The Victorian Supernatural [Hardcover]

Essays by literary scholars, art historians and science historians explore the diversity of the Victorians' fascination with the supernatural.The Victorians were haunted by the supernatural, by ghosts and fairies, table-rappings and telepathic encounters, occult religions and the idea of reincarnation, visions of the other world and a reality beyond the everyday. This collection brings together essays by scholars from literature, history of art and history of science which explore the diversity of the Victorians' fascination with the supernatural. The essays show that the supernatural was not simply a reaction to the 'post-Darwinian loss of faith', but was embedded in virtually every aspect of Victorian culture.The Victorians were haunted by the supernatural, by ghosts and fairies, table-rappings and telepathic encounters, occult religions and the idea of reincarnation, visions of the other world and a reality beyond the everyday. This collection brings together essays by scholars from literature, history of art and history of science which explore the diversity of the Victorians' fascination with the supernatural. The essays show that the supernatural was not simply a reaction to the 'post-Darwinian loss of faith', but was embedded in virtually every aspect of Victorian culture.This collection brings together essays by scholars from literature, history of art and history of science which explore the diversity of Victorian fascination with the supernatural: ghosts and fairies, table-rappings and telepathic encounters, occult religions and the idea of reincarnation, visions of the other world and a reality beyond the everyday. These essays demonstrate that the supernatural was not simply a reaction to the post-Darwinian loss of faith , but was embedded in virtually every aspect of Victorian culture.List of illustrations; Notes on contributors; Foreward Gillian Beer; Part I. Supernatural Science: 1. Spiritualism, science and the supernatural in mid-Victorian Britain l£'