The Anatomy Lesson (Morley novel) The Anatomy Lesson (Morley novel) The Anatomy Lesson (1995) is a novel by John David Morley, inspired by Rembrandt’s painting "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp". In Amsterdam, the streetwise, drug-addled, Dutch-American teenager Kiddo lives in the shadow of his hero-worshipped older brother, Morton, a brilliant science student who, having completed his physics and engineering Ph.D., is to take up a fellowship at M.I.T.. But, after Morton’s premature death from a virulent strain of cancer, Kiddo begins to uncover a shadow-side to his brother’s existence, even as he wrestles with the anguished question of Morton’s dying wish: that he
The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp referenced the painting at the bottom of page 10, where the characters observe the disembowelment of a fish. The 2011 video game "" references the painting in both in-game portraits that can be found on the wall and in a certain cinematic trailer, featuring the main protagonist Adam Jensen as the cadaver as Dr. Nicolaes and his students study his charred and ruined arms, which in the actual story become amputated and replaced with mechanical limbs. The painting is discussed by the narrator (a young man) and his mother during a visit to the Met in "The Goldfinch", a 2013