In my library
The Introduction to this captivating and fascinating book proclaims "England has long had a reputation for being haunted". This reputation and our love affair with ghosts is primarily a result of cultural, social and religious change over the past 500 years and it is these aspects of ghosts that the author investigates.
Davies begins with a chapter entitled `Manifestation' where personal characteristics, times of haunting, the dress and lifespan of ghosts is discussed. There follows the geography of haunting and analysis of how social changes have affected ghost sightings in certain locations. For example, ghosts are rarely reported in churchyards today because fewer people go to church and hence fewer people find themselves in churchyards. Allied to this is the fact that public cemeteries are now located away from areas of housing. This is a far cry from the 19th century when churchyards were a much more important space, not just on a religious level, but also a social and recreational one.
Changing attitudes to religion has shaped the belief in ghosts and our reactions to them. For example, an early argument was that if you believe in God then almost by default you believe in ghosts because they are proof of an afterlife. However, after the Reformation ghost belief was viewed as Catholic `superstition' by Protestants and later a rejection of ghosts was seen as a useful foil to being accused of having Methodist sympathies.
Cases of `fraudulent' ghosts such as the Cock Lane Ghost could damage reputations. Hence Samuel Johnson's refusal to dismiss ghosts and the link the public made between Johnson and the Cock Lane Ghost damaged his reputation as a beacon of the Enlightenment. For this reason the expansion of the regional press in the late 18th/early 19th centuries saw a tendency for ghost belief being ridiculed as these publications defended "the provinces from condescending metropolitan assumptions regarding rural backwaters".
Reasons for ghost sightings such as melancholy and mental illness, dreams and nightmares are investigated with the inevitable mention of Freud and Jung. Davies then documents the history of ghost imitation through the use of magic lanterns, photography and cinema. Other subjects covered include witchcraft and magic, Mesmerism and folklore, and the influence of the Society of Psychical Research and the book has a section which discusses the portrayal of ghosts in plays, books and pamphlets.
Davies writes with academic authority but his writing never becomes dense or pretentious so his work is accessible to all levels of readers. One note of criticism - I'd be surprised if Palgrave employed a proof reader on this book. If they did they should get a new one! There are at least 20-30 errors and a few cross references that don't make sense.
It's difficult to describe the depth and breadth of "The Haunted" because Davies has managed to include so much interesting material. Anyone with an interest in the supernatural or esoteric, witchcraft or magic, religion and the afterlife, or simply the social mores and customs of our ancestors will be enthralled by this book.
If you are looking to read a ghost story, this is not the book to reach for. Owen Davies writes about the social history of ghosts, as the book's subtitle clearly states. What is not be clear from the book's title is that the focus is on the history of ghosts in Great Britain. I was aware of that when I bought it, so I am not disappointed that there is no discussion of American spirits or those found on the Continent or elsewhere in the world. Still, as Owen writes in the first sentence of his Introduction, "England has long had a reputation for being haunted." My English mother had a few ghost stories to tell me, and I grew up reading about ghosts and the various pixies and elves and other folk that inhabited fen and forest.
There are eight chapters broken into three sections: Experience, Explanation, and Representation. Davies writes with a sureness that seems to indicate a long time spent researching the topic, and I have no reason to doubt his comfort level with the material. As this is the first social history that I've read about hauntings or the history of psychic phenomena, I don't feel qualified to submit Davies's material to deep scrutiny, but the book is well cited and there are ample notes for anyone who wants to read more deeply in the subject.
Despite being an academic volume, there are places where Davies indulges in a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor, but he stops short of mocking his subjects. Clearly, for many people ghosts and spirits and demons were real, not just figments of the imagination. But for others, ghosts provided an avenue for earning a bit of extra cash by duping the gullible. What did surprise me was how popular the ghost chases were in Victorian times: I had thought that all of the ghost hunting was of a more recent vintage (as in, the TV generation). In some instances, crowds filled the streets, vying for a chance to spot a ghost, and made nuisances of themselves to local residents.
The book also includes some history of the role of ghosts in theater and literature, especially the gothic novel. In one story Davies relates, a rather portly actor who was portraying a ghost got stuck in the stage trapdoor when he was trying to "disappear." The actor, to the audience's delight, made light of the incident and turned the accident into a humorous event. Gems like this dot the book and will probably left me wanting more -- definitely a good thing.
The pace was even and Davies writes clearly. In just 250 pages of text, there is an incredible amount of information in here about the history of English ghosts' interaction with the living. Most of the information ranges from the 18th century to present day, but there are a few bits about earlier ghost stories and sightings. A good read and an excellent reference, The Haunted will be a keeper in my library.