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Trance by Appointment
Trance by Appointment is the story of Jean, an otherwise ordinary working-class London girl. But Jean has what her mother calls "the Sight." She sees what no one else can: the future. At first, under the patient guidance of Madame Eva, she learns to control this talent and begins to work as a fortune-teller.
But once Jean falls under the influence of Norman, an unscrupulous astrologer, she is exploited as a money-making machine, driven relentlessly to perform seances for exclusive clients. Norman treats Jean as a dumb animal with a uniquely saleable skill and subjects her to physical and emotional abuse in quest of profits. Telling Jean's story through her eyes and words, Gertrude Trevelyan demonstrates an uncanny insight into the gift and curse of an exceptional power.
But once Jean falls under the influence of Norman, an unscrupulous astrologer, she is exploited as a money-making machine, driven relentlessly to perform seances for exclusive clients. Norman treats Jean as a dumb animal with a uniquely saleable skill and subjects her to physical and emotional abuse in quest of profits. Telling Jean's story through her eyes and words, Gertrude Trevelyan demonstrates an uncanny insight into the gift and curse of an exceptional power.
236 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1939
52 people want to read
About the author
G.E. Trevelyan
8 books10 followersGertrude Eileen Trevelyan was an English novelist. She was born on 17 October 1903 in Bath, Somerset, England. She attended Princess Helena College, then located in Ealing, and was confirmed at St Peter's Church, Ealing in 1920. She attended Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford from 1923 to 1927, graduating with a second-class degree.
While at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, she won - as the first female winner - the Newdigate Prize for Poetry with her 250-line poem in blank verse titled, Julia, Daughter of Claudius. After leaving Oxford, she moved to London, where she first lived in a women's residence hotel in Bermondsey. She later lived as a lodger in several locations in Kensington.
Trevelyan wrote eight groundbreaking novels between 1932 and 1941, but her writing career was tragically cut short when her flat was hit by a German bomb during the Blitz. She died shortly afterward because of her injuries.
Trevelyan was largely forgotten after her death and for many years her work was out of print. However, in 2020, her debut novel Appius and Virginia was republished by Eye & Lightning Books, seeking to restore the Trevelyan to her rightful place in British literature.
While at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, she won - as the first female winner - the Newdigate Prize for Poetry with her 250-line poem in blank verse titled, Julia, Daughter of Claudius. After leaving Oxford, she moved to London, where she first lived in a women's residence hotel in Bermondsey. She later lived as a lodger in several locations in Kensington.
Trevelyan wrote eight groundbreaking novels between 1932 and 1941, but her writing career was tragically cut short when her flat was hit by a German bomb during the Blitz. She died shortly afterward because of her injuries.
Trevelyan was largely forgotten after her death and for many years her work was out of print. However, in 2020, her debut novel Appius and Virginia was republished by Eye & Lightning Books, seeking to restore the Trevelyan to her rightful place in British literature.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 17, 2025
Not her most earthshatteringly brilliant work, but extremely interesting nonetheless. I am hopeful now more of her work is back in print she will start getting more recognition. If I was about to do an English Lit PHD there would be a hell of a lot to investigate in her work...
November 3, 2025
Trance by Appointment, a 1939 re-release from @boilerhousepress, is a quietly bleak and affecting tale of a gifted woman and her fall at the hands of an odious manipulator.
England: a typical working-class suburb between the wars. From the cradle, Jean has had ‘the sight’ — ‘bubbles’ that appear in her mind, full of colour and glimpses of things far off or yet to be. As a young child this delights her, but growing up she wants to better understand and begins to ask questions. Her mother tells her to keep it quiet — no good ever came of people knowing about such things. A family friend, Eva, thinks otherwise.
Eva supports herself as ‘Madame Eva’, clients visiting her home for readings. Whether Eva ever had Jean’s gift is debatable, but after Jean’s empathic overload makes ordinary work impossible, Eva schools her in how to “read” people and give them a convincing experience.
Jean, who only wants to help people, is uneasy with fakery, but amid the flim-flam and posturing she finds what she believes is a genuine link to the ‘other side.’ She begins to fall into trances, speaking in other voices and awakening with no memory. At this, Eva’s friend Norman — a hucksterish horoscope ‘professor’ — takes a pointed interest in the young Jean.
Trevelyan’s work has been out of print for many years, and it was a real treat to read something in the same modernist vein as Virginia Woolf, but grounded in the realities of back streets, dusty parlours, and grimy railway stations.
Jean is unsophisticated but good-hearted, and the narration — which slips effortlessly into her thoughts and out again to observe her actions — remains entirely in her own colloquial idiom. A favourite superlative, for example, is “ever so,” and the effect is warmly engaging, drawing us right into Jean’s head and heart, even as Norman rains spite and brutality down upon her and a trance state — a numbness in life and love for the sake of survival — becomes her entire existence.
A sad and unsettling novel, this feels strikingly relevant in its treatment of women’s vulnerability and erasure, and it left me keen to seek out more of Trevelyan’s work.
England: a typical working-class suburb between the wars. From the cradle, Jean has had ‘the sight’ — ‘bubbles’ that appear in her mind, full of colour and glimpses of things far off or yet to be. As a young child this delights her, but growing up she wants to better understand and begins to ask questions. Her mother tells her to keep it quiet — no good ever came of people knowing about such things. A family friend, Eva, thinks otherwise.
Eva supports herself as ‘Madame Eva’, clients visiting her home for readings. Whether Eva ever had Jean’s gift is debatable, but after Jean’s empathic overload makes ordinary work impossible, Eva schools her in how to “read” people and give them a convincing experience.
Jean, who only wants to help people, is uneasy with fakery, but amid the flim-flam and posturing she finds what she believes is a genuine link to the ‘other side.’ She begins to fall into trances, speaking in other voices and awakening with no memory. At this, Eva’s friend Norman — a hucksterish horoscope ‘professor’ — takes a pointed interest in the young Jean.
Trevelyan’s work has been out of print for many years, and it was a real treat to read something in the same modernist vein as Virginia Woolf, but grounded in the realities of back streets, dusty parlours, and grimy railway stations.
Jean is unsophisticated but good-hearted, and the narration — which slips effortlessly into her thoughts and out again to observe her actions — remains entirely in her own colloquial idiom. A favourite superlative, for example, is “ever so,” and the effect is warmly engaging, drawing us right into Jean’s head and heart, even as Norman rains spite and brutality down upon her and a trance state — a numbness in life and love for the sake of survival — becomes her entire existence.
A sad and unsettling novel, this feels strikingly relevant in its treatment of women’s vulnerability and erasure, and it left me keen to seek out more of Trevelyan’s work.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews