The Penguin Book of Exorcisms

Um livro interessante. Tem histórias e casos interessantes

Highly recommended for anyone interested in historical documentation of exorcisms across time and culture. The similarities and differences among rituals (or the lack of ritual) is fascinating.Laycock’s prefaces to each excerpt provide context and insight, placing each piece as specific examples of general events. Some are more famous than others, but each event is presented as closely to its historical manner as possible.

As a big fan of Laycock, this was another title I was looking forward to. Historical perspectives on exorcism garner a lot of insight into how a variety of cultures around the world have approached possession. Personally I used this text to increase my own awareness of possession for a variety of cultures in order to better my creative writing endeavors.I snagged copies of this for not just myself, but some friends with interest in the occult. This speaks to Laycock's approach for topics on religion: bringing folks both novice and experienced into the fold.

I was hoping for more story telling, this book was more about listing historical events and dates. I had expected it to be more about how the cultures navigated the events with as opposed to just translated writings about what had happened. A dry read for me.