[Rarebooks] FS: PHANTASMAGORIA. OR THE DEVELOPEMENT OF MAGICAL DECEPTION, 1803

[Charles Agvent]

 From our new catalog: 
https://charlesagvent.cdn.bibliopolis.com/images/upload/february-24.pdf?auto=webp

ANONYMOUS. PHANTASMAGORIA. OR THE DEVELOPEMENT OF MAGICAL DECEPTION. 
London: Tegg and Castleman, [1803]. First Edition. Modern calf-backed 
orange paper boards (4-1/8" x 7"); 72 pages. Frontispiece engraving by 
I. Taylor after a design by W. M. Craig. Scarce Gothic fiction employing 
Phantasmagoria, developed in the late eighteenth century from the 
earlier magic lantern: illusionistic exhibitions and public 
entertainments in which "specters" were produced through the use of a 
magic lantern. One should not underestimate the horror felt by those 
whose vision, not trained by photography or the cinema, revealed to them 
spiritual entities that one could seemingly touch. According to an 
article by Terry Castle [CRITICAL INQUIRY 15.1 (Autumn 1988): page 39], 
“A number of literary works of the period contain episodes in which 
magic lanterns are used to deceive credulous would-be ghost-seers. 
Friedrich Schiller's fragment DER GEISTERSEHER (1789), translated into 
English as THE GHOST-SEER; OR, THE APPARITIONIST (1795), is the best 
known of such works. See also the anonymous Gothic tale PHANTASMAGORIA: 
OR, THE DEVELOPMENT OF MAGICAL DECEPTION (London, 1803)." Scarce early 
horror fiction. Pages toned with scattered soiling and foxing, pencil 
notes on endpapers; binding Fine. (#021561)        $2,500

https://www.charlesagvent.com/pages/books/021561/anonymous/phantasmagoria-or-the-developement-of-magical-deception

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