experiment with reanimation establishes the protagonist’s key personality traits, particularly her intelligence and her drive. As the title states, Anatomy is a love story, and science is Hazel’s first love. Her desire to “breach the world between life and death” connects to two major themes, Ambition and Opportunity and The Duality of Life and Death. This scene also introduces electricity as a symbol for the thrill of discovery.

“At least George’s memory didn’t hover thick as smoke in Almont House the way it did in every room of Hawthornden Castle. When she married Bernard and eventually became the new Lady Almont, the bad memories could close like the covers of a heavy book. She would get a new name and a new home. She would have a new life. She would be a new person, a person whom sadness would be unable to find.”

This excerpt grants insight into the protagonist’s motivation. At the beginning of the novel, she has little to no interest in romance and accepts the future her family plans for her. She doesn’t love Bernard, but she hopes that marrying her cousin will allow her to escape the grief and guilt she feels over the loss of her brother.