Spirits and Spirituality in Victorian Fiction, 1st ed. 2016

As seen in fiction, newspaper accounts, and magic shows, the presence of ghosts pervaded the Victorian period. This book examines supernatural encounters in a wide range of Victorian writers including Dickens and Kipling. Cadwallader argues that these fictional spirits reflect how Victorians were adapting to rapid scientific and religious changes.

Introduction: Framing the Ghost Story
1. Physiology, Pharmacology, and the Ghost Stories of J. S. Le Fanu
2. Dickens's Ghosts and the Christmas Spirit
3. The Anatomy of Desire: Madness, Mesmerism, and the Specters of Female Sexuality
4. Mourning the Dead and the Rise of the New Faith
Coda: Cecilia De Noël a nd the Triumph of Experience

Jen Cadwallader is Associate Professor of English at Randolph-Macon College, USA.