Versailles Adventure

One of the most famous psychic experiences reported at the beginning of the twentieth century. In August 1901, two English ladies, C. A. E. Moberly and E. F. Jourdain, took an afternoon walk in the Gardens of Versailles, France, and found themselves transported to the Trianon of 1789, complete with buildings and other people of the period. They described their experience with much corroborative detail in their 1911 book An Adventure. In the first edition their identity was concealed by the names "Miss Morison" and "Miss Lamont."

The book went into many editions and generated much controversy, coinciding with rising British interest in psychic phenomena through the work of the Society for Psychical Research, London. In spite of many subsequent attempts to discredit the writers, the adventure still stands as a unique experience.

Sources:

Flew, Antony G. N. A New Approach to Psychical Research. London: Watts, 1953.

Gibbons, M. E., and A. O. Gibbons. The Trianon Adventure. London: Museum Press, 1958.

Iremonger, Lucille. The Ghosts of Versailles. London: Faber & Faber, 1957.

Mackenzie, Andrew. The Unexplained: Some Strange Cases of Psychical Research. London: A. Barker, 1953. Reprint, New York: Abelard, 1968.

Moberly, C. A. E., and E. F. Jourdain. An Adventure. London: Faber & Faber, 1911.

Olivier, Edith. Four Victorian Ladies of Wiltshire. London: Faber & Faber, 1945.

Parrott, Ian. The Music of "An Adventure." London: Regency Press, 1966.

"Richard's Garden Revisited." Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 41, 712 (June 1962).

Sturge-Whiting, J. R. The Mystery of Versailles: A Complete Solution. London: Rider, 1938.