Victorian Literary Mesmerism

by Martin Willis (Editor), Catherine Wynne (Editor)

Victorian Literary Mesmerism examines the engagement between literature and mesmerism in Victorian writing. Drawing on recent trends in interdisciplinary literary scholarship the essays collected here investigate the complex connections between scientific mesmerism, its manifestations in the Victorian social and cultural world, and the literary imagination. Here, for the first time, the varied themes and contexts shaped by mesmeric practices are brought together in one volume. Mesmerism’s influence on phrenology, medicine and mental health; its interaction with the occult and with communication technologies; the effects of mesmeric principles on gender and sexuality, as well as on criminal behaviour, are all set within the context of literary texts that interrogate and critique mesmerism’s influence on the Victorians. This volume will be of interest, therefore, to scholars of Victorian literature and the history of science, as well as to those interested in cultural history with a focus on gender, sexuality, and sciences of the mind.

279 pages, Paperback

First published May 31, 2006

Reviews

[Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thorough examination of the mesmerist trend via its portrayal in a series of Victorian novels, VICTORIAN LITERARY MESMERISM is nothing if not broad in its approach. Beginning with a scene-setting introductory chapter, this collection takes in the works of Bulwer-Lytton, Poe, and Gaskell; briefly explores events in Australia; examines Hawthorne's HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES; shines a light on the politics of Eliot's THE LIFTED VEIL; and finishes with a strong closing focus on the fin-de-siecle works of Corelli, Doyle, and Collins. An assortment of scholars dive deeply into their chosen material, each revealing a different angle on the main theme.