Trilby O’Ferrall’s fictional nemesis was the mesmerist “Svengali” whose name has become shorthand for a person who exerts just such a malign influence. Like the tragic, titular heroine, the deceased fancied himself under the occult influence of a man who psychically controlled his every action. The disorder was called “acute Trilbymania,” which in this case resulted in the suicide of a man in Hartford, Connecticut, who took poison to escape the “awful affliction” of compulsively re-reading the novel. That book was the bohemian romance Trilby by George du Maurier, a Frenchman living and writing in England. Its overwhelming influence was described in viral terms before viruses were well understood as biological let alone social phenomena. In 1895 at least one death was ascribed to a work of fiction. From Early American Newspapers, Series 13, 1803-1916 Constance Mayer’s idealized life-size painting of Du Maurier’s heroine." Kansas City Times (January 13, 1895).
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