Servants of the Supernatural - Hardcover

Melechi, Antonio

3.04

46 ratings by Goodreads

9780434013340: Servants of the Supernatural

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 043401334X ISBN 13: 9780434013340

Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd, 2008

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Born of the so-called Victorian 'pseudo science' of mesmerism (aptly described by Ambrose Bierce as 'Hypnotism before it wore good clothes, kept a carriage, and asked incredulity to Dinner'), the seance enjoyed a late 19th century golden age that ministered to the Victorian obsession with science, religious doubt, and entertainment. The seance assumed myriad forms - from entranced maids lecturing on theology to clairvoyants giving notice of stolen property, rapped out messages from the spirit world and ghostly shapes appearing from dark cabinets. Mediums, psychics and somnambulists were investigated by amateur sleuths and by scientists like Faraday and Darwin; their performances imitated and exposed by magicians, denounced by clerics and satirised in the press. Yet the popularity of the seance endured - and does so to this day. Among the broad gallery of Victorians who found spiritual succour in the mysteries and wonders of the seance are the quacks, bluffers and rogues, but also respected physicians such as Dr. John Elliotson, an early champion of mesmerism, aristocrats and writers as real and rational as Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle. Servants of the Supernatural tells their fascinating story.

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Product Description:

hardback book

Review:

`In his fascinating book, Servants of the Supernatural, Antonio Melechi brings to life the wonderfully flamboyant cheats and frauds of the 19th century medium trade. We tend to believe that we would never be so gullible. But Melechi's story arises from the real life Victorian struggles to balance the competing worldviews of science and religion, something we yet wrestle with today. His tale stands beautifully as a reminder to choose one's beliefs carefully in vulnerable times.' -- Deborah Blum, author of Ghost Hunters

`Servants of the Supernatural ... is a brief history...of the extraordinary popularity of psychics, mesmerists, mediums and somnambulists in the Victorian era. It is a fascinating and hilarious subject.' -- Mail on Sunday

`This is one of the most balanced and thoroughly engaging accounts I have ever come across of the Victorian spiritualist demimonde.'
-- New Humanist

`[An] engrossing account of s�ances, mesmerism and mediums.' -- Scotland on Sunday

`[a] lustrous new book - a history of the heyday of the Victorian s�ance in all its table-trembling, tambourine-tapping glory.' -- Word Magazine

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