Cock Lane and Common-Sense

Written by one of the most prolific scholars of the age, this 1894 publication explores the persisting belief in ghosts.

Andrew Lang (Author)

9781108072687, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 May 2011

380 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.1 cm, 0.48 kg

Written by folklorist Andrew Lang (1844–1912), this 1894 publication examines the ambivalent relationship the living have attempted to forge with the dead throughout history. Nicknamed 'the Wizard of St Andrews', this prolific polymath also worked as an anthropologist, classicist, historian, poet, mythologist, essayist and journalist, producing over a hundred publications in his lifetime. Largely ignored by scholarship, this book suggests expanding the study of folklore to include contemporary narratives of supernatural events. Taking its title from the legends of the notorious Cock Lane ghost, the work considers the survival of ancient beliefs such as hauntings, clairvoyance, and other phenomena believed to transcend the laws of nature, and how such beliefs have persisted through great social upheaval and change. It includes chapters on savage and ancient spiritualism, comparative psychical research, haunted houses, second sight, crystal gazing, and Presbyterian ghost hunters, among others.

Preface
Introduction
1. Savage spiritualism
2. Ancient spiritualism
3. Comparative psychical research
4. Haunted houses
5. Cock lane and common-sense
6. Apparitions, ghosts, and hallucinations
7. Scrying or crystal-gazing
8. The second sight
9. Ghosts before the law
10. A modern trial for witchcraft
11. Presbyterian ghost hunters
12. The logic of table-turning
13. The ghost theory of the origin of religion.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX]