He was simply the greatest psychic of all time. He was also the first - before him, the word ‘psychic’ did not even exist. The feats he performed were so extraordinary that Victorian scientists had to invent the term in order to explain them. The man who became the world’s first psychic was Daniel Dunglas Home. Now almost entirely forgotten, Home was a household name in Victorian Britain, a man of inexplicable ability who divided opinion wherever he went. Hated by Dickens and defended by Thackeray, denounced by Faraday yet mysterious to Darwin, insulted by Tolstoy but patronised by the Emperor of France and the Csar of Russia. The astonishing feats he performed, and the bizarre personal life that attracted so much controversy, are little known today outside the esoteric world of psychical research. He rarely appears in the biographies of the many great Victorians who knew him as few could openly admit to such a controversial acquaintance. This book will finally introduce one of the most remarkable and enigmatic figures in history, and the strange and seemingly inexplicable events that occurred in his presence.
- 'Lamont has conjured a fascinating story' SUNDAY TIMES
- '[A] sprightly account' GUARDIAN
- 'Lamont, with equal amounts of erudition and charm, unpicks the extraordinary life of a man who, if he was a fraud, was the best fraud in the business… Along the way Lamont provides sardonic accounts of seances in this superb, ingenious biography.' SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY
Paperback:
£7.99
Published 03/08/2006
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