This is an excellent book written under a pseudonym by Catharine Gore, a socialite best known for novels involving women being prim, proper, and exhibiting aristocratic tendencies. The folkloric and mythological content here is predominantly presented for the purposes of explaining why it is false and discredited- however my own interest was piqued even more by a few examples of "debunked" lore now being accepted upon further review; in the 1840s Central Africa was not really explored, for example, and tales of "dwarves" (pygmies) there "at the origin of the Nile" according to ancient records seemed to be mere legend; but we now know that such tribes do indeed exist!
More than fifty chapters here are dedicated to everything from spirits and lycanthropy, to astrology, alchemy, possession, and more.
241 pages.
