The Nightside of Nature was written the English novelist, story writer and playwright Catherine Ann Crowe, (20 September 1803 - 14 June 1876). Inspired by German writers, the book gives the reader chilling anecdotes of ghostly events, hauntings and other paranormal phenomena. The book became her most popular work, attempting to find a scientific, or, ‘psychic’ explanation of supernatural sightings and occurrences. After the purported rationalism of the 18th century, the 19th century would revisit the themes of ghosts and the supernatural, culminating in the populism of spiritualism and séances, which would last into the beginning of the 20th century.