The Gnostics

With great insight, and in a style that is rich and stimulating, the author discusses their complex beliefs about the universe and its creation, describing the various sects, their masters and initiates, and the methods they chose-ranging from complete asceticism to total sexual licence-to escape man’s alienation and the falsity of all his systems and institutions.

Finally, he stresses the relevance of Gnostic beliefs for modern readers. As Lawrence Durrell remarks in his Preface:

‘This essay is of a burning topicality to a world which is playing at Gnosticism. … Lacarrière has given us a Cuvier-like reconstruction of the great Gnostic refusal of the lie, and their refusal to share the world of that lie with its religious leaders. The courage of this despair is poetic in the highest degree and this splendid poem renders it full justice.’

‘This book is very important. Especially today, and especially for the young. This book is needed everywhere in the Western world.-Henry Miller
Translated from the French by
Nina Rootes