From the Publisher
"Spirits and Spirituality in Victorian Fiction explores a fascinating series of liminal territories: the spaces between the mind and the body, religious faith and scientific rationalism; puritan sensibilities and sexual awakenings. The ghosts that Jen Cadwallader tracks through the pages of Victorian ghost stories allow her to show us a culture which was contradictory and often uncomfortable in its own skin. It's lucid and witty as well as highly informative – intellectually pleasurable." - Ruth Robbins, Professor of English, Leeds Beckett University, UK
"Through deft readings of numerous examples of the genre, Jen Cadwallader's Spirits and Spirituality in Victorian Fiction offers a rich picture of the ghost story's place in Victorian culture. Charting how the authors of supernatural fiction responded to reductive physiological theories of mind by staking out personalized and experiential grounds for spiritual belief, Cadwallader provides a valuable corrective to existing narratives of the rise of secularism and the decline of religion in the period." - Tyson Stolte, Assistant Professor of English, New Mexico State University, USA
