Set against the background of the rapid flux of ideas & beliefs in the 19th century, these essays explore the presence of the supernatural in the works of well-known American writers. Beginning with Washington Irvings introduction of the gothic sensibility in the form of the ghost story, & following through the century to investigations of the unconscious in the works of Henry James & Jack London, this collection reveals the use of the occult in fiction as a metaphor for a culture bubbling with attempts - mesmerism, Adventism, transcendentalism, Swedenborgianism, & spiritualism, among many - to understand natures complex & obscure patterns.