AI Summary
5 min readThe Ghost Club and the Ghostwriters
In 1870, during the siege of Paris, Victor Hugo—author of Les Misérables—ate stag, antelope, and bear from the Paris Zoo. But his strangest habit was the séances. He claimed to have spoken with Galileo, Shakespeare, and even Death itself, who allegedly advised him to stagger his book publications so he would always remain in the public consciousness. Hugo followed the advice: his last book was released sixty-six years after he died. That story is the opening thread of this episode of Lore, which traces how writers across centuries have claimed to communicate with the dead—and how those claims shaped literature, secret societies, and the very idea of the ghostwriter.
The Ghost Club: A Secret Society of Believers
In 1855, a group of Trinity College students at Cambridge began meeting to discuss ghosts. By 1862, their curiosity had formalized into something they called the Ghost Club. The original incarnation was skeptical and academic: members attended séances to determine whether mediums were genuine or fraudulent. One of its most prominent members was Charles Dickens.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (02:11) **Victor Hugo's Strangest Habits** - The episode opens with the bizarre personal life of Victor Hugo, setting a tone of eccentricity and supernatural flirtation.
- 2 (04:11) **The Ghost Club's First Life** - The story shifts to the founding of the Ghost Club in Victorian London, establishing its original skeptical mission.
- 3 (06:43) **The Ghost Club's Reincarnation** - The club is revived with a new, more spiritualist and elite membership, changing its character entirely.
- 4 (08:48) **The Ghost Club's Legacy and Survival** - The club's records were preserved, and it was revived again, continuing its work to the present day.
- 5 (10:15) **O. Henry's Ghost Writes a Book** - The narrative moves to a specific case of posthumous authorship, introducing the concept of the "ghostwriter" literally.
- 6 (14:42) **The Mystery of Edwin Drood** - The episode introduces the central mystery of Charles Dickens' unfinished final novel, setting up the main investigation.
- 7 (16:44) **T.P. James and the Séance** - The story of T.P. James, the printer who claimed to channel Dickens, is introduced as the key figure in the mystery.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Everyone loves a good ghost story, but literature and spirits have a relationship that is older than some might think.
Narrated and produced by Aaron Mahnke, with writing and research by GennaRose Nethercott and Alex Robinson.
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©2026 Aaron Mahnke. All rights reserved.
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