- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: The History Press Ltd; New Ed edition (17 Jun 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0750936843
- ISBN-13: 978-0750936842
- Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 12.7 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 341,368 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Dealing with all aspects of the Victorian fascination for the occult, this title identifies issues such as the credulity of the believers, unexplained phenomena such as levitation and manifestations and the intense rivalry between professional mediums, who were not above sabotaging each other's seances.
About the Author
Ronald Pearsall has been a journalist and a professional musician, and a lecturer for the British Council and for the Army. Sutton reissued his The Worm in the Bud:The World of Victorian Sexuality in 2003.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I found this book fascinating. A little dry and dated in certain moments, but overall, a weird and fascinating read, with plenty of well-timed, amusing asides by the author.
It was first published in 1972 I notice (this edition is a reprint), but it is still regarded as the best book on the subject. It is very much a history of the human desire to believe. The pages are littered with tricksters and charlatans, cranks and the unhinged, employing acrobatic techniques during seances to convince audiences of spirit presences. Only D.D Home was never unmasked (and is the subject of a recent biography), and it is his presence which intrigues most right up to the final pages.
The best parts of the book, I felt, were the parts dealing with the early days of seances, spirit photography, and the later sections on ghosts and materialisations. Towards the end of the book, it becomes something of a litany of unmaskings, great names brought spectacularly low (and I found I so wanted to believe!) Everyone was drawn in; the spiritualists almost had Faraday on their side. One of the most famous mediums, Mrs Mellon, was spectacularly exposed, along with many others. A spirit presence which emerged from her magical cabinet on October 1894, declared to be the spirit of a black child, was exposed as Mrs Mellon herself, on her knees, barefoot, draped with muslin, wearing a black mask. Her cabinet was opened and her false beards confiscated. Another trickster unmasked as the century drew to a close. Henry Slade died in a sanitorium in 1905 after being unmasked when he was found to be creating "spirit writing" on slate under the table with chalk between his toes. A roll call of the cranky and the messianic, but whilst reading this book, I so wanted to come across something that resisted the scientific experiments. Only hauntings perhaps withstand this...
Recommended.
It was first published in 1972 I notice (this edition is a reprint), but it is still regarded as the best book on the subject. It is very much a history of the human desire to believe. The pages are littered with tricksters and charlatans, cranks and the unhinged, employing acrobatic techniques during seances to convince audiences of spirit presences. Only D.D Home was never unmasked (and is the subject of a recent biography), and it is his presence which intrigues most right up to the final pages.
The best parts of the book, I felt, were the parts dealing with the early days of seances, spirit photography, and the later sections on ghosts and materialisations. Towards the end of the book, it becomes something of a litany of unmaskings, great names brought spectacularly low (and I found I so wanted to believe!) Everyone was drawn in; the spiritualists almost had Faraday on their side. One of the most famous mediums, Mrs Mellon, was spectacularly exposed, along with many others. A spirit presence which emerged from her magical cabinet on October 1894, declared to be the spirit of a black child, was exposed as Mrs Mellon herself, on her knees, barefoot, draped with muslin, wearing a black mask. Her cabinet was opened and her false beards confiscated. Another trickster unmasked as the century drew to a close. Henry Slade died in a sanitorium in 1905 after being unmasked when he was found to be creating "spirit writing" on slate under the table with chalk between his toes. A roll call of the cranky and the messianic, but whilst reading this book, I so wanted to come across something that resisted the scientific experiments. Only hauntings perhaps withstand this...
Recommended.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Great reference on victorian spiritualism!
21 Sep 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I really enjoyed this book. As a fan of the Victorian era and it's views of the occult, I wasn't expecting a rip-roaring yarn or a frightening ghost story (apparently other readers were?) The author presents the information in a manner-of-fact way that is well-researched and easy to follow. If you're intrigued by the subject of Victorian occultism you can't go wrong here, give it a read.
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