Abstract
This lively and important study opens on a vision seen by a 'sister in the New Life', a Swedenborgian cult. This 'sister' recounts the formation of a new community in which fairies or 'fays' can 'move into a person's breast . . .[and] then clearing a space . . . begin to
build their house' after which 'little baby fays would be born' (p. 1).Willburn traces connections
between these and other such apparently marginal and eccentric practicesçastral travel, table-rapping, mediumshipçand the models of individual selfhood found in liberal political theory and in the Victorian novel. Her study builds on a growing body of scholarship
that reveals the widespread in£uence of occult practices on Victorian imaginings of community.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 752-753 |
Number of pages | 1 |
Journal | Review of English Studies |
Volume | 58 |
Issue number | 237 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Nov 2007 |
Keywords
- English literature
- Victorian
- 19th century
- mystical
- writing