Fred Kaplan 
Dickens and Mesmerism: The Hidden Spring of Fiction. 
Princeton University Press, 1975. First edition. 250 pages. 
Volume, measuring approximately 6" x 9", is bound in brown cloth, with stamped gilt lettering to spine. Book displays light shelfwear. Front flyleaf has been excised. Interior is clean and bright. Dust jacket also exhibits mild wear.
"The mesmeric movement in England, particularly its controversial activities during the late 1830s and 1840s, intensified Dickens' concern with the ways in which people discover and exert their energies and will to control each other. Dickens' own activities as a mesmerist provide the biographic touchstone for his image of himself as a doctor of the mind. Fred Kaplan examines the author's entire oeuvre in a synoptic, thematic fashion, exploring the attitudes shaped by the mesmerists that are reflected in the novels' psychological tensions. The final chapter provides an overview of the Romantic, Victorian, and Modern currents that may be found in Dickens' fascination with mesmeric power."