''The Ghost-Seer'' or ''The Apparitionist'' (full title: ''Der Geisterseher – Aus den Papieren des Grafen von O**''; literally, ''The Ghost-Seer – From the papers of the Count of O**'') is a novel by Friedrich Schiller. It first appeared in several instalments from 1787 to 1789 in the journal ''Thalia'', later appearing as a three-volume book in its own right.

Content

The work is narrated in the first person by the 'Graf von O**' (Count of O**). It describes the story of a German prince visiting

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

at carnival time. Right at the start of the work, the Count stresses that this story might sound incredible, but that he had witnessed it with his own eyes. Furthermore, he talks of his disinterest in deceiving the public as "at the time these pages will tread into the world, I will not be and will neither win nor lose by the account given." Structurally and stylistically it is not a single story, but tells of a Jesuit secret society trying to convert a Protestant German prince to Catholicism and bring him to the throne back home in order to bolster its own power base. Writing of the Prince's fate, Schiller shows him as the key to the conflict between passion and morality, passion and duty. The work's passages on religious and historical philosophy show Schiller's Enlightenment ideals, with his critique of religion and society to the fore, though a deeper exploration of

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...

was to follow later. Due to the novel's slow formation and the author's antipathy to it, it was not planned from start to finish and its style and structure is not uniform throughout, ranging from rhetorical prose, to theatrical prose, to dialogues reminiscent of ''

Don Carlos ''Don Carlos'' is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French-language libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle, based on the dramatic play '' Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien'' (''Don Carlos, Infante of Spain'') by Fried ...

'', to the popular elements of

Gothic fiction Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of e ...

Legacy

Although the book remained unfinished, its audiences were the largest for any of Schiller's work during his lifetime. The readership was attracted by its elements typical of the Gothic novel, such as

necromancy Necromancy () is the practice of magic or black magic involving communication with the dead by summoning their spirits as apparitions or visions, or by resurrection for the purpose of divination; imparting the means to foretell future even ...

, spiritualism and conspiracies. It is thought that

Johann Georg Schröpfer Johann Georg Schrepfer, or Johann Georg Schröpfer (1738? – 8 October 1774 in Leipzig), was a German charlatan, independent Freemason and necromancer. He performed ghost-raising séances for which he secretly used special effects, possibly includ ...

may have provided the inspiration for the novel. The first English translation appeared in 1800 under the title "The Armenian". In 1922, ''The Ghost-Seer'' was completed by horror novelist

Hanns Heinz Ewers Hanns Heinz Ewers (3 November 1871 – 12 June 1943) was a German actor, poet, philosopher, and writer of short stories and novels. While he wrote on a wide range of subjects, he is now known mainly for his works of horror, particularly his trilo ...

. This version was not well received by literary critics.Mary Ellen Snodgrass,Encyclopedia of Gothic Literature. New York, Facts on File (2004). (p.106-7)

Notes

External links

1787 novels 1789 novels German-language novels Ghosts German horror novels Unfinished novels Works by Friedrich Schiller Novels set in Venice 1780s fantasy novels German Gothic novels 18th-century German novels Novels first published in serial form {{Germany-stub