The Mina Scarletti Mysteries - set in 1870's Brighton -by Linda Stratmann

                                      A Sceptical View of  Victorian Spiritualism 

                                       

                                       

So far historian and fiction writer  Linda Stratmann has written six novels featuring an unusual lead character, Mina Scarletti. Mina is in her 20's, particularly small with a curved spine due to scoliosis. Living in her mother's home- and from an upper middle class background, in Brighton.  The first novel opens in 1871,Mina writes children's stories and has some horror fiction published under an assumed name. Throughout the series, Mina's main role is to expose fake mediums and associated charlatans, whilst still maintaining her position within her family and respectable society. Her brother Richard is a charmer, enjoys the pleasures of life, and unable to settle in any employment. The colourful characters he attracts, along with those from the theatrical world, are a welcome counterweight to the more seemly dinner parties and  'at homes'  their mother and her friends frequent and  hosts.

As I live in Brighton, enjoy how familiar streets and places are evoked as how they would appear in the 1870's. Great to see references to the Royal Suspension Chain Pier built in 1823,the New Oxford Music Hall in New Street opening in 1861, the booksellers, shops, local papers, the plays performed at the Pavilion and other entertainment. The presence of Crimean War veterans, the endless speculation of the whereabouts of Doctor Livingstone, the chocolate poisoner Christina Humphries who escaped hanging after her conviction in 1871 and ended up in Broadmoor, are woven into the story line. The author provides helpful endnotes displaying her own research into local history and Victorian Spiritualism. She also draws on incidents outsider her time frame such as reworking Miss Moberly's and Miss Jourdain's 'time slip' experience they claimed to  have experienced at Versailles in 1901 -where they saw Marie Antoinette- into an 1871 encounter with the Prince Regent at the Pavilion. 

One of Mina's close associates is Doctor Hamid, based on the Anglo-Indian Sake Dean Mohamed , (1759- 1851)  who introduced the Medicated Vapour bath to Brighton in 1821, and moved a generation later to take part the novels. Doctor Hamid is less sceptical of Spiritualism than Mina, but prepared to be her ally and seems to disclose far too much information about his patients.

Starting the series in 1871 is significant. Though Spiritualism is generally considered to have began in New York State with the Fox sisters in 1848 and crossed the Atlantic in 1852, with Maria Hayden, an American medium reaching London with her husband William. An associate of the Haydens' was Scottish born Daniel Dunglas Home, who had emigrated to the USA aged nine, only to return to Britain as a medium in 1855. Home gathered quite a following in Europe, conducting seances in front of Napoleon III amongst others. Back in Britain in by 1863, Home was 'adopted' aged 30 by a rich widow called Mrs Jane Lyon in 1866. Mrs Lyon required that he change his name to 'Home-Lyon' and she settled £60,000 upon him. 

Home's opponents maintain that he used false pretences via his mediumship  to obtain the money, perhaps even taking advantage of Mrs Lyon's loneliness after the loss of her husband. Another view is that Mrs Lyon hoped to take advantage of Home's celebrity status to be introduced to high society, and when such invitations did not materialise, demanded her money back 1. Home refused and the case reached the Chancery, who decided in favour of Mrs Lyon in 1868, and he was ordered to refund her. It is not surprising that Home's legal defeat appears as an inspiration to Mina Scarletti, who enthusiastically reads a pamphlet denouncing Home in the first novel 2. Home has been immortalised in Robert Browning's poem ' Mr Sludge the Medium'. 

The first two tales Mr Scarletti's Ghost and The Royal Ghost are quite gentle, but the third novel An Unquiet Ghost is darker with some dreadful family secrets being revealed. Consistent themes begin to emerge. The mediums get bolder with their claims,far more than standard tricks in parlour seances are exposed by Mina . Alleged apparitions and automatic writing on slates, materialisation of objects are debunked. Mina persists in maintaining that the Spiritualists are exploiting human grief and sense of loss. The novels show how people can be hoodwinked in this respect. Her rival Mr Arthur Wallace Hope, tirelessly campaigns for Spiritualism, maintaining that there is a genuine case for contact with the spirit world. 

The tensions worsen when both Mina and Mr Hope are members of a party who are trapped for some days in a country house- Agatha Christie style- at the time of the fourth novel in The Ghost of Hollow House .By then Mina starts to realise that Mr Hope is now so obsessed by the cause of Spiritualism that he will do anything in his power to crush her. He is a rich man with powerful associates, Mina is a young woman who has to rely on her wits.There are hints that Mr Hope is scheming to trick Mina into a sexual relationship to 'ruin' her, or to bribe a doctor to declare her insane. There is a brief respite during at the time of the fifth novel His Fathers Ghost involving the disappearance of a local businessman who was on the point of bankruptcy . Fraud, extortion, more unravelling of family secrets follow the sightings of an alleged ghost. 

By  the sixth novel The Cyanide Ghost, Mr Hope is now publically claiming it is possible to photograph spirits of the dead, also trying to spread a rumour that a Mina has been involved in an attempt to poison a local medium. A final and quite public showdown results between Mina's scepticism and Mr Hope's blinkered advocacy of mediumship at any cost. It seems likely that The Cyanide Ghost is the last in the series. 

Via the endnotes, Linda Stratmann emphasises that Mr Hope is a fictional character who represents the educated 'positive' view of Spiritualism. She also appears to accept that there were scientists -most notably -Sir William Crookes - who were positive about Spiritualism.  Crookes was a member of the Royal Society and as his entry states in the Encyclopedia Britannica a  "physicist noted for his discovery of the element thallium and for his cathode-ray studies, fundamental in the development of atomic physics"3. 

Moreover, the naturalist and geographer, Alfred Russel Wallace 4, a correspondent with Charles Darwin who had quite an input into the theory of evolution was pro- Spiritualism. Wallace even went as far as to write a book titled 'Miracles and Modern Spiritualism', published in 1875. Obviously Linda Stratmann is writing novels, not a historical survey of mediumship, but as a sceptic myself, I can acknowledge the talents of some advocates of Spiritualism.  

Overall a pleasure to read 'The Mina Scarletti Mysteries'. The storylines are intriguing enough and there is enough historical background to stimulate at least some interest in the world of Victorian Spiritualism. 

NOTES

1 Reference : Chapter on Daniel Dunglas Home in 'Why the Victorians Saw Ghosts-An Illustrated Guide to 19th Century Spiritualism' by Michael Gallagher.

2 The pamphlet Mina reads is titled The claims of D.D. Home Refuted Containing a Very Full Account of the Lyon Case and His Disgrace,by Josiah Rand M.D.  I can't find any record of this publication so presume that it is fictional. UPDATE I have discovered there was a widely circulated pamphlet " The Great Spiritual Case . Lyon v Home The Whole Disclosing one of the Most Singular Histories in Spiritualism ever heard in any Court of Justice' . This was published on 5th May 1868 by Illustrated Police News and sold for tuppence. Perhaps Mina read this one ! Will try to link it if can find an online copy. 

3 Encyclopedia Britannica entry for Sir William Crookes

4 Science Direct  Volume 23, issue 24 

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