Mystic London
Or, Phases of Occult Life in the Metropolis

This apologia for spiritualism, published in 1875, is an indispensable source on alternative religion in Victorian London.

Charles Maurice Davies (Author)

9781108027434, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 May 2011

420 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.4 cm, 0.53 kg

The Anglican clergyman and founding member of the Society of the Holy Cross, Charles Maurice Davies (1828–1910), published Mystic London in 1875. The work is a collection of Davies' observations and researches into urban spiritualism. It includes descriptions of London mesmerists, mediums and séances, and discussions of Darwinism, secularism and the non-religious. Davies, who discovered spiritualism in Paris in the mid-1850s, and became a committed spiritualist after the death of his son in 1865, argued in this work that the principles and practices of spiritualism did not pose any threat to Christianity and that the two movements had much in common and could peacefully coexist. The work is an indispensable source on the presence of alternative religion in London and for the beliefs and practices of nineteenth-century spiritualists. It offers a fascinating insight into Victorian experiences and attitudes towards the occult and the supernatural.

1. London Arabs
2. East London Arabs
3. London Arabs in Canada
4. Waifs and strays
5. A lunatic ball
6. A baby show
7. A night in a bakehouse
8. A London slave market
9. Tea and experience
10. Sunday linnet-singing
11. A woman's rights debate
12. An open-air Tichborne meeting
13. Sunday in a people's garden
14. Utilizing the young ladies
15. Fairlop Friday
16. A Christmas dip
17. Boxing-day on the streets
18. The vigil of the Derby
19. The wifeslayer's 'home'
20. Bathing in the Far East
21. Among the Quakers
22. Penny readings
23. Darwinism on the Devil
24. Peculiar people
25. Interviewing an astrologer
26. A barmaid show
27. A private execution
28. Breaking up for the holidays
29. Psychological ladies
30. Secularism of Bunyan
31. Al fresco infidelity
32. An 'indescribable phenomenon'
33. A lady mesmerist
34. A psychopathic institution
35. A phrenological evening
36. A spiritual picnic
37. A ghostly conference
38. An evening's diablerie
39. Spiritual athletes
40. 'Spotting' spirit mediums
41. A Séance for sceptics
42. An evening with the higher spirits
43. Spirit forms
44. Sitting with a sibyl
45. Spiritualists and conjurers
46. Pros and cons of spiritualism.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX]