Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Witch: A Tale of Terror  By  cover art

Witch: A Tale of Terror

By: Charles MacKay,Sam Harris - introduction
Narrated by: Sam Harris
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $14.95

Buy for $14.95

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

For centuries in Europe, innocent men and women were murdered for the imaginary crime of witchcraft. This was a mass delusion and moral panic, driven by pious superstition and a deadly commitment to religious conformity. In Witch: A Tale of Terror, best-selling author Sam Harris introduces and reads from Charles Mackay's beloved book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.

Public Domain (P)2016 Sam Harris
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about Witch: A Tale of Terror

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    499
  • 4 Stars
    287
  • 3 Stars
    121
  • 2 Stars
    43
  • 1 Stars
    12
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    579
  • 4 Stars
    176
  • 3 Stars
    76
  • 2 Stars
    32
  • 1 Stars
    13
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    464
  • 4 Stars
    231
  • 3 Stars
    118
  • 2 Stars
    42
  • 1 Stars
    17

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

more Sam, please

What made the experience of listening to Witch: A Tale of Terror the most enjoyable?

Sam's choices from the text, and delightful reading.

Any additional comments?

I'd like to encourage Sam to do more short audiobooks like this where he excerpts some of his favorite books, does a preface, and then reads selections. I'd buy them all.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

22 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

An uncomfortable reminder of the power of belief

This well-produced audiobook is introduced and read by author & neuroscientist, Sam Harris, who is also host of the very popular 'Waking Up' podcast. Harris' experience as a podcast host, reader of the audiobook versions of several of his own books and leading light across a diverse field of important public conversations and debates shines through in his measured yet compelling reading.

The subject material concerns the 'Witch Mania' of Early Modern Europe, as described by Charles Mackay in his seminal 1841 book, 'Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds'. The quality of Mackay's writing is excellent and the detailed picture he paints of this extraordinarily tragic (and often gruesome) period (which for Mackay - and even, to some extent, for us now - was relatively recent) conveys in almost palpable terms the ability of individuals and societies to drive themselves into an ever-deeper ditch of terrible suffering when the wheels of their beliefs (which drive their behaviour and much of their experience of the world) run-off the rails of reason.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Unconscionable Christianity - Burning Women

Sam Harris found this and reads it to illustrate a point - how presumably good people do the most terrible things in the name of their religious beliefs. Shocking, mortifying, stomach-turning, and more relevant than ever in these theocratic times. Five stars on every count.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting and informative

If you could sum up Witch: A Tale of Terror in three words, what would they be?

Shocking and horrifying

What was one of the most memorable moments of Witch: A Tale of Terror?

Covers in grim detail a dark and superstitious era in Europe that happened from the 12th to late into the 17th century.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

What really surprised me was that the crusaders were charged for witch craft, and later Joan of Arc. Along with the inhumanly way self-proclaimed morale people treated those accused of a non-crime. Along with the ways they used a "holy" book to justify their cruelty.

Any additional comments?

It's an informative book to listen to and Sam Harris does a great job imparting the information in the book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good

I would have liked information regarding the historical context surrounding Charles Mackay when he wrote the book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Religion strikes again.

Religion and superstition show their true colors once again. Leave it to human beings to murder mass amounts of people only to assume they’re “doing the lords work”. Such a shame. Amazing book. Excellent narration.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Only witches talk to themselves…

This is an excerpt from the book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay. He wrote this book in 1841, almost 200 years ago. Based on the excerpt, the title more or less says it all. The book, which has a slightly catalog-esque feel to it, describes a number of cases where a person, usually a woman or a girl, was accused of being a witch. It also gives you a brief history of witch hunts - from its peak in the beginning of the 17th century to the end in the late 18th century (although in some countries people still believe in witches).

It is entertaining in - a macabre kind of way – to read about the witch trials. Although I have read a fair amount about witches, I am still amazed every time I read about the trials. Witness accounts in which someone claimed to have seen a cat that looked like the accused were taken seriously. Experts claimed that if you talk at loud to yourself then you are definitively possessed by a demon and must, therefore, be a witch. I am guessing that to some extent the witch hunts were a way to satisfy the crowd's lust for blood and their desire for vengeance over the extreme hardships in their life. We should keep this in mind today when people on social media seem to think that they are better jurors than the people working within the judicial system.

If you want a brief introduction to the history of the witch-hunt, with a European bias, then this book is a good buy. However, you can get more detailed accounts (remember that this is an excerpt) and while the book has a Sam Harris feel to it, only small parts of it were actually authored by him.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

People Are Frightening

The cruelty that humans have endured is beyond depressing. We've come along way, but this book shows what humans are capable of. The recent support for Donald Trump is baffling, but less so after listening to this book. Reason is not always the strongest impulse.
The story gets a bit repetitive as it documents many cases of bizarre barbaric stupidity. I’m not sure how much Harris edited the language, but the writing is great, and Harris is well-suited to read it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

TikTok challenge of old

it's interesting to hear some of the stories where people performed acts in court or others alleged certain acts to be true. it almost gives you a sense that people then, like today, want to be in the limelight and get their 15 minutes of fame even if it did lead to their death. sadly it was used against others and they couldn't prove that they were not practicing witchcraft and ended up dying because of the the others who pushed the idea of witch craft. interesting read with a lot of things coming at you fast. you may need to reread to capture all the stories.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Worth every penny.

I got this audiobook for free. The reader seems bored and in a hurry to be done with it. The story is tepid and does no real justice to the horror that was the witch trials.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful