Friedrich Schiller’s
Der Geisterseher. Eine Geschichte aus den Memoires des Grafen von O**[
The Ghost-Seer: From the Memoirs of Count von O**, 1789; third revised edition 1798; translated as
The Spiritualistby Francis J. Lamport] appeared in five installments between 1787 and 1789 in Schiller’s journal
Thaliabefore being published in book form. Written as a critique of the resurgent interest in communication with the spirit world in the final decades of the eighteenth century,
Der Geistersehermakes use of plot elements drawn from Gothic romances in the wake of Horace Walpole’s
The Castle of Otranto(1765), whose setting in medieval Italy and alleged origin as a translation from an old manuscript helped make palatable to a modern, enlightened audience its depictions of…
1659 words
Citation: Mahoney, Dennis. "Der Geisterseher". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 September 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=21899, accessed 21 November 2024.]
