9 h 7 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the hope of reaching someone you love draws you toward something you should fear?
Laurie Baxter cannot bear the loss of Amy, the woman he loves. Drawn toward spiritualism, he hopes to reach her through the world of mediums and séances. In The Necromancers, Robert Hugh Benson turns that longing into a Gothic story where grief makes the unseen tempting, and the search for comfort carries a serious risk.
Set in Edwardian England, the novel explores a world where messages from the dead are part of daily conversation. Benson, a Catholic priest, approaches these practices as dangerous rather than harmless. Beneath the supernatural atmosphere lies a painful question: how can Laurie live with loss when the promise of contact seems so hard to resist?
What you’ll discover
- Grief that opens doors Follow Laurie as his longing for Amy draws him toward the spirit world.
- The pull of séances Explore the hope that makes mediums and messages from the dead so compelling.
- An Edwardian fascination Enter an England where spiritualism draws curiosity and the unseen becomes a subject of conversation.
- A warning within the Gothic Discover a story that treats reaching beyond death as a risk, not a pastime.
- Questions without easy comfort Consider whether grief must be borne without the answers the bereaved long to hear.
Who will love it
For readers who like ghost stories with real moral weight, Edwardian country houses and London drawing rooms, and quiet suspense that builds scene by scene. It is a rich find for anyone curious about spiritualism and the faith that opposed it.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A funeral and a house of calm
- A visitor with a strange creed
- The medium and the missing hour
- The test of the grave
- Dreams, dangers and a pencil
- Warnings from friends and strangers
- A night of wind and rain
- Easter Eve at Stantons
- What the story is really about
Who’s who
- Laurie BaxterA warm, impulsive young convert and heir of Stantons who loses Amy and cannot bear that death should be the end.
- Maggie DeronnaisMrs. Baxter's convent-educated adopted daughter, steady and sharp, who loves Laurie against her own judgment and will not look away from danger.
- Mrs. BaxterLaurie's gentle, devout mother, who refuses to believe in anything that does not fit her calm view of the universe.
- Mr. VincentA kindly, bearded London medium who sincerely believes in his powers and sets out to develop Laurie's gift.
- Mr. CathcartA brisk old solicitor and former spiritualist, now a devout Catholic, who tries to pull Laurie back from the sittings.
- Lady Laura BethellA fashionable hostess of psychic gatherings whose enthusiasm slowly turns to dread as Laurie's sittings go on.
- Mrs. StapletonA forceful, faddish friend of Lady Laura who brings Laurie to Mr. Vincent and takes notes of his trance.
- James MortonLaurie's blunt barrister tutor, who thinks spiritualism nonsense but worries enough to write to Maggie.
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The Necromancers
by Robert Hugh Benson · 1909
After Amy's funeral, Maggie watches.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
What would you give for one more word from someone you loved? Laurie Baxter, a young convert, buries the girl he hoped to marry and then drifts toward the spiritualist circles of Edwardian London.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A funeral and a house of calm
The story opens on a September morning at Stantons, an old house of Tudor panelling and deep country quiet. Mrs. Baxter, a small, devout and gentle widow, sits sewing and fretting about her son. Beside her sits Maggie Deronnais, her adopted daughter, half French, convent educated and steady.
Laurie is at the village churchyard, burying Amy Nugent, the daughter of a Baptist grocer. His mother fought the match for months, and now she calls the death providential. Maggie says little, but she sees that Laurie can be self-willed and moody as well as warm and generous.
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What is The Necromancers about?
It tells of Laurie Baxter, a young Catholic convert who loses his sweetheart and turns to spiritualist séances in London to reach her. His adopted sister Maggie and an old solicitor named Cathcart try to protect him.
Is The Necromancers a true story, and when was it written?
It is fiction by Robert Hugh Benson, set in the Edwardian years soon after 1901 and published in the early twentieth century. It uses real ideas from the spiritualist movement.
What does the word necromancer mean in this book?
A necromancer is someone who tries to call up the dead. In the novel it covers the mediums and sitters who attempt this, and also the Catholic teaching, quoted by Father Mahon, that such practice is forbidden.
The author
Robert Hugh Benson
1871–1914 · English novelist and Catholic priest
Robert Hugh Benson (1871–1914) was a British writer and Catholic priest. He was born in Wellington, Somerset, England. Initially an Anglican priest, he became a Catholic in 1903 and was ordained in 1904. He wrote novels, including Lord of the World (1907) and The Necromancers (1909). He died in Salford, England.
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