The Rise of the English Poltergeist

It is 1650 and something is very wrong in your house. Pots and pans are flying through the air. Invisible hands are pelting your family with stones. Doors slam shut on their own, and strange knockings echo through the walls at all hours. Your neighbours whisper about demons, your servants flee in terror, and you don’t know where to turn. Welcome to the world of the early modern poltergeist. While tales of witches and witchcraft have been closely scrutinized by scholars, the mischievous spirits that tormented ordinary households have remained largely overlooked. This groundbreaking study brings brings together and examines twenty-seven extraordinary cases from 1591 to 1718, drawn from contemporary accounts, and retold as vivid ’Relations’ in the style of seventeenth-century demonologies. Of this study Professor Marion Gibson writes: ’Bringing together a wide range of poltergeist stories, this very readable and beautifully illustrated book offers a lively, thoughtful guide to the phenomenon in history: highly recommended’.