(0)

Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft

E-book

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.

More by Walter Scott

Skip the list

  1. Die größten Liebesgeschichten des Mittelalters : Tristan und Isolde, Die neue Heloise, Die Frau Bürgemeisterin, Ivanhoe, Der Glöckner von Notre Dame, Die Prinzessin von Cleves

    Walter Scott, Victor Hugo, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Alexandre Dumas, Gottfried von Straßburg, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Georg Ebers, Levin Schücking, Karl Bröger, Heinrich von Kleist, Wilhelm Raabe, Christoph Martin Wieland, Julius Wolff, Marie-Madeleine de La Fayette, Ludwig Ganghofer, August Sperl, Louise Otto, Friedrich Motte de la Fouqué

    book

  2. Unvergessliche Liebesromane der britischen Literatur : Jane Eyre, Große Erwartungen, Die Braut von Lammermoor, Stolz und Vorurteil, Emma, Sturmhöhe, Erloschenes Licht

    Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, William Shakespeare, Walter Scott, Frances Burney, Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, George Eliot, Nathaniel Hawthorne, D. H. Lawrence, Daniel Defoe, Lew Wallace, F. Scott Fitzgerald

    book

  3. Die größten Liebesgeschichten der britischen Literatur : Romeo und Julia, Stolz und Vorurteil, Emma, Cecilia, Überredung, Jane Eyre, Große Erwartungen, Die Braut von Lammermoor

    Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, William Shakespeare, Walter Scott, Frances Burney, Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, George Eliot, Nathaniel Hawthorne, D. H. Lawrence, Daniel Defoe, Lew Wallace, F. Scott Fitzgerald

    book

  4. 200 Meisterwerke der Literaturgeschichte : Die größten Klassiker der Weltliteratur

    Franz Kafka, Victor Hugo, Fjodor Michailowitsch Dostojewski, Lord Byron, Giacomo Leopardi, Marcel Proust, Henrik Ibsen, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Emily Brontë, Charlotte Brontë, Anne Brontë, William Makepeace Thackeray, Bram Stoker, Henry Fielding, George Eliot, William Shakespeare, D. H. Lawrence, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Thomas Wolfe, Virginia Woolf, Joseph Conrad, Sinclair Lewis, Lewis Carrol, Edgar Allan Poe, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Oscar Wilde, H. G. Wells, Daniel Defoe, James Fenimore Cooper, Lew Wallace, Jonathan Swift, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain, Walter Scott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Laurence Sterne, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Arthur Conan Doyle, Wilkie Collins, Edgar Wallace, Jack London, Henry David Thoreau, John Galsworthy, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Rudyard Kipling, G. K. Chesterton, Washington Irvin, O. Henry, Ambrose Bierce, Alexander Sergejewitsch Puschkin, Michail Lermontow, Iwan Sergejewitsch Turgenew, Leo Tolstoi, Nikolai Gogol, Iwan Gontscharow, Nikolai Leskow, Anton Pawlowitsch Tschechow, Maxim Gorki, François Rabelais, Jean de la Fontaine, Blaise Pascal, Pierre Corneille, Moliere, Jean Baptiste Racine, Charles Perrault, Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Pierre Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos, Antoine-François Prévost, Marquis de Sade, François René Chateaubriand, Stendhal, Honoré de Balzac, Alexandre Dumas, Alphonse de Lamartine, George Sand, Gustave Flaubert, Emile Zola, Guy de Maupassant, Alphonse Daudet, Jules Verne, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Prosper Mérimée, Charles Baudelaire, Stéphane Mallarmé, Arthur Rimbaud, André Gide, Arthur Schopenhauer, Heinrich Heine, Friedrich Schiller, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Jacob Grimm, Gottfried von Straßburg, Wolfram von Eschenbach, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Heinrich von Kleist, Friedrich Hölderlin, Theodor Fontane, Gustav Freytag, Gottfried Keller, Theodor Storm, Stefan Zweig, Joseph von Eichendorff, Klaus Mann, Rainer Maria Rilke, Johanna Spyri, Joseph Roth, Karl May, Robert Musil, Heinrich Mann, Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, Giacomo Casanova, Luigi Pirandello, Giosuè Carducci, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Niccolo Machiavelli, Miguel Cervantes de Saavedra, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Vicente Blasco Ibañez, Knut Hamsun, Homer, Äsop, Herodot, Thukydides, Xenophon, Platon, Aristoteles, Sophokles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Laotse, Konfuzius, Siddhartha Gautama Buddha, Titus Livius, Tacitus, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Vergil, Ovid, Lukian, Petronius, Apuleius, Longos von Lesbos, Mark Aurel, Aurelius Augustinus

    book

  5. Die Meisterwerke der Weltliterature : 100 Klassiker die man kennen muss

    Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Jules Verne, Gustave Flaubert, Franz Kafka, Lewis Carroll, Selma Lagerlöf, Sigmund Freud, Johanna Spyri, Theodor Storm, Rainer Maria Rilke, Charles Dickens, Stefan Zweig, Heinrich Heine, Honoré de Balzac, Theodor Fontane, Karl May, Gottfried Keller, Mark Twain, Heinrich Mann, Else Lasker-Schüler, Robert Musil, Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Arthur Schopenhauer, Robert Louis Stevenson, Gustav Freytag, James Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Allan Poe, Heinrich von Kleist, William Shakespeare, Dante Alighieri, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Jack London, Arthur Conan Doyle, Joseph Conrad, Jane Austen, Herman Melville, Guy de Maupassant, Walter Scott, Jonathan Swift, Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm, Alexandre Dumas, Rudyard Kipling, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Homer, O. Henry, Voltaire, Lew Wallace, John Galsworthy, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Marcus Aurelius, Hans Christian Andersen, Anton Pawlowitsch Tschechow, Platon, Friedrich Nietzsche, Iwan Sergejewitsch Turgenew, Tacitus, Nikolai Gogol, Miguel de Cervantes, Mary Shelley, Thomas Wolfe, Emile Zola, Fjodor Michailowitsch Dostojewski, Leo Tolstoi, Joseph Roth, Joseph von Eichendorff, Kurt Tucholsky, Iwan Alexandrowitsch Gontscharow, Oswald Spengler, Moliere, Alfred Adler, Sophie von La Roche, Klaus Mann, Rumi

    book

  6. Meisterwerke der Literatur: Die größten christlichen Romane : Der Großinquisitor, Ben Hur, Auferstehung, Luther in Rom, Geld und Geist, Der Talisman, Das Lied von Bernadette

    Fjodor Michailowitsch Dostojewski, Walter Scott, Lew Wallace, Lew Tolstoi, Franz Werfel, Andre Gide

    book

  7. Die Kraft des Glaubens: Christliche Historienromane : Ben Hur, Der Großinquisitor, Auferstehung, Luther in Rom, Geld und Geist, Der Talisman, Das Lied von Bernadette

    Fjodor Michailowitsch Dostojewski, Walter Scott, Lew Wallace, Lew Tolstoi, Franz Werfel, Felix Dahn, Andre Gide, evin Schücking, Georg Ebers, Joseph Victor von Scheffel

    book

  8. 40+ Abenteuerromane für den Lese-Urlaub : 20.000 Meilen unter dem Meer, Der Graf von Monte Christo, Die Schatzinsel, Der letzte Mohikaner…

    Jules Verne, Alexandre Dumas, Joseph Conrad, Walter Scott, Arthur Conan Doyle, Herman Melville, James Fenimore Cooper, Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain, Daniel Defoe, Robert Louis Stevenson, Karl May, Emilio Salgari, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Frederick Kapitän Marryat, Friedrich Gerstäcker, Sophie Wörishöffer, Amalie Schoppe, Pierre Loti, G. K. Chesterton, Robert Kraft, Franz Treller, Gustave Aimard

    book

  9. 50+ Masterpieces you have to read before you die. Christmas Stories and Poems : A Christmas Carol, A Merry Christmas, A Letter from Santa Claus, Christmas Bells, The Gift of the Magi and others

    Charles Dickens, L.M. Montgomery, L. Frank Baum, Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott, Leo Tolstoy, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Nikolai Gogol, William Dean Howells, Joseph Rudyard Kipling, Elizabeth Harrison, John Milton, Hans Christian Andersen, Selma Lagerlof, Clement Moore, Henry van Dyke, Beatrix Potter, Anton Chekhov, O. Henry, Hesba Stretton, Kenneth Grahame, Robert Louis Stevenson, Walter Scott, Alfred Tennyson, Thomas Hardy, William Butler Yeats, William Makepeace Thackeray, Charles Kingsley, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, C. W. Stubbs, Eugene Field, Paul Laurence Dunbar, William Topaz McGonagall, Emily Dickinson, G.K. Chesterton

    audiobook

  10. Harold l'Indomptable

    Walter Scott

    book

  11. The Giants of Literature: Series 3 : Complete Novels by Walter Scott, Alexandre Dumas, Fanny Burney, Bram Stoker, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Anthony Trollope, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Émile Zola

    H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Alexandre Dumas, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Walter Scott, Frances Burney, Bram Stoker, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Anthony Trollope, Émile Zola

    book

  12. The Greatest Writers of All Time: Series 3 : Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, Alexandre Dumas, Bram Stoker, Walter Scott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Frances Burney, Émile Zola, Anthony Trollope, Frances Hodgson Burnett

    Alexandre Dumas, Walter Scott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, Bram Stoker, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Anthony Trollope, Frances Burney, Émile Zola

    book