
The Mystery of Witchcraft - History, Mythology & Art
Salem Trials, European Persecution, Folklore, Demonology, and the Witch in Art and LiteratureBy Bram Stoker, Charles Mackay, William Godwin, Walter Scott, Charles Wentworth Upham, Jules Michelet, John Ashton, Howard Williams, Increase Mather, Cotton Mather, Allen Putnam, George Moir, Frederick George Lee, James Thacher, M. V. B. Perley, Wilhelm Meinhold, John M. Taylor, E. Lynn Linton, William P. Upham, W. H. Davenport Adams, M. Schele de Vere, St. John D. Seymour, John G. Campbell, John Maxwell Wood, Samuel Roberts Wells, Margaret MurrayLength274h 41m
About this audiobook
The Mystery of Witchcraft—History, Mythology & Art surveys witchcraft as a shifting cultural category: alleged crime, theological peril, folk memory, literary motif, and visual-imaginative inheritance. Across sermons, legal and historical studies, antiquarian inquiry, folklore, travel-inflected observation, and Gothic or Romantic prose, the volume charts the movement from demonological certainty to modern skepticism and ethnographic interpretation. Accounts of Salem, Scottish and continental persecutions, charms and survivals, and the enduring imaginative power of the witch make the collection both unsettling and intellectually expansive. Its contributors span several centuries and disciplines, bringing together clerical witnesses, historians, folklorists, literary writers, social commentators, and early students of comparative religion. The inclusion of Puritan voices alongside Victorian antiquaries and later folkloric scholarship exposes the changing institutions that shaped belief: church, court, popular tradition, and print culture. Situated at the intersection of Reformation demonology, Enlightenment criticism, Romantic medievalism, and the nineteenth-century recovery of folklore, these diverse writings reveal how witchcraft has repeatedly been reconstructed to address cultural anxieties. This volume is especially valuable for readers seeking more than a linear history of persecution. It invites comparison among conflicting explanations, narrative forms, and regional traditions, while illuminating the ethical stakes of accusation and belief. Students of history, literature, religion, art, and folklore will find a rich archive for tracing the dialogue between lived fear, mythic imagination, and scholarly interpretation.
Audiobook details
GenreSpirituality and Religion, Literary Classics
Length274 hrs 41 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateNov 27, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1The Mythology and History of Witchcraft
26Chapter II.
2The Mystery of Witchcraft - History, Mythology & Art
27Chapter III.
3Introduction
28Chapter IV.
4The Superstitions of Witchcraft by Howard Williams
29Chapter V.
5Preface
30Chapter VI.
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6PART I. EARLIER FAITH
31Chapter VII.
7Chapter I.
32Chapter VIII.
8PART II. MEDIÆVAL FAITH
33Chapter IX.
9Chapter I.
34Chapter X.
10Chapter II.
35Chapter XI.
11Chapter III.
36Chapter XII.
12PART III. MODERN FAITH
37Chapter XIII.
13Chapter I.
38Chapter XIV.
14Chapter II.
39Chapter XV.
15Chapter III.
40Chapter XVI.
16Chapter IV.
41Chapter XVII.
17Chapter V.
42Chapter XVIII.
18Chapter VI.
43Chapter XIX.
19Chapter VII.
44Chapter XX.
20Chapter VIII.
45Chapter XXI.
21Chapter IX.
46Chapter XXII.
22Chapter X.
47Chapter XXIII.
23The Devil in Britain and America by John Ashton
48Chapter XXIV.
24Preface
49Witchcraft in Europe
25Chapter I.
50History of Magic and Witchcraft