DK A History of Ghosts, Spirits and the Supernatural (DK A History of).

by D.K. Publishing

Discover the spine-chilling history of ghosts and the supernatural throughout time and around the world in this stunningly illustrated guide.A History of Ghosts, Spirits, and Other Supernatural Phenomena explores stories from around the world, from the Japanese onryo ("vengeful spirit") to the Irish banshee, and the dybbuk of Jewish folklore to La Llorona ("the weeping woman") of Latin America.The perfect introduction to the subject, this fascinating volume charts the various ways in which spirits and the spirit world have been depicted in myth and religion, folklore, art, and literature, and recounts infamous real-life tales of haunted houses and ghost ships, séances and mediumship, poltergeists, possessions, and demonic encounters.Features profile other ghostly or "undead" beings such as succubi and incubi, vampires, and werewolves, as well as exploring the numerous reasons that ghost stories or tales of the uncanny have a place in cultures all over the world. Entries also explore scientific theories around ghosts and hauntings, such as stone-tape theory (the idea that spirits can leave a sound impression on audio tape) or Kirlian photography (images of electrical discharges at the point of death).The most comprehensive illustrated history of the subject available, A History of Ghosts, Spirits, and Other Supernatural Phenomena will shock and delight you in equal measure—whether you are a believer or a skeptic.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Adult, Paranormal, Supernatural, Ghosts, Audiobook

320 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2024

About the author

Dorling Kindersley (DK) is a British multinational publishing company specializing in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 62 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a consumer publishing company jointly owned by Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and Pearson PLC. Bertelsmann owns 53% of the company and Pearson owns 47%.

Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A History of Ghosts, Spirits and the Supernatural was a fantastic overview of a vast range of time and belief systems. It was simple to understand but also respectful of the people who believe. It wasn't bogged down in scientific terminology but did use the language appropriate to the belief system, such as referring to some Japanese spirits as yōkai. I like that the African and First Australian belief systems were not dismissed as being "primitive" as other books on the topic tend to do. There was a lot of balance in this book which I love to see. The only thing I would have liked to see that wasn't included is some sort of additional reading list, something that can direct readers to more detailed books on a specific belief system. That said I think this book is still well worth reading.

[Kerri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review soon! 👻

[AlenGarou · Rating 5 out of 5]

5-

Avevo acquistato questo libro tempo fa, attratta dall’incredibile copertina, e l’ho tenuto apposta per Halloween per un motivo: come compendio sul soprannaturale è fenomenale.
Contiene di tutto e di più e oltre. Qualsiasi nozione o curiosità vi venga in mente sul tema la troverete in queste pagine, complete non solo di spiegazioni e immagini, ma anche di citazioni che personalmente mi hanno allungato la tbr.
Insomma, vi serve un manuale di consultazione del soprannaturale? Eccolo qua.
Non solo racconta come si sono evolute credenze e superstizioni nel corso dei millenni, ma indaga su ogni tipologia di spiritualismo proveniente da ogni parte del mondo. Per non citare il folklore.
L’unico inghippo è che, contendendo davvero tanti elementi, le descrizioni di ogni tematica non sono approfondite quanto dovuto. Tuttavia alle volte vengono citati testi e trattati che possono venire in aiuto ai più curiosi.
Da tenere per consultazione o per collezione, questo compendio è un acquisto imperdibile per chi è appassionato del genere.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars

[Kimi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a nice, broad overview of spooky stuff. The pictures were gorgeous.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good history of the supernatural. Lots of information about different cultures and their practices.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an interesting find. I will definitely read their other publications.

[William Bies · Rating 3 out of 5]

In honor of the occasion this Halloween, let us quickly review a glossy coffee-table volume in the Penguin Random House’s DK Publishing series entitled A History of Ghosts, Spirits and the Supernatural (senior editor, Kathryn Hennessy, published in 2024). Crammed with detail, lavishly illustrated, fairly sedate considering the subject matter, an archaeological and literary reference solely—there is no recounting here of parapsychological investigations or any such things belonging to low-brow culture.

Highly multicultural by design, the present work takes a diachronic historical approach, beginning with prehistory (cave paintings, megalithic passage tombs etc.), and moving on to archaic and classical antiquity (Egypt, Orphism, Zoroastrianism, ancestor worship in China) then medieval (Arabic sorcery, Kabbalah and Jewish legends of the golem, Slavic mythology). The views of Australian aborigines and other early shamanistic societies in Africa and elsewhere on the underworld and the afterlife are surveyed. The age-old Celtic festival of Samhain seems to have provided precedents for what would become, in the medieval Latin West, All Hallows’ Eve and All Saints’ Day. The sweeping chronological format dictates an examination of the role of ghosts and witchcraft in early modern drama through the Romantics and Victorians. To this recensionist’s tastes, the later chapters become less intrinsically interesting, as one enters next into an overview of occultism and the paranormal in the popular culture of the twentieth century.

Those who are consummately literate will presumably already be well aware of such things but it is useful for the rest of us to be filled in on a variety of cultural phenomena across the globe, to flip through, say, a précis on the legend of the Flying Dutchman, or the development of Gothic horror fiction, classic Chinese novels about waiting women ghosts, Japanese demonic monster tales, the origin of zombies in Hatian voodoo religion and the distinction between zombies and revenants, selected at random from among many other curiosities along these lines. This broadly conceived encyclopedia also includes succinct cultural histories of the witch burning craze of the seventeenth century, Rosicrucianism in the eighteenth century, the Spiritualist movement starting in the nineteenth century, modern exorcist movies, and so on. Of course, on all these topics one gets but the merest sketch in an encyclopedia like the present one, but it is definitely worth perusing if only to view the excellent color illustrations splashed on every page.

Intended for recreational reading and not by any means deeply philosophical. Yet, even so, this provocative book invites a probing meditation on what it means to be human, given the prominence with which the supernatural realm has impinged upon the consciousness of living men from as far back as prehistoric times and continuing up to the present day. Can we, after all, dispense with mythology altogether, as, in learned modern times, the official stance of enlightened reason wants to impose on everyone? Or, does it merely drive a wedge between what our superficial conscious mind allows itself to know and our unconscious experience of the uncanny? A comment on the anthropological significance of ghost tales, traditional in virtually every known society—perhaps there very well might be, as the locus classicus has it, ‘more things in Heaven and Earth...than are dreamt of in your philosophy’ (Hamlet to Horatio in Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet), or than are permitted for us denizens of modernity to imagine by the regnant secular-materialist ideology of our supposedly scientific age, and still up to today the freer domains of creative art and speculative literature tenaciously keep alive a deep-seated memory of mankind’s precarious place in the strange order of the world, being, in reality, an intricate and mysterious juxtaposition of the natural and the supernatural?

[Pádraic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really solid overview of what it says on the tin, down through history and around the world. Given the nature of a project like this you're always wishing a little bit more detail rather than the brief summaries, but there are a simply astounding number of those summaries here. Even if you have more than a passing interest in this stuff, you'll be sure to find something new and interesting here just from flicking through.

[RecensioniVere · Rating 1 out of 5]

A collection of many curiosities dealt with very superficially. These were my expectations and the book meets them. However, I did not expect to find so many inaccuracies, including huge blunders such as the one about the 160,000 bodies buried at Poveglia. What are the sources? TV Shows and Wikipedia?
You can’t make a book like this—which isn’t even cheap—without a serious scientific committee*.


(*meaning a panel of experts from various disciplines who verify the accuracy of the content, including historical facts, literary references, and more.)

[Kitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

A coffee table book about the macabre theme of death and spirits with gorgeous pictures and a diverse exploration of cultures and beliefs

What I enjoyed: This is a very dense read for a coffee table book. It explores so many different things about death and spirits. I really enjoyed turning the page to see what I was going to learn about next. The layouts are super fun as well.

What I didn’t love: it’s a lot of information about a lot of things. I had to read in small little bits to truly digest the material.

Bottom line: yes! I’d recommend this book. What a fun addition to your shelf.

[Book Trail ASMR · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to read something about the supernatural that wasn't just ghost stories/intended to scare, and this was great. It's really informative, and the artwork is amazing - definitely one of those books you can keep around to look back at now and again.

I did find sometimes because of the different sections, it went over some history again, but still a recommended read for anyone interested in this stuff.

[LudmilaM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very engaging read describing supernatural phenomena from all over the world with varied illustrations to accompany them. DK publishing is living up to their high standard of combining balanced and informative lay-out of facts and illustrations on every page, being comprehensive but not overbearing. A treat of a book for anyone interested in this theme.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5! Even if you only looked at the pictures, this book is full of information. After reading it, I was more fascinated than scared. A great book to have this wonderful collection of stories, pictures and things at your fingertips that make you scratch your head. Beautifully great.

[Cassandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

A total delight. I loved books like this as a kid and still do. Very thorough, great content, and extraordinary images within this compendium. Perfect light reading that you can pick up and put down whenever. A must have on any weirdos bookshelf. 10/10!

[Toni Langley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating read with excellent diagrams and images, covers all sorts of countries, cultures and religions across the globe. Personally would have liked some more information on a few bits, but it's given me enough to look into more on my own 🎉

[Bela · Rating 4 out of 5]

So fabulous

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read, very interesting and entertaining. I liked the variety of different cultures and stories represented.

[PottWab Regional Library]

E

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love!!!!!

[Beersbooksandboos · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25/5

[Isabella Amelia Paloma Ossa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really interesting, spooky, and fun book! It is also very informative!