Across Victorian Britain, in castles and cottages, rectories and pubs, and even hospitals and churches, thousands of women and hundreds of men were put into mesmeric trances. Apparently reasonable human beings twisted into bizarre postures, called out in unknown languages, and placidly bore assaults that should have caused unbearable pain. The Victorians were literally entranced - mesmerized - with this phenomenon.

Alison Winter's cultural history considers this pervasive pursuit as a central aspect of Victorian culture. Winter describes who was entranced, who did the entrancing, why mesmerism was such a compelling experience to so many, and how to others it became powerful evidence of fraud and "unscientific" behavior. Her account traces the history of mesmerism as it moved through Victorian society.

As a result, Mesmerized is both a social history of the age and a lively exploration of the contested territory between science and pseudoscience. It provides an illuminating and original perspective on the Victorian social body and on nineteenth-century culture in general.