Opera di Cera

Travel back to 18th century Florence, where the Museum of Physics and Natural History is creating its most famous waxwork, the anatomical Venus: a life-sized female figure who comes apart to reveal a foetus in the womb.

Opera di Cera combines Pygmalion myth and historical research to create a macabre romance that ends in triumph and tragedy. Immerse yourself in a sensual underworld of bodysnatching, dissection, bondage and greed, following the deformed porter, Cintio, on his rounds, while he collects body parts from the local orphanage and hospital for the wax workshop.

If there is a niche for verse dramas aimed at those interested in medical history, this book is probably the only contender...

Kelley Swain was born in Rhode Island, 1985. She is the author of Darwin''s Microscope (Flambard Press, 2009, ISBN: 9781906601034), Atlantic (Cinnamon Press, April 2014), editor of The Rules of Form: Sonnets and Slide Rules (Whipple Museum, 2012, ISBN: 9780906271278) and Pocket Horizon (with Don Paterson: Valley Press, 2013, ISBN: 9781908853295). She is a freelance writer and educator in poetry, science, and the Medical Humanities. She lives in London. Find her on Twitter @thenakedmuse.

Travel back to 18th century Florence, where the Museum of Physics and Natural History is creating its most famous waxwork, the anatomical Venus: a life-sized female figure who comes apart to reveal a foetus in the womb.

Opera di Cera combines Pygmalion myth and historical research to create a macabre romance that ends in triumph and tragedy. Immerse yourself in a sensual underworld of bodysnatching, dissection, bondage and greed, following the deformed porter, Cintio, on his rounds, while he collects body parts from the local orphanage and hospital for the wax workshop.

If there is a niche for verse dramas aimed at those interested in medical history, this book is probably the only contender...

Kelley Swain was born in Rhode Island, 1985. She is the author of Darwin''s Microscope (Flambard Press, 2009, ISBN: 9781906601034), Atlantic (Cinnamon Press, April 2014), editor of The Rules of Form: Sonnets and Slide Rules (Whipple Museum, 2012, ISBN: 9780906271278) and Pocket Horizon (with Don Paterson: Valley Press, 2013, ISBN: 9781908853295). She is a freelance writer and educator in poetry, science, and the Medical Humanities. She lives in London. Find her on Twitter @thenakedmuse.