[ecrea] Supernatural Entertainments in paperback

The book Supernatural Entertainments: Victorian Spiritualism and the 
Rise of Modern Media Culture, published by Penn State University Press, 
is now available as paperback.

You can find Supernatural Entertainments on the publisher website at 
this URL:
http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-07104-6.html

Reviews:

“An erudite, original examination of Victorian spiritualism and the rise 
of modern media. . . . This entertaining study fills a gap in the 
slighted investigation of spiritualism’s rise as a religious and 
cultural phenomenon. Highly recommended.”—D. B. Wilmeth, Choice

“This is an ambitious, overdue book, steeped in the period’s popular 
culture, and offering a fresh, insightful perspective on a topic 
familiar to its scholars.”—Susan Zieger, Media History

"After the contributions of writers like Janet Oppenheim, Molly McGarry, 
Alex Owen, Jeffrey Sconce, Robert A. Cox, Helen Sword, and Marlene 
Tromp, one might be forgiven for wondering if there were important 
academic books of spiritualism yet to be written. But now we have Simone 
Natale’s Supernatural Entertainments: Victorian Spiritualism and the 
Rise of Modern Media Culture, an absolutely vital addition to this body 
of research, with an approach that sounds banal and profound at once: 
spiritualism as entertainment."—Murray Leeder, Journal of Popular Culture

“The key achievement of Natale’s book is his thorough documentation of 
the ways the spiritualist movement was, in spite of its framing as a 
‘scientific religion,’ indistinguishable from other kinds of 
performance, and a vigorous participant in mechanisms of the growing 
entertainment industry.”—James P. Stanley, Public Books

“Natale’s study offers a helpful corrective to approaches that ignore 
the entertainment value of spiritualism.”—Pericles Lewis, Los Angeles 
Review of Books

“An engaging and enlightening history of Spiritualism’s growth from a 
unique perspective.”—Sharon DeBartolo Carmack, PsyPioneer Journal

“Approaching Victorian supernaturalism as popular spectacle, Natale 
makes a compelling argument that nineteenth-century spiritualism made a 
significant contribution to what would become the dominant religion of 
the twentieth century: the entertainment industry. Rather than seeing 
the spiritualists and their energetic followers as gullible or deluded, 
Natale explores the more fascinating possibility that medium, circle, 
and audience helped redefine the possibilities of domestic leisure and 
public performance.”—Jeffrey Sconce, Northwestern University

“We all know that the supernatural is entertaining. Just turn on your 
television set or go to the movies. But this entertaining? Supernatural 
Entertainments is one of the most original books I have read in a long 
time. Simone Natale’s embrace of the history of technology, celebrity 
studies, material culture, popular culture, photography, and film 
studies to plumb the immediate historical background of the modern 
supernatural also makes it astonishingly capacious and 
interdisciplinary. Get ready for a ride. Or a show.”—Jeffrey J. Kripal, 
author of Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and 
the Paranormal
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