Von Cosel

Well written and a fascinating read.

This is the story of a German immigrant who lived in Key West in the 1930's. He called himself Count Carl Tanzler Von Cosel, although he also went by several variations of that name. I previously read UNDYING LOVE by Ben Harrison, a book that was published in 1997, and was intrigued by Von Cosel's story. Many readers will undoubtedly find each of these books both fascinating and gruesome. If you're at all interested in the macabre, this is the story for you. If you're easily offended or have a history of imprinting horrific images in your mind, avoid the story of Carl Tanzler.Carl Tanzler was working as a hospital technician when he met the love of his life, a young Cuban woman named Elena Hoyos. Unfortunately Elena was dying of tuberculosis and didn't have long to live. Carl was determined to use his imaginative and questionable talents to save her life, but was unable to prevail over her disease. After she was buried, Carl began to hear Elena speaking to him. Elena was afraid of the dark and didn't want to decay in the grave. So Carl arranged to have her disinterred and secured in an above-ground mausoleum that he constructed. Once Elena was laid to rest in the vault, Carl would visit with her every evening in her "little house", reading her stories and listening to music. Eventually Carl was convinced that his duty to Elena was to remove her from her resting place and take her home with him. The rest of the story entails Carl's efforts to reconstruct her and bring about her resurrection. For the next seven years they lived together(as Carl described) as man and wife. But then the secret got out and Count Carl Tanzler Von Cosel was arrested and held pending a grand jury determination of whether he should be indicted for certain of his actions.Both VON COSEL and UNDYING LOVE have several redeeming qualities, although VON COSEL is written as a novel and UNDYING LOVE quotes extensively from Von Cosel's memoirs and news articles written at the time. There are several inconsistencies between the two books but none are of major importance to the basic story. While the author of VON COSEL appears to have taken some artistic license in his book, it should be remembered that he wrote this book in 2003 and allegedly included additional information gathered from an interview with Von Cosel himself. Because of this added information, the two books arrive at two subtly different but distinctive endings. Man or monster? Romantic or necrophiliac? You will have to decide that for yourself.

This book was macabre at best. Strange but true story...that you can't put down. A good read, but not for the faint of heart. I had seen the story originally on the History Channel and had to know more....

Good book...but his memoirs are even better. I wouldn't read it again. Very repetitive and takes sides on the story instead of narrating.