Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft [Paperback]

Sir Walter Scott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 26, 2009 | ISBN-10: 1604597143 | ISBN-13: 978-1604597141

In ill health following a stroke, Sir Walter Scott wrote Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft at the behest of his son-in-law, J. G. Lockhart, who worked for a publishing firm. The book proved popular and Scott was paid six hundred pounds, which he desperately needed. (Despite his success as a novelist, Scott was almost ruined when the Ballantyne publishing firm, where he was a partner, went bankrupt in 1826.) Letters was written when educated society believed itself in enlightened times due to advances in modern science. Letters, however, revealed that all social classes still held beliefs in ghosts, witches, warlocks, fairies, elves, diabolism, the occult, and even werewolves. Sourcing from prior sixteenth- and seventeenth-century treatises on demonology along with contemporary accounts from England, Europe, and North America (Cotton Mather's Magnalia Christi, for one), Scott's discourses on the psychological, religious, physical, and preternatural explanations for these beliefs are essential reading for acolytes of the dark and macabre; the letters dealing with witch hunts, trials (Letters Eight and Nine), and torture are morbidly compelling. Scott was neither fully pro-rational modernity nor totally anti-superstitious past, as his skepticism of one of the "new" sciences (skullology, as he calls it) is made clear in a private letter to a friend. Thus, Letters is both a personal and intellectual examination of conflicting belief systems, when popular science began to challenge superstition in earnest.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Kessinger Publishing reprints over 1,500 similar titles all available through Amazon.com. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

This is an O-RYAN Edition. O-RYAN Editions are handsome softbound books in either 6x9 (novel)or 7x10 (journal) format, meant to complement hardbound books on your library's shelves. We offer rarer titles for eclectic tastes. We sell only Unabridged books. Additional author biographies, footnotes or glossaries may be included. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Wilder Publications (March 26, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1604597143
• ISBN-13: 978-1604597141
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,091,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book for Scully OR Tabitha, January 13, 2005

By 

J. Mccormick - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Letters On Demonology & Witchcraft (Paperback)

This is a reprint of a book published in the 1830's by Sir Walter Scott as a favor to his son-in-law. Scott researches folklore, superstition, and witchcraft (through folklore, trial records, and previous scholars) in depth to give the reader a comprehensive body of knowledge. The modern reader will find more here than she ever knew. Countless court cases from all of Europe and especially Scotland (where the author resided) and England are presented. Scott writes from the point of view that he lives in a scientific age and that the possibility of these occurances is absurd, but, because he gives you all of the information from which he derives his opinion, you can make your own. Personally, I'm a fanciful person and would like to believe in ghosts and such, but in most of the cases he has plausible explanations for their being impossible (especially pertaining to witchcraft). Interesting to note, in not one of the cases of witchcraft did any of the accused, or the accusers mention goddess worship. Neither did they in any of the 'accepted' mystical hobbies of the era either. He talks of things of which I have never heard. For example, seers claimed to have captured fairies or slyphs in their crystal balls and they were not "seeing something" as in the movies, but getting the information from the agent inside the ball. It takes a while to read, as the editors of the period didn't know what to do with commas and run on sentences. Some of the words are outdated, and are used differently in our time than in his. This is an excellent book for both the sceptic and believer, as well as Christian or pagan.

24 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterful work from 1900, January 5, 2004

By 

S. Strider (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Letters on demonology and witchcraft (Hardcover)

Oddly enough, this book talks more about Faeries and defends many accused of witchcraft of influence by the fair folk upon the glens and moors.

It is a remarkable work that has Scott's own articulate hand bringing a very interesting world of Celtic myths and fables to life while the rigors of a new age dawn upon them.

21 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Strangeness from the Age of Reason, March 28, 2000

By 

"rodney23" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft (Paperback)

I had always thought of Sir Walter as a rather rational, stodgy, Brit - then I came cross a copy of this book - now I'm not sure what to think. Sir Walter actually seemed to believe many local superstitions (the Banshee, for example). The odd thing is that he seems to have "scientificly" weighed all the evidence. But I guess that if you were sitting around the fire on a cold Scotish night being told ghost stories, your objectivity could be expected to drop at least somewhat.