I shouldn’t even have to explain why I borrowed this because I mean… the moment I saw this in Tampines Regional Library (cool library but on the other side of the world Singapore) I immediately picked it up and borrowed it. This isn’t a collection of ghost stories or a novel about ghosts – instead, this is a history of ghosts in Britain.

The Ghost starts it’s history all the way back in 1014, with St. Edmund coming back from the dead to kill Sweyn Forkbeard. From there, the book takes us through the history of the ways the British have seen ghosts, not just in local stories but also in the ways that they’ve been depicted in art and literature. By the time the book ends, we’re in the year of our Lord 2016 and thus firmly in the modern age.

I really enjoyed this because it revealed the origins of so many common beliefs we have about ghosts. For example, changes in burial clothing in the 18th century led to the departed being buried in “ever-more tailored grave clothes”. But as this “neat new costume did not remotely correspond to the Romantic idea of the ‘magnificent horror’ wielded by the ghost”, artists “such as Henry Fuseli, George Romney and John Flaxman” provided ghosts with a new wardrobe: “they began to sport voluminous white sheets.” In addition, “[g]hosts’ acquisition of see-through properties, and the ability to fade in and out, seems to have developed concurrently with developments in optical entertainments and light shows that transformed public entertainment towards the end of the eighteenth century.”

In terms of religion, an effect of the English Reformation was an existential threat towards ghosts. As purgatory disappeared, so did the ability for ghosts to roam on earth. But in an interesting twist, “in the 1740s Methodism fostered what its opponents felt to be a worrying degree of interests in ghosts” as Wesley felt that “apparitions and other supernatural phenomena served as evidence of the spiritual realm.” It seems like things came full circle (and then some, as spiritualism and seances became popular in British society).

Of course, The Ghost covers much more ground than the few examples that I raised in the last paragraph. By examining how ghosts were depicted in art and literature, Owens shows us the ways British society thought about death and the afterlife. Ghosts, Owens argues, is a mirror for society and it is through studying the ways the British reacted to and depicted ghosts that we can understand them more fully.

While this book is on the academic side, the language is still accessible and I had no problems reading it. I have not read many of the works cited in her, but the book does explain enough that I don’t need prior knowledge of the books/stories in question to get the point (although I really enjoyed reading the ghosts stories she quoted!). I also appreciated all the illustrations in the book – I spent a lot of time flipping to the pictures of the paintings – because being able to see the art in question helped me to understand the point that was being made.

If you’re looking for a collection of spooky, True Singapore Ghost Stories-type of book, this isn’t for you. But if you’d like to look a bit more deeply into the history and idea of a ghost and what they say about the British (and perhaps in the commonalities, the rest of us), then this is a book that you’ll want to read.

Featured Image: Photo by Me