The gentlefolk of the 19th century were obsessed with the afterlife. In 1850, when the life expectancy of a 10-year-old was 58, preparing for the spirit world was a priority. This resulted in a collective morbidity and a fascination with ghosts, seances, hypnotism and objects belonging to the deceased. Sinister and menacing though these hobbies were, they reveal the counter-point of death, which is the rapture of being alive.

Along with the rage for hypnotism, teleporting, illusionism and spirit communing was a more serious scientific interest in neurology and the tenuous lines between life and death.