This is a republication under a different title of an old book which, from the evidence of various quotes dated within the text, was published in the early 1930s: there is no original publication date but the latest date for one of the quoted pieces is 1929. The layout of the book reproduces the original layout which looks "old fashioned" and includes the author's own illustrations for the heading of each chapter.

This would be quite charming but the book's contents let it down somewhat. I'm not so bothered by the author's total credulity about psychic and ghost stories or slight antagonism to the established church which, as he says, was responsible for centuries of persecution of so-called witches. However, the material is quite ramblingly set out and is quite annecdotal with various stories quoted verbatim, plus some of the conclusion about Egyptian and Biblical scholarship are rather questionable now, and certainly have been updated since, which makes it difficult to rely upon.

There is also a tendency to quote Latin or French originals - in one case about a whole page of French - without a translation for those who aren't learned in these areas. The attitude towards cats is also quite personally adoring and a bit twee, and the subject is rather superficial in coverage. So I can only give this an OK 2 star rating. ( )

Book Description: DOVER PUBLICATIONS. Brand new.