Daniel Dunglas Home (1833-1886) was a charismatic medium whose seances were attended by European royalty and eminent Victorians like Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Thrown out by his aunt because of the paranormal events which plagued him since childhood, Home became a 'professional house guest' and medium at the age of 17. During seances he purportedly levitated, handled hot coals and channelled the voices of the dead. This volume, first published in 1877, is an evocative examination of spiritualism which explores the history of the practice via the Greeks, the Romans, and Joan of Arc. Simultaneously attacking fraudulent mediums while celebrating 'true' spiritualist practitioners, this fascinating work details both the criticism and support received by Home and features reproductions of numerous fan letters. Although colourful and impassioned, Home's polemic is written in an amiable style and provides fascinating insights into the life and work of the self-proclaimed 'Grandfather of English Spiritualism'.

A highly original study that examines the central role played by women as mediums, healers, and believers during the golden age of spiritualism in the late Victorian era, The Darkened Room is more than a meditation on women mediums—it's an exploration of the era's gender relations. The hugely popular spiritualist movement, which maintained that women were uniquely qualified to commune with spirits of the dead, offered female mediums a new independence, authority, and potential to undermine conventional class and gender relations in the home and in society. Using previously unexamined sources and an innovative approach, Alex Owen invokes the Victorian world of darkened séance rooms, theatrical apparitions, and moving episodes of happiness lost and regained. She charts the struggles between spiritualists and the medical and legal establishments over the issue of female mediumship, and provides new insights into the gendered dynamics of Victorian society.

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