Published in 1854, The Spirit-Rapper is a polemical novel by Orestes Augustus Brownson, one of the most restlessly intellectual figures of nineteenth-century American religious and political thought. The fictionalized autobiography of a spirit medium serves as Brownson’s vehicle for a sustained attack on Spiritualism and the utopian reform movements of the antebellum period, written from a Catholic convert’s perspective.
A fascinating document of American religious controversy and intellectual history, the novel rewards readers interested in the ideological battles of the 1840s and 1850s. Download the free public-domain EPUB at Better Gutenberg.