Professor Huskins

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About this book

Three people placed under mesmerism give conflicting answers, leaving an investigator to question the very powers he has spent his life studying. The opening of Lettie M. Cummings's novel turns this failed experiment into an argument about knowledge: whether truth comes from accepted teaching, personal experience, or a willingness to abandon cherished beliefs. His confidence in his own methods sits beside a growing recognition of their limits.

Those questions also take a domestic form. William promises Clarissa rest and happiness, puts her to sleep through his influence, and then confronts their angry son Augustus. Clarissa fears that excitement will make the boy ill, while William believes he can manage him. Long reflections and tense conversations place claims about mental power alongside the competing wishes of a family.