BleakChesneyWold

                                      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 ma...

                   Catherine Crowe (1790-1872) At the Park Gate by John Atkinson Grimshaw ( 1836-1893) painted 1878, Public domain,courtesy of  Wikimedia Commons               The Victorian era saw a massive rise in respect of deliberate communication with the Dead. Those who had passed over weren't just spectres who haunted the living, they were being invited to return. And contact with spirits had consequences. But was a seance really to blame for the 1854 breakdown of a prominent author in the mid Victorian era?  Mrs Catherine Crowe wrote a series of novels published from around 1841  including, The Story of Lilly Dawson   ,The Adventures of Susan Hopley  or Circumstancial Evidence (  her most famous work ),   The Adventures of a Beauty , Linny Lockwood.   The 'Household Words' magazine, whilst edited by Charles Dickens published three short stories ...