Svengali′s Web – The Alien Enchanter in Modern Culture - Hardcover

Pick, Daniel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300082045 ISBN 13: 9780300082043

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2000

Synopsis

Svengali, the malevolent hypnotist in a sensationally successful novel published by George du Maurier in 1894, became such a well-known character in the culture of the period that his name entered the dictionary as one who exerts a malign persuasiveness on another. This book explores the origins and impact of Svengali and his helplessly mesmerized female victim Trilby in an age already rife with discussions of race, influence, and the unconscious mind. Daniel Pick points out that Svengali was a Jew as well as a dangerous hypnotist; his depiction struck a chord not only with pervasive nineteenth-century forebodings about irrational interpersonal forces and psychic contacts but also with prevalent anti-Semitic assumptions. He shows how Svengali became the quintessential dark hypnotist of the fin de siecle, whose image was recycled in pictures, drama, verse, and films. Pick not only discusses the work of mesmerists, hypnotists, and critics of entrancement but also relates tales of surrogate passion and psychological foreboding that feature opera singer Jenny Lind, composer Richard Wagner, politician Benjamin Disraeli, novelist Henry James, and others. The book identifies and illuminates a psychological and historical preoccupation-a cluster of Victorian ideas and images, fears and fantasies of psychic invasion and racial hypnosis that crystallized in the figure and phenomenon of Svengali.

About this title

Product Description:

Svengali's Web Svengali the malevolent hypnotist in 1894 novel "Trilby" became such a well known character in the culture of the period that his name entered the dictionary. This book explores the origins and impact of Svengali, with discussions on race, influence and the unconscious mind. Full description

From the Publisher:

Review
'Svengali's Web has an impeccable understanding of the many ambiguities in the novel [Trilby], and the ways they feed into Victorian fantasies that transport "hearts and minds to unseemly and dangerous places"...As Pick shows, with remarkable intelligence, Svengali remained deeply ambivalent, with his astonishing musical ability and cosmopolitan excess, which was both desired and loathed...excellent cultural history.' - Bryan Cheyette - The Independent

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0300082045
• ISBN 13: 9780300082043
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 290