Primitive minds: evolution and spiritual experience in the Victorian novel

Introduction: Evolution and the dreamy mind

Charlotte Brontë's hypochondriacal heroines

Spirits and seizures in Bleak House and Our mutual friend

Suspended animation and second sight: Daniel Deronda and Silas Marner

Dreamy intuition and detective genius: Ezra Jennings and Sherlock Holmes

The end of the novel: naturalism and reverie in Tess of the d'Urbervilles and The return of the native.