The Supernatural in Romantic Fiction

Originally published in London in 1880. (166 pages)

The Publisher has copy-edited this book to improve the formatting, style and accuracy of the text to make it readable. This did not involve changing the substance of the text.

Preface.

I HAVE for several reasons abstained from mentioning the productions of living poets and poetical writers, but have otherwise attempted to make my work as complete as it was in my power to make it. I have used the word romantic in opposition to classical, and possibly have made the word unduly comprehensive by treating of all supernatural fiction, except that of ancient Greece and Rome; and even that I have occasionally noticed for the sake of comparison.


Contents:

Enchanted Persons ----- Metamorphoses ----- Enchanted Places ----- Magical Substances ----- Magic Youth And Life ----- Spirits In Inanimate Substances ----- Checks To Supernatural Power ----- Things Supernaturally Connected With Fortune ----- Supernatural Influences On The Affections ----- Talismans And Spells ----- Magical Illusions ----- Magicians ----- Witches ----- Demogorgon ----- Fairies ----- Jinn ----- Elementary Spirits ----- The Good Genius And The Evil Genius ----- Giants, Dwarfs, Ogres, And Monsters ----- Supernatural Animals ----- The Language Of Animals ----- The Classics In Connection With Romance ----- Resemblances In Fairy Fiction ----- Migration Of Souls ----- Death -----
Vampires, And Animated Corpses ----- Ghosts ----- Sea Phantoms ----- Haunted Houses ----- Prognostics ----- Supernatural Dreams And Visions ----- Curses And Blessings ----- The Evil Eye ----- Devils ----- Divine Power In Romance ----- Valkyrs ----- Scandinavian Deities ----- Hindoo Deities ----- Heroes Of Romance ----- Supernatural Powers Of Body ----- Invisibility ----- Supernatural Revealment ----- Immobility ----- Enlargement And Diminution ----- Supernatural Travels ----- The Supernatural In Allegory ----- Supernatural Conceits ----- The Supernatural In Fable

Excerpt:

The following is the substance of a fable by Bidpai. A man picked up a mouse, took it home, and prayed God to change it into a girl, which transformation was accordingly effected. Some years after, he told her to choose a husband. She chose the most powerful being in creation, whoever that might be. The man, thereupon, addressed the Sun, thinking that to be the mightiest being. But the Sun modestly replied that the Cloud, which obscured his light, was more powerful. The Cloud, on appeal being made to it, acknowledged itself inferior to the Wind, which could disperse it. The Wind admitted the superiority of the Mountain, which could arrest its progress. The Mountain said that the Rat was stronger than itself, since it could pierce its sides, and enter it at will. So the girl was engaged to marry the Rat; but, in order to make the match more equal, it was thought better to transform her back into a Mouse; which was done. There is a fable, attributed to Æsop, which is similar to many old fairy-stories, in which greed is punished, and honesty, or civility, rewarded. One instance of these stories is that, versified by Parnell, where a good fellow accidentally falls in with the fairies, and has the hump on his back taken off; and a bad fellow, hearing of this, intentionally meets with the fairies, with the purpose of being rewarded, but, betraying his right disposition, gets nothing but the hump of the other man placed permanently on his own back. The probably spurious fable of Aesop is this. A woodman loses his hatchet in a stream. Mercury appears to him with a golden hatchet, and asks him whether it is his. The man says No. Mercury then shows him a silver hatchet. The man still says No. Mercury then restores him the lost hatchet, and, as a reward for his honesty, gives him also the other two. A companion of the man, hearing the story, goes to the stream, and designedly loses his hatchet. The god appears, as before, with the golden hatchet, which the man claims. The god is disgusted with his greediness, and, far from giving him another hatchet, will not allow him to have even his own again.