The spirit-rapper; an autobiography: Classic Book Guide and Free Edition
The spirit-rapper; an autobiography: author and translator credits, catalogue synopsis, subjects and links to the Gutenberg reading formats.
The spirit-rapper; an autobiography is catalogued by Project Gutenberg with author credits for Brownson, Orestes Augustus (1803–1876).
Catalogue synopsis
Project Gutenberg supplies this automated synopsis of the opening text:
"The spirit-rapper; an autobiography" by Orestes Augustus Brownson is a fictional autobiography written in the mid-19th century. It examines the rise of mesmerism and modern Spiritualism through the first-person account of a scientifically minded New Yorker who is drawn from curiosity into clairvoyance, spirit-rapping, and table-turning. Alongside ministers, reformers, and social radicals, he probes the claims and perils of these phenomena, weighing science, faith, and moral consequences. The opening of the narrative presents a prefatory statement that the work blends fact with fictional “machinery” to scrutinize spirit-manifestations and their links to reformist enthusiasms. The narrator then recounts his sober scientific education and early scepticism, his introduction to a French mesmerist’s convincing demonstrations, and a circle of interlocutors debating whether the effects arise from imagination, a human “demonic” force, or something darker. As mesmerism spreads, a lighthearted practitioner, Jack Wheatley, kills his fiancée by overusing it and is haunted by her apparition, while the narrator himself develops an intense desire for hidden power. Moving among Philadelphia reformers, he witnesses and conducts experiments that surpass mere suggestion—remote mesmerism, magnetized objects inducing trance, and clairvoyance that exceeds any “rapport.” He learns automatic speech and writing under a foreign will, then shifts to using objects as instruments, producing table movement and coded raps, and is told he can gain greater knowledge only if he purifies his motives—just as the excerpt breaks off.
Book and edition facts
- Title: The spirit-rapper; an autobiography
- Author credits: Brownson, Orestes Augustus (1803–1876)
- Catalogue language: English
Catalogue subjects
- Autobiographical fiction
- Mesmerism -- Fiction
- Paranormal fiction
- Spiritualism
Gutenberg collections
- Category: American Literature
- Category: Novels
- Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy
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View the complete Gutenberg catalogue record. Project Gutenberg identifies this edition as public domain in the United States; that designation does not establish its copyright status in every country.
Source notes
Catalogue metadata is public domain and is supplied through Gutendex, which imports Gutenberg's machine-readable catalogue. The automated synopsis is source-supplied, not an independently verified review. Author dates above describe the credited people; no ebook release date is presented as the book's original publication date.
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