Even ghosts can evolve. Vinitsky (Slavic languages and literatures, U. of Pennsylvania) examines the transformation of Romantic era ghosts into the apparitions of the Russian realist period of
the latter half of the 19th century, as reflected in the writings of major Russian authors. Following an introduction to the Spiritualism popular in the 1850s to 1870s, he explains how
spiritualist beliefs haunted this reform period's aesthetics and scientific debates. The reactions of writers to a test seance in 1876 is described, as is the phenomenon of 'posthumous
authorship' (e.g., the channeling Pushkin), and the influence of this mystical legacy on the works of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Leskov, and other realists writers. Annotation 穢2009 Book News, Inc.,
Portland, OR (booknews.com)
