{ "item_title" : "Second Edition of A Discovery Concerning Ghosts", "item_author" : [" George Cruikshank "], "item_description" : "If a ghost can pass through walls, why does it arrive fully dressed? That mischievous clothes test drives a sharp satirical assault on apparitions, witchcraft, fortune-telling, astrology and spiritualism. Rather than accepting supernatural claims at face value, the pamphlet presses them for awkward physical details: garments, objects, noises and other material traces that seem strangely bound to supposedly immaterial visitors. S ance rooms and private gatherings become stages on which spirit-rapping, table-turning, automatic writing, mysterious drawings and alleged manifestations are examined with sceptical humour. Fraudulent performances are set beside possible natural explanations, from illness, intoxication and imagination to involuntary movement, environmental conditions and commonplace sounds. Moving through London's theatres, newspapers, police courts and public entertainments, the argument captures a world in which supernatural belief can become spectacle, commerce and reported fact. Illustrated satirical prose gives the challenge its distinctive energy. Extensive quotations and reported conversations allow extraordinary claims to expose their own weaknesses, while comic verse, mock advertisements and satirical proposals repeatedly shift the form and sharpen the attack. Historical ghost cases broaden the enquiry beyond contemporary s ances, connecting fashionable spiritualism with older patterns of superstition and deception. Playful in method yet persistent in its questioning, the work asks how much of the marvellous survives once observation, physical evidence and ordinary causes are allowed into the room. This book was out of print for decades and is now republished by Alpha Editions. It has been restored for today's and future generations. This edition is not just a reprint - it's a collector's item and a cultural treasure.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers1.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/9/37/841/060/937841060X_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "15.99", "online_price" : "15.99", "our_price" : "15.99", "club_price" : "15.99", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "" } }

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