Hypnotisme

1875 · réf. 82086 — Chicago: W.B. Keen Cooke and Co 1875. Stated Tenth Thousand. Octavo. 19.5cm. Publisher's original bottle green ribbed cloth titled and decorated in gilt and black to spine and front board. 241pp. 30pp illustrated ads to rear. Scuffing to corners and spine ends light fraying to the cloth at the head and tail and some discoloration and dulling. A good solid copy with only cosmetic wear to apologize for. Internally clean coated yellow endpapers previous ink ownerships of the Loomis family of Osage to front flyleaves. Illustrated throughout. One of the rather more esoteric Pinkerton titles involving the murder of a bank teller and the possible involvement of an entranced sleepwalker. The second title gets off to roaring start with a potentially cursed opal ring and one of Pinkerton's intrepid lady detectives posing as a fortune teller to unmask the superstitious potential murderer. Writers unfamiliar with the theory and practical requirements of hypnosis and mesmeric states could often be found falling back on the tried and tested sleepwalker motif that by this stage had been knocking them dead in gothics penny dreadfuls and the more exotic police procedurals for almost a century. The idea that waking a sleepwalker in mid trance could prove fatal was also a much repeated trope as was the more subconscious pre-occupation with entranced women in their nightgowns wandering obliviously into all sorts of peril. An interesting indication of how deeply mesmerism and its errant children had inserted themselves into all areas of popular culture. W.B. Keen, Cooke, and Co unknown