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The OKC chapter of The Morbidly Curious Book Club! We're an 18+ non-fiction book club diving into the darker parts of life: true crime, morally ambiguous medical practices, spirits and ghosts, and death. We discuss one book at the end of each month. You'll see the book we're reading in the 'Currently Reading' tab and the meeting time on the 'Meeting' tab. Please check trigger warnings on all books we discuss. It is safe to assume they will be touching on many tough subjects. Some may be easy to miss. Proceed with caution. You do not have to commit to anything. Come and join as you may and discuss at your own will. Even if you weren't quite able to finish the book!

MCBC Tri-State

A Morbidly Curious Book Club for interested folks in the Tri-State area of Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia, including the cities of Ashland KY, Portsmouth/Ironton OH and Huntington WV.

MCBC Melbourne, Australia

Melbourne chapter of the Morbidly Curious Bookclub.

Morbidly Curious Book Club - MKE

An 18+ non-fiction macabre focused book club diving into the darker parts of your library! MKE Chapter meets at Vennture Brew Co in Brookfield, WI.

The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine

Winner, PEN/E.O. Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing
Named a Best History Book of the year, The Guardian

"Warning: She spares no detail!" —Erik Larson, bestselling author of Dead Wake

In The Butchering Art, the historian Lindsey Fitzharris reveals the shocking world of nineteenth-century surgery and shows how it was transformed by advances made in germ theory and antiseptics between 1860 and 1875. She conjures up early operating theaters—no place for the squeamish—and surgeons, who, working before anesthesia, were lauded for their speed and brute strength. These pioneers knew that the aftermath of surgery was often more dangerous than patients’ afflictions, and they were baffled by the persistent infections that kept mortality rates stubbornly high. At a time when surgery couldn’t have been more hazardous, an unlikely figure stepped forward: a young, melancholy Quaker surgeon named Joseph Lister, who would solve the riddle and change the course of history.

Fitzharris dramatically reconstructs Lister’s career path to his audacious claim that germs were the source of all infection and could be countered by a sterilizing agent applied to wounds. She introduces us to Lister’s contemporaries—some of them brilliant, some outright criminal—and leads us through the grimy schools and squalid hospitals where they learned their art, the dead houses where they studied, and the cemeteries they ransacked for cadavers.

Eerie and illuminating, The Butchering Art celebrates the triumph of a visionary surgeon whose quest to unite science and medicine delivered us into the modern world.

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Published Oct 2, 2018

284 pages

Average rating: 8.36

135 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

BMC
Jul 21, 2025
9/10 stars
Loses a touch of points for pure grossness, though I think it's necessary for the subject matter and atmosphere. It was just scarring to read.
Red-Haired Ash Reads
Jul 27, 2025
10/10 stars
“Surviving the knife was only half the battle.” In The Butchering Art, Lindsey Fitzharris takes us through the shocking world of 19th century surgery. This book follows the life of Joseph Lister, a surgeon who changed the world of medicine forever with his discovery of antiseptics to prevent infection. He pioneered the way for germ theory in a time when this was considered unbelievable and ridiculous. This book was fascinating. Fitzharris took us on a detailed journey through Lister’s life as a surgeon and his extensive experiments to save his patients. Lister was a determined man who spent his life working to uncover the causes of infection and the best ways to prevent them. He never settled for one method. He constantly was revamping his process to perfect it. His drive to constantly standardize and perfect his work forever changed the history of surgery. If he hadn’t been this determined, surgery would have never progressed to the stage it is now. His determination to prevent infection also saved other aspects of the medical world, such as large hospitals. Before his method started to gain popularity, the death rates in hospitals were extremely high due to how filthy and crowded they were. It had gotten so bad that discussions were being made about shutting down large hospitals and returning to home care or small pop up clinics. But Lister’s determination to progress surgery and teach antiseptics changed that and saved large hospitals. “Lister’s methods transformed surgery from a butchering art to a modern science, one where newly tried and tested methodologies trumped hackneyed practices. They opened up new frontiers in medicine—allowing us to delve further into the living body—and in the process they saved hundreds of thousands of lives.” Lister was a fascinating man who spent his life dedicated to helping his patients heal from their infliction. While he had to deal with frequent negativity when he first introduced this practice, he refused to let it prevent him from teaching and preaching about his discoveries. Because of his determination to teach about antiseptics and sterile surgery his work slowly spread and gained popularity until it became a standard in hospitals and surgery. The medical world would have been a very different place if it wasn’t for Joseph Lister and his determination to educate his fellows, and the public, about antiseptics. Trigger Warnings: - Very detailed descriptions of 19th century surgery - Detailed descriptions of wounds and injuries - Experimentation of animals - Frequent death
Emily W.
Jul 11, 2025
8/10 stars
It is a very well written book that does not put you to sleep! I've had trouble getting through nonfiction books before, but the way this book was told through a narrative style speckled with true facts made it very digestible. I didn't even consider myself very interested in this topic, but when I read it, I found myself deeply engrossed and wanted to understand more about Joseph Lister and how the medical community developed. There's definitely some eye-opening facts and many other details that were both fascinating and horrific. Definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in the macabre!
RemainsLady
Jun 13, 2025
6/10 stars
Overall this is a fascinating look into the early days of surgery. However, as a text of history, it does champion the great man theory of history that is problematic and minimises the achievements and contributions of those who aren’t men. Part of this also means that some stories are marginalised. For example there is a small section on Marion Sims that applauds his work but fails to mention his history with exploiting and torturing enslaved women.
ZebulonD
Jun 25, 2024
10/10 stars
Loved it. Even laughed out loud at a few parts. Great writing and very interesting subject

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