Spiritualism in fiction

This article provides a list of fictional stories in which Spiritualism features as an important plot element. The list omits passing mentions.

Written works

This literature-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

• William Dean Howells, The Undiscovered Country, an 1880 novel on Spiritualism and its dangers for the mental stability of its fanatical adherents.
• Henry James, The Bostonians (1886), whose heroine is viewed as having fallen under the spell of female trance lecturers such as Mrs. Ada T.P. Foat, modeled on the real-life Cora L. V. Scott. The novel illustrates how Spiritualism was adopted by persons involved in late-19th-century reform movements.
• Bolesław Prus, Pharaoh, an 1895 historical novel incorporating scenes inspired by Spiritualism.
• H.G. Wells, Love and Mr. Lewisham, a novel published in 1900, in which the main character falls in love with a girl whose stepfather claims to be a spirit medium. A large portion of the novel deals with the questionable ethics of some practitioners of the occult. (This novel marked one of the earliest departures from science fiction for Wells—and was a best-seller.)
• Hamlin Garland, Tyranny of the Dark, a 1905 novel which follows the budding romance between a skeptical man of science and a beautiful young spirit medium. (Much of the novel's material was based on the author's actual investigations.)
• Arthur Conan Doyle, The Land of Mist, a novel published in 1926. The third of Doyle's Professor Challenger stories, The Land of Mist deals with the conversion to Spiritualism of Challenger's friend Edward Malone, his daughter Enid, and finally Challenger himself. Doyle was a committed Spiritualist, and this book's presentation of Spiritualist ideals is somewhat more earnest than that in most books of its type, while the descriptions of séance phenomena are substantially more pedantic.
• George S. Kaufman, Moss Hart, You Can't Take It with You, a play which premiered on Broadway in 1936, where one of the characters, Mrs. Kirby, believes in Spiritualism.
• A. S. Byatt, Possession: A Romance. In the Victorian half of this 1990 novel, many preoccupations of the time are discussed and experienced by the characters. Spiritualism is treated as a fraud on the credulous.
• Sarah Waters, Affinity (1999): This historical novel is about a depressed young woman in turn-of-the-century England. She is depressed because she had been having a lesbian affair with a friend, who decided to cut off their relations and marry a man. In an effort to lift her depression, she volunteers at a women's prison, where she meets a beautiful young Spiritualist, Selena Dawes, to whom she feels romantically attracted. The protagonist learns about Spiritualism as she falls deeper in love with Selena.
• Michelle Black, "Sèance in Sepia" (2011): In this mystery novel, real-life spiritualist Victoria Woodhull investigates the world of spirit photography and ends up solving a murder mystery in 1875 Chicago. ^[1]

Movies

• Faraon, a 1966 feature film based on Bolesław Prus' novel, Pharaoh.
• The Others, a 2001 feature film by Spanish-Chilean director Alejandro Amenábar.
• The Prestige, a 2006 feature film by Christopher Nolan based on the 1995 Christopher Priest novel, The Prestige.

Television

• "The Unquiet Dead," an episode of Doctor Who.
• Mr Selfridge, PBS Masterpiece, season 43, episode 13 (2013): Sir Arthur Conan Doyle convinces Harry Selfridge to allow a male American Spiritualist medium to hold a séance at Selfridges for the store staff.

See also

References