talkmagic.co.uk

Price

£13 new in hardback from amazon down to about £6 on amazon market place. It comes out in paper back in January next year.

Review

This is not a magic book as such, although a number of magicians make appearances. This is a very thoroughly researched book giving an overview of a whole host of different aspects of the spiritualist movement in Victorian times. It strikes me as something that would probably interest a fair few of the users on here.

It begins with the rise of animal magnetism moving onto mesmerism. This first part of the book is a bit of a slog with lots of different names and dates of practitioners being thrown at you at a fast and furious pace. It does settle down as it moves onto the John Elliotson's experiments into mesmerism. The book goes onto touch upon phrenology before discussing trance states and people contacting the dead and the rise of the seance, table rising, spirit cabinets and all the other odds and sods you'd expect. The section on spirit writing was off particular interest with the conjurer John Nevil Maskelyne's exposure of the techniques.

The main concentration is on the Victorian rise of spiritualist beliefs, so it is predominantly UK based. The rise of mesmerism in Europe is initially discussed and Americans like the Fox sisters and the Davenports can't really be avoided in any history of the movement. Plenty of the celebrity names involved pop up; Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, Darwin, George Elliot, etc.

It has been researched very well. It's nice to read a reasonably objective book on the subject which doesn't get bogged down in damming the fraudulent mediums or else is written by a true believer. At times it tries to hard to be a complete history when it is supposed to be just an overview. However I felt it did a good job of bringing together a lot of the key topics considering the multi-faceted nature of the spiritualist movement during this time.

Overall a good overview of a complex subject. It may be a bit much for some people as there is a lot to get your head round. The bibliography has a list of recommended further reading that I intend to move onto. A rewarding read for finding out a bit more of the origins of where many of our crafts developed.

7/10