If there is ever a book that preceded me, a reference on hypnosis appearances in fiction before I was more than passingly interested in the subject, this is it. It was also one of the first (probably the first) nonfiction books on the subject I purchased for The Collection. Maria Tatar has compiled an exhaustive evaluation of 18th and 19th Century mesmeric literature which is an invaluable aid in any research I could perform over that era.
“Spellbound” is an examination of the effect of the combined concepts of mesmerism, animal magnetism and electricity in fiction during the 18th and 19th Centuries, focusing on the uses of all three allied subjects as they were thought of in that time period. This is where I learned about the ‘recovery rooms’ for Mesmer’s clients in Paris, on how they were used for people who were undergoing ‘hysteric reactions’: my first thought was “My god, they’re having an orgasm.”
Commentary: What “Spellbound” does is reinforce my belief that it really all started with Mesmer, or, rather, the after-effects of Mesmer. What I am referring to is the controversy not only involving Mesmer’s practices in Paris, but also the controversies surrounding and between his followers, adherents and detractors. What this book also did was expose me to the amount of mesmeric and hypnotic literature from the 18th and 19th Centuries that was written in the wake of Mesmer and during and because of the periodic revivals of the interest in mesmerism. I never would have known about such authors as the German writer E T A Hoffman, nor how mesmerism appeared in the writings of the French author Balzac or the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne; well, at least not quite yet. This book also drove home the concept that hypnosis and mesmerism in fiction and literature has its beginnings in the era of Mesmer, not after.
Recommendation: “Spellbound” is a tough read: its not written for a popular audience, it reads more like a doctoral thesis, as it is written taking the assumption the reader is familiar with the individuals and situations described, something that would only apply scholars and students of the period: certainly that didn’t apply in my situation but I was able to battle my way through it. But it is one of the few nonfiction works on the subject of hypnosis in literature and definitely belongs in the Collection.
Maria Tatar runs her own personal blog, Breezes from Wonderland, her “forum for storytelling, folklore and children’s literature.” She is the John L. Loeb Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures and of Folklore and Mythology at Harvard University. She chairs the Program in Folklore and Mythology.
