Keeping in Touch: An Anthology of the Victorian SeanceMain MenuIntroductionFurther ReadingI - Spiritualism and Its BelieversII - Ambivalent SkepticsIII - Scoffers and FraudsIV - The Private SeanceV - The Public SeanceWork CitedMegan Brueningb3bbdc9bd1941527cc9ff27849ef1a643abdd7d3
12016-11-23T12:55:18-05:00Evenings at Home3plain2016-12-16T20:59:32-05:00EEvenings 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.