The Ghost-Seer (Der Geisterseher) tells of a Jesuit secret society trying to convert a Protestant German prince to Catholicism and bring him to the throne back home in order to bolster its own power base. Through an emotive narrative Schiller critiques religion and society through passages of Enlightenment philosophy, with a diversity of forms including rhetorical prose, theatrical prose and elements of Gothic fiction through its depictions of necromancy, spiritualism and conspiracies. The novel first appeared in several instalments from 1787 to 1789 in the journal Thalia, later appearing as a three-volume book in its own right. Although it remained unfinished, its audiences were the largest for any of Schiller's work during his lifetime.