Keeping in Touch: An Anthology of the Victorian Seance

Evenings at Home

EEvenings at Home in Spiritual Séance: Welded Together by a Species of Autobiography is regularly referenced in contemporary material related to spiritualism. Written by medium and spirit photographer Georgiana Houghton and published in 1882, Evenings may be more honestly described as an autobiography than a “species” of that genre. Houghton’s text is composed of letters (her own and some featured in magazines such as the “Christian Spiritualist”) describing her/her fellow spiritualists; encounters with the supernatural. These specific excerpts describe how Christian doctrine and practices (particularly prayer) were woven into séances. In doing so Houghton implicitly reveals how spiritualism was presented in England as a corollary to Christianity, not as a rival.


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