Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites

Radcliffe, John Netten, 1826-1884Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 362K words
Chapters: 37

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites by John Netten RadcliffeAuthor: Radcliffe, John Netten, 1826-1884,Language: English, Class: BF: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Psychology, Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Release Date: Aug 29, 2012

Editor's review

Written by the nineteenth-century English author John Netten Radcliffe, this book discusses supernatural beliefs concerning fiends, ghosts, and sprites, and belongs to the folklore and history-of-ideas writing within the categories of philosophy, psychology, and religion. Its value lies in presenting how premodern European common people imagined ghosts, sprites, and fiends, and how these conceptions were recorded, classified, and explained, offering a reference text for the study of folklore, the history of religious ideas, and the prehistory of psychology. Because it was written in the nineteenth century, the book carries the rationalist and empiricist tendencies of its time; readers should treat it as a historical document rather than as modern scientific conclusion. The Project Gutenberg edition is easy to search and suitable as supplementary material for research on folklore and supernatural beliefs; while reading, one may note how the author distinguishes legend, testimony, and explanation, and observe the social mentality reflected therein.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in European folklore and the history of supernatural beliefs
University teachers and students studying the history of religious ideas or the prehistory of psychology
Writers and creators collecting material on ghost and sprite legends
Deep readers who enjoy the nineteenth-century naturalist essay style

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting modern psychological or scientific explanations
General readers seeking horror-fiction-style thrills
Readers with no interest in folklore or religious topics

Reading tips

Begin with the table of contents and read in blocks by theme—fiends, ghosts, sprites—without insisting on sequential order.
While reading, distinguish legendary accounts from the author's commentary, and avoid taking the book's views as modern scientific conclusions.
Read alongside general introductions to European folklore to understand the nineteenth-century scholar's framing of the questions.
Excerpt story entries of interest and build your own index of material for writing or research.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Does this book describe real paranormal events?

The book collects and discusses European folk beliefs and legends about fiends, ghosts, and sprites; it is material on folklore and the history of ideas, not a record of paranormal events verified by modern science. Readers should regard it as a historical document and focus on the social mentality and modes of explanation it reflects.

What is the author's stance?

Judging from the period of composition and the category, the author shares the rationalist and empiricist tendencies common to the nineteenth century and tends to record, classify, and explain supernatural beliefs. The book contains both retellings of legends and the author's commentary; readers should note the distinction.

Is it suitable as material for horror stories?

It can serve as a source of material. The book gathers folk legends of fiends, ghosts, and sprites and is rich in imagination, but its narrative style leans toward nineteenth-century essays and exposition rather than modern horror fiction. Creators can extract images and motifs and rework them themselves.

What background knowledge is needed to read it?

Basic familiarity with European religion and folklore will make reading smoother—for example, a general sense of how ideas of fiends and ghosts evolved in a Christian context. Even without specialized background, one can read the more narrative chapters by theme and gradually become familiar with the author's manner of argument.

Comments

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About the author

Radcliffe, John Netten, 1826-1884 Author · British · 1826–1884

John Netten Radcliffe (1826–1884) was a British physician and medical statistician. Publicly available information on his life is limited; existing records mainly show that he wrote on public health and population statistics, discussing disease, mortality and the health of populations by combining data with medical observation. This approach gives his writing an empirical and statistical emphasis rather than a speculative one. The library holds one work by him, Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites, which turns to the subject of folk beliefs and ghostly tales, suggesting that his interests were not confined to medical statistics but also extended to the collection and discussion of supernatural ideas. Overall, he was a British medical author known for his writings on public health who also touched on the folklore of fiends and ghosts.