UID:
almahu_9948126495102882
Format:
1 online resource (256 pages):
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digital, PDF file(s).
Edition:
Electronic reproduction. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2017. Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Edition:
System requirements: Web browser.
Edition:
Access may be restricted to users at subscribing institutions.
ISBN:
9781526101976 (eBook)
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9781526101983 (eBook)
Series Statement:
Manchester Gothic
Content:
An important aid in the study of key texts such as Edwin Drood and Dracula, this is an essential resource for those studying the popular fiction, as well as the mass culture, of the period. The book contains a vast body of material, drawn especially from the popular press, which has never been used in criticism or in cultural and medical history before. The most substantial study of how nineteenth-century British readers viewed and understood mesmerism and hypnotism.
Content:
That Devil's Trick is the first study of nineteenth-century hypnotism based primarily on the popular - rather than medical - appreciation of the subject. Drawing on the reports of mesmerists, hypnotists, quack doctors and serious physicians printed in popular newspapers from the early years of the nineteenth century to the Victorian fin de siècle, the book provides an insight into how Continental mesmerism was first understood in Britain, how a number of distinctively British varieties of mesmerism developed, and how these were continually debated in medical, moral and legal terms. This is no dry history of medicine, however. It opens and closes with two vignettes of how mesmerists were depicted on stage at the eighteenth- and nineteenth century fins des siècles, and its contents are highly relevant to the study of the many authors - Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Bram Stoker and Conan Doyle among them - whose fiction was informed by the imagery of hypnotism and mesmerism. Its contents are enlivened by liberal quotation from the often scandalous observations of those who watched or participated in mesmeric séances, these being regarded at times as salacious exhibitions likely to undermine the morality of the nation. That Devil's Trick will be an essential resource for anybody working with the popular and literary culture of the nineteenth century. Its unique contents allow it to bridge the disciplinary boundaries of literary criticism and broader Victorian studies, the breath and liveliness of its coverage also making it an important work for medical historians and the general reader. --Provided by publisher.
Note:
Available in paperback: 2018.
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Preamble: Animal magnetism – a farce〈BR〉1. The epoch of Mesmer 〈BR〉2. Medical magnetism〈BR〉3. Surgical hypnotism〈BR〉Conclusion: ‘This is that devil’s trick – hypnotism!’〈BR〉Bibliography 〈BR〉Index.
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Also available in print form.
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Mode of access: internet via World Wide Web.
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In English.
Additional Edition:
Print version: Hughes, William. That devil's trick : hypnotism and the Victorian popular imagination, ISBN 9780719074837
Language:
English
URL:
https://dx.doi.org/10.7765/9781526101976
URL:
https://www.manchesterhive.com/view/9781526101976/9781526101976.xml
URL:
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