The Pierced Heart: A Novel (33 page)

T
HE
B
ARON
V
ON
R
EISENBERG
is based in large part on a real man. Baron Karl von Reichenbach was born in Stuttgart in 1788 where his father was Court Librarian. He was not a nobleman by birth, but was given that honour in recognition of his contributions to both science and industry. He was responsible for the same discoveries I give to my fictional Baron, including creosote, paraffin, pittacal, and various other chemical formulations. In 1839 he withdrew from his chemical studies and devoted himself to the investigation of magnetism and other related forces such as electricity, heat, and light. As a result he became convinced that there was another invisible energy force in the universe, a force that was present in both moonlight and sunlight, and was akin to both electricity and magnetism. It was an “occult energy,” in fact, that suffused the entire cosmos, and he named it the Odic force, or simply the Od. He believed it was, in effect, the “blood” of the universe, and explained everything from the
aurora borealis
, to ectoplasm, ghost lights, the “table-turning” seen at séances, and the siting of ancient standing stones. The Baron came to his conclusions after working with dozens of people he called “sensitives,” a
number of whom were suffering from nervous conditions. These people claimed to be able to see luminous flames emanating from the poles of magnets.

Von Reichenbach devised special apparatus to further test his theories, including the construction of metal plates on the roof of his castle, which were positioned to capture sunlight and moonlight and connected by wires to a special dark room below. His sensitives would be kept in this room for many hours, and then asked to hold the ends of these wires, and describe what they could see. Von Reichenbach also began to experiment with specimens of minerals and metals from his geological collections, presenting them to his sensitives on a rotating table, one by one, in a room completely insulated from all other sources of light. He found that some sensitives could see flames of different colours, ranging from green (from copper) to red (from zinc). Steeping water in moonlight could make the sensitives physically sick, and some disliked being close to mirrors; young women were found to be particularly sensitive during menstruation. While he was conducting his experiments, the Baron himself kept to a strict diet and would not touch metals.

Von Reichenbach gradually became convinced that “lunacy” was the result of a greater-than-normal sensitivity to the Od. He interviewed hundreds of people suffering from sleepwalking, night terrors, hysteria, and other mental afflictions, and concluded that ancient superstitions relating to the influence of the moon might actually stem from the effects of Od force in moonlight. He discovered that when those who suffered from “lunatic” conditions were exposed to the light of the moon, it produced physical symptoms such as muscle cramps and a feeling of heat on the skin, as well as the sensations of mental distress and unease.

Many of those living in the neighbourhood of Von Reichenbach’s estate became fearful of this tall and mysterious man dressed in black, who frequented newly dug graves, walked alone on paths hidden from view, and confined young women in his castle. He even became known by some as the “Sorcerer of Cobenzl” (the castle had previously been owned by a man of that name).

Von Reichenbach’s theories were first published in Germany in 1849, and translated into English the following year. He divided contemporary scientific opinion, with some academics hailing his discoveries, while others questioned his methods, and asked for more objective proof than the eyewitness accounts of subjects who were often both disturbed and vulnerable, and therefore highly suggestible.

Though Von Reichenbach came to believe he could see the Odic light himself, he was never able to provide scientifically robust proof of his theories, despite apparently capturing “Odic emanations” on daguerreotypes, the first of which was published in 1861. In her poem
Aurora Leigh
(1856), Elizabeth Barrett Browning referred to “
That od-force of German Reichenbach / Which still from female finger-tips burns blue.
”

There was indeed an article in the
Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
in 1847 entitled “On the Truths Contained in Popular Superstitions.” This contains a brief account of an experiment Von Reichenbach conducted with a Fraulein Maix, which describes how she felt “an inward struggle in her arms, chest, and head” when asked to hold a bar magnet. The rest I have invented.

Von Reichenbach’s theories have since fallen into disrepute, at least among the mainstream scientific community, and the fact that Hitler apparently responded enthusiastically to the idea of an Odic force has doubtless done nothing to help his subsequent reputation.

I am indebted to
Lost Science
by Gerry Vassilatos for my first encounter with the Baron and much of the detail on the real Baron’s experiments. I later read Von Reichenbach’s own
Researches on Magnetism, Electricity, Heat, Light, Crystallization, and Chemical Attraction in Their Relation to the Vital Force
. Other aspects of my fictional character are my own invention, such as the fact that he may be suffering from either
lupus
or porphyria (as yet undiagnosed in 1851), as well as my character’s particular obsession with conditions of the blood, and the experiments he conducts in London to investigate them. The real Baron died in 1869, in a hotel bed.

My inspiration for the Baron’s waxwork collection came from
Marina Warner’s wonderful book
Phantasmagoria
, which includes a photograph of an animated wax “Sleeping Beauty” modelled by Philippe Curtius in 1765. Warner’s book is a fascinating account of the phenomena of illusion and the imagination, from smoke and mirrors, to light, shadow, cloud, and ghosts. It was also an invaluable source for material on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century
phantasmagorias
, and the illusions they employed, including the famous Paris stage show of Étienne-Gaspard Robertson.

“Influence Machines” did indeed exist; the one I describe is based on the device invented in 1706 by Francis Hauksbee, a student of Isaac Newton.

The account of the Fox sisters in
chapter 4
is taken from an actual press report in the
New-York Tribune
of August 10, 1850. See Herbert G. Jackson,
The Spirit Rappers
, chapter 8.

It was Charlotte Brontë who called the Great Exhibition “vast, strange, new and impossible to describe.” Readers who are interested in learning more about it will find many websites devoted to the subject, and an excellent and extremely informative edition of the BBC Radio 4 programme
In Our Time
can be found at
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003c19x
. The extract from the catalogue in
chapter 7
is a real example.

I confess to taking a small liberty with dates in relation to the Ashmole Bequest, which was actually housed in the Ashmolean Museum until 1860, when it was transferred to the Bodleian Library.

I would like to thank my husband, Simon, and my friend Professor Stephen Gill for reading this novel in its early stages. I also owe a great deal of gratitude to my agent, Ben Mason, and my editor at Random House, Kate Miciak.

The Pierced Heart

A Fatal Likeness

The Solitary House

Murder at Mansfield Park