author
Charles Maurice Davies
1828–1910
A Victorian clergyman with a reporter’s curiosity, he explored the stranger corners of London’s religious and occult life and turned them into vivid nonfiction. His books open a window onto the city’s dissenters, spiritualists, and seekers in the late 19th century.
1 Audiobook
Mystic London; or, Phases of occult life in the metropolis
by Charles Maurice Davies
About the author
Born in Wells, Somerset, in 1828, Charles Maurice Davies studied at Durham University, became a fellow there, and was ordained in the Church of England in the early 1850s. Alongside parish work and schoolmastering, he built a career as a writer and journalist.
Davies is best remembered for books such as Unorthodox London and Mystic London, lively investigations of the religious fringes and occult movements of Victorian London. Writing as both insider and observer, he brought unusual sympathy and firsthand curiosity to subjects that many of his contemporaries dismissed or sensationalized.
He died on September 6, 1910. Today, his work remains valuable not only for its period atmosphere, but also for the way it records the many competing beliefs, doubts, and experiments that shaped London’s spiritual life.