Atlanta-Based Author Jessica Handler Explores Mesmerism In Debut Novel

In the late 19th Century, Lulu Hurst transfixed audiences as the
"Georgia Wonder." An electrical storm supposedly gave the teenager
supernatural powers to catapult grown men from chairs. She
performed on stages from Cedartown, Georgia, to the East Coast and
Midwest. Hurst appeared in front of members of congress and
government scientists. She was tested by Alexander Graham Bell, the
faculty at Mercer University and the Medical College of Georgia —
all baffled by mysterious force of the "electric maid."