Spirits, Seers & Séances

Victorian Spiritualism, Magic & the Supernatural

De: Steele Alexandra Douris

Narrado por: Elizabeth Wiley

Spiritualism in the Age of Sherlock Holmes and Edgar Allan Poe

A woman wearing a black veil convenes a seance. A magician puts a volunteer into a trance. A fortune-teller leans over a crystal ball. Everyone knows what Victorian mysticism looks like because our modern imagery, language, and practice of magic borrows heavily from the Victorians. But we have little understanding of its spiritual, cultural, and historical foundations.

What made the Victorians turn to mediumship, hypnotism, and fortune-telling? What were they afraid of? What were they seeking?

This book explores the history of automatic writing, cartomancy, clairvoyance, and more. It reveals how Victorian belief in ghosts, fairies, and nature spirits shaped our celebrations of Halloween and Christmas. With historic examples and hands-on exercises, you will discover how spiritualism in the time of Jack the Ripper, Jane Eyre, "A Christmas Carol," and Dracula left such a profound impact on both the past and present.

©2023 Steele Alexandra Douris (P)2023 Tantor

A comprehensive history.

This is the most comprehensive history of this era that I am aware of. I learned about the history of the people as well. Overall, this was a deeply fascinating book that sheds light on modern new age beliefs.

Wonderful information from the past

The Victorian Era and the people that populate it are intriguing to me. If you love all things spooky, scary and old timey- give this audiobook a listen. Great narration and love the ideas that it shows and exercises for you to test your own heritages out with small things for you to actually do- like reading or holding an interesting Halloween party.

Hope others enjoy this book as much as I did.

Expected Depth, Got a Glossy Overview

Given Steele Alexandra Douris’s background as a Victorianist, I came to this book expecting real depth and insight. Instead, what I found was disappointingly shallow. Douris acknowledges that our modern magical language owes much to the Victorians, but she stops there, rarely pushing further into the why. Why did the Victorians flock to mediums at a time when science and industry promised progress? What anxieties, fears, or longings made ghostly visitations, clairvoyance, and automatic writing so compelling? These are the questions that could have elevated this book—yet they’re left hovering in the margins.

Instead, we get a tour of familiar topics—cartomancy, hypnotism, fairies, spiritualist parlor games—each touched on briefly before the narrative rushes on. The result feels more like a catalog than a thesis. The “hands-on exercises” only highlight the book’s identity crisis: is this meant to be a history, or a how-to occult workbook? As it stands, it’s neither rigorous enough for scholars nor immersive enough for practitioners.

What frustrates most is the wasted potential. Douris has the training and expertise to give us a nuanced, contextualized look at Victorian spiritualism—how it intersected with gender, class, empire, and religion. Instead, the book never moves beyond a generalist’s overview. For an author with this background, that’s a letdown.

In the end, Spirits, Seers & Séances is an easy, accessible primer, but that’s about all. If you’re looking for a casual introduction, you may find it entertaining. If you’re hoping for substance, depth, or new perspectives, you’ll leave this séance unsatisfied.