Spiritualism in fiction

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of fictional stories in which Spiritualism features as an important plot element. Passing mentions are omitted from this list.

[edit] Written works

This literature-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

William Dean Howells, The Undiscovered Country, an 1880 novel on Spiritualism and its dangers for the mental stability of its fanatical adherents.
Henry James, The Bostonians, has as heroine a young and beautiful trance lecturer (Verena Tarrant), modeled on the actual Cora L. V. Scott. The novel illustrates how Spiritualism was adopted by persons involved in late 19th century reform movements.
Bolesław Prus, Pharaoh, an 1895 historical novel incorporating scenes inspired by Spiritualism.
H.G. Wells, Love and Mr. Lewisham, a novel published in 1900, in which the main character falls in love with a girl whose stepfather claims to be a spirit medium. A large portion of the novel deals with the questionable ethics of some practitioners of the occult. (This novel marked one of the earliest departures from science fiction for Wells—and was a best-seller.)
Hamlin Garland, Tyranny of the Dark, a 1905 novel which follows the budding romance between a skeptical man of science and a beautiful young spirit medium. (Much of the novel's material was based on the author's actual investigations.)
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Land of Mists, a novel published in 1926. The third of Doyle's Professor Challenger stories, The Land of Mists deals with the conversion to spiritualism of Challenger's friend Edward Malone; his daughter Enid; and finally Challenger himself. Doyle was himself a committed spiritualist and as a result this book's discription of spiritualist ideals is somewhat more earnest than most books of its type, and the descriptions of seance phenomenon is substantially more pedantic.
William C Paxton, Sherlock Holmes "The Bab Deception"

Published as one of four stories (78 pages out of a total 239) in "The Hidden Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by William "Bill" Paxton (not the actor Bill Paxton) in 2000-1^[1]^[2]. A published synopsis^[3]: Set in August, 1896, Sherlock Holmes expounds at great length on his occult beliefs and invites Watson to a (spiritualism) based séance(and goes on to wonder about the possibilities if séances were in fact true.) Lestrade & Macintosh take Holmes & Watson to the home of Sir Randolph Gretzinger, former Ambassador to Persia, who has been murdered along with his servant. Holmes finds a copy of the Bayan (see Bayán (exposition)) in Gretzinger's hand, and he expounds at length on Babism. He deduces that the men have been injected with poison (from small wounds in their thumbs), and expounds at length on snake venom. The following day they are summoned to the Diogenes Club, where Mycroft expounds at great length on the politics of petroleum and how this may be the true reason for the murder. After visiting the dead man's widow and urging her to continue his oil negotiations with the Shah of Persia Holmes is visited by representatives of the Bahá'í Faith who fear that the book was planted on the body to implicate them. They expound at length on the assassination of the last Shah and feel an effort is being made to frame them, but Holmes assures them he is well aware of the reputation of the Bahá'ís and believes in their innocence. Holmes & Watson are invited to another séance and Holmes expounds at length on the other guests. At this séance a spirit claiming to be Moriarty hurls a dagger at Holmes (there are special messages for each attendee - at the end Holmes is convinced the séance was a fake because Moriarty was a much better knife thrower but can see no evidence to prove it was a fake.)