LETTERS ON DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT
Book Details + Condition: George Routledge and Sons (London, New York). Early edition (first edition by the publisher), 1884. The Morelys Universal Library edition in original full cloth boards, with original title label to top of spine. 320 pages, with publisher advertisements to rear. By Sir Walter Scott, with an Introduction by Henry Morley. In ill health following a stroke, Sir Walter Scott wrote LETTERS ON DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT at the behest of his son-in-law. Letters revealed that all social classes still held beliefs in ghosts, witches, warlocks, fairies, elves, diabolism, the occult, and werewolves. Sourcing from prior 16th- and 17th-century treatises on demonology along with contemporary accounts from England, Europe, and North America, 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 compelling. The book is both a personal and intellectual examination of conflicting belief systems, when popular science began to challenge superstition in earnest.
Firm binding; bumped corners, with some rubbing to edges; chafed spine ends; light foxing to first and last few pages; interior is clean and free of markings. NOTE: Most of the book retains its uncut pages, which means it remains largely unread. All books are carefully packed, and shipped in boxes.
