Pre-Raphaelites in the spirit world: the seance diary of William Michael Rossetti (New edition 1)

William Michael Rossetti's séance diary is a remarkable document in both the history of Pre-Raphaelitism and 19th-century spiritualism.

In this previously unpublished manuscript, Rossetti meticulously recorded twenty séances between 1865 and 1868.

The original motive was the death, in 1862, of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's wife, Elizabeth Siddal.

He felt a profound sense of guilt about her and began these séances to reassure himself that she was happy in the afterlife.

Messages came from many spirits within the Pre-Raphaelite circle and provide an unprecedented record of spiritualist activity in the late 19th century.

Questions and answers fill the pages of the diary, many of them communicating uncannily accurate information or details that could be known only to the participants.