In the 19th century, fantastic literature draws on the theme of death and becomes a true literature of the corpse. In works such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or K.S. Gjalski’s Le Rêve du docteur Mišić, bodies wander between life and death and come to life under the writer’s pen. These narratives substitute the corpse for the traditional ghost and abandon the supernatural to draw horror from reality: the inert body there appears as a subject of scientific research so that the churchyard is a necessary stop on the way to the laboratory. Through the stories of Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Mišić, the reader discovers the dark face of a scientist century where the body, turned into mere merchandise, can be bought and exhibited in dissection rooms. Thus university amphitheaters turn death into a show in which scientists play God ; but by defying conventions and breaking the taboo surrounding corpses to unveil the secrets of nature, fantastic heroes incur a deadly punishment.