Description

"Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites" by John Netten Radcliffe is a scholarly work written in the mid-19th century. This text delves into the origins and nature of belief in the supernatural, exploring how such beliefs have evolved across different cultures and eras. It mainly discusses various entities such as gods, fiends, and spirits in different mythologies, tracing their connections to human emotions and the natural world. The opening of the book introduces the foundational ideas behind humanity's belief in supernatural powers. Radcliffe describes how these beliefs are intertwined with human emotions and reason, suggesting that the need to explain natural phenomena has led to the formation of various mythologies. He presents the notion that as humanity has advanced, the conception of the divine has evolved, leading to the personification of nature's forces into deities and spirits. The author sets the stage for a comprehensive analysis of mythological frameworks from a variety of cultures, providing insights into how ancient traditions have shaped modern views of the supernatural. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Ghosts, hauntings, and poltergeists, Mythology, folklore, and sacred legends, and Occultism and esotericism.

Occultism and esotericism
Controlled discovery queries from project-gutenberg matched “supernatural”. Retained metadata contains “supernatural” in the subtitle, “supernatural” in the description, “supernatural” in the subject metadata, and 1 additional metadata match(es).
- “supernatural”· via Project Gutenberg
- “supernatural”· in subtitle
- “supernatural”· in description
- “supernatural”· in subject
- “supernatural”· in edition subtitle
Ghosts, hauntings, and poltergeists
Controlled discovery queries from wellcome matched “ghosts”. Retained metadata contains “Ghosts” in the title, “Ghosts” in the description, and “Ghosts” in the edition title.
- “ghosts”· via Wellcome Collection
- “Ghosts”· in title
- “Ghosts”· in description
- “Ghosts”· in edition title
Mythology, folklore, and sacred legends
Controlled discovery queries from openlibrary-historical and project-gutenberg matched “Folklore”, “folklore”, “Mythology”, and 1 additional term(s). Retained metadata contains “mythological” in the description, “Folklore” in the subject metadata, and “Mythology” in the subject metadata.
- “Folklore”· via Open Library
- “Mythology”· via Open Library
- “folklore”· via Project Gutenberg
- “mythology”· via Project Gutenberg
- “mythological”· in description
- “Folklore”· in subject

Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.

Read & download

Free, public copies reported by our sources. Links open the source directly.

Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg ebook; public domain in the USA. Public domain in the USA.
Internet Archive
- Online reader (opens in a new tab)
Publicly readable scan; copyright status may vary by jurisdiction.
Wellcome Collection
- IIIF manifest (opens in a new tab)
Wellcome digital item license: Public Domain Mark (https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/pdm/)

Not yet in passage search

Pro research answers quote indexed passages. Ask the library to index this book’s public text.

marks a direct file download. Rights vary by country; each source states its own terms.

Buy or borrow

No ISBN on record, so the Amazon link searches by title and author. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. WorldCat shows libraries near you that hold a copy.

Editions

3 editions cataloged here.

Edition	Date	Publisher	Language	ISBN	Access	Links
including an account of the origin and nature of belief in the supernatural Open Library record	1854	R. Bentley	English	—	Public	Open Library (opens in a new tab)
Including an Account of the Origin and Nature of Belief in the Supernatural Project Gutenberg electronic edition Project Gutenberg metadata does not identify the source print edition.	2012-08-29	Project Gutenberg	English	—	Public domain (USA)	Project Gutenberg (opens in a new tab)
including an account of the origin and nature of belief in the supernatural Wellcome Collection bibliographic record 276 pages ; 19 cm	1854	Richard Bentley	English	—	Public digitized item	Wellcome Collection (opens in a new tab) Wellcome Collection (opens in a new tab)