Mesmerism and Hawthorne: Mediums of American Romance

by Samuel Coale

Book Overview

Coale explores the profound influence that the mesmerist and
spiritualist 'craze' of the 1840s and 1850s had on Hawthorne's artistic
vision and fictional techniques.

Nathaniel Hawthorne despised both mesmerism and spiritualism, viewing
these pseudosciences as new incarnations of witchcraft, in which the master-slave
relationship overwhelms all others. Nevertheless, even though he regarded
the psychological paradigm behind these...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 081731038X
• ISBN13: 9780817310387
• Release Date: February 2000
• Publisher: University Alabama Press
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.1"