Pre-Raphaelites in the Spirit World

«This is a new and scholarly study of William Michael Rossetti’s séance diary, which is a fascinating first-hand source for the Rossetti brothers in the 1860s and offers a new perspective on the relationship between the Pre-Raphaelite circle and the spiritualist world.»
(Jan Marsh)

«As quirky and unsettling as the table-turnings it documents, this meticulously edited and annotated séance diary features guest-appearances from the spirits of John Polidori, Elizabeth Siddal and Gabriele Rossetti, among many notable others. Essential reading for anyone interested in the Pre-Raphaelites, Spiritualism, and the Victorian paranormal.»
(Dinah Roe, Reader in Nineteenth Century Literature, Oxford Brookes University)

William Michael Rossetti’s séance diary is a remarkable document in both the history of Pre-Raphaelitism and nineteenth-century spiritualism. In this previously unpublished manuscript, Rossetti meticulously recorded twenty séances between 1865 and 1868. The original motive was the death, in 1862, of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s wife, Elizabeth Siddal. He felt a profound sense of guilt about her and began these séances to reassure himself that she was happy in the afterlife. Messages came from many spirits within the Pre-Raphaelite circle and provide an unprecedented record of spiritualist activity in the late nineteenth century. Questions and answers fill the pages of the diary, many of them communicating uncannily accurate information or details that could be known only to the participants.

This book also includes another unpublished document showing spiritualism in action. It comprises a long letter to Dante Gabriel Rossetti written in 1856 from the artist and spiritualist medium Anna Mary Howitt recounting her interactions with the spirit world and her (sometimes violent) experiences as she became aware of the extent of her psychic powers. Both sections of this book provide an original insight into the cult of spiritualism and throw considerable light on the interactions between members of the Pre-Raphaelite circle and beyond.

J. B. Bullen has had a long-standing interest in the relations between the arts in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. He is the author of (among other books) The Pre-Raphaelite Body (1998), and Rossetti Painter and Poet (2011). He is a Visiting Fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford.

Rosalind White is a Victorianist based at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her PhD thesis, In My Mind’s Cabinet, is an intimate exploration of natural history that examines the lives of its practitioners beyond the impact of conventional watersheds. She has been published in the Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies and the collection A Cultural History of Insects in the Age of Industry (2021).

Lenore A. Beaky is Professor Emerita, LaGuardia Community College, City University of New York. Her PhD thesis, The Letters of Anna Mary Howitt Watts to Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon (1974, Columbia University), explored Howitt’s personal and professional life as a painter and spiritualist. She has published articles in the Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies and the volume Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia (1990).