It is a surprise to hear that an autobiography of Mrs. Blavatsky, the founder of the Theosophical Society, should appear 45 years after her death. But Miss Neff, who arranged and catalogued the archives of the Theosophical Society in Adyar, found that a great deal of matter relating to Mrs. Blavatsky Was available and that many gaps in her unusual life might be filled in by collecting and assembling this scattered data, as she has so carefully done. The compiler has subordinated herself to her subject so that the book might well have been written by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky for it is made up chiefly of quotations from her own writings and contains much material which has hitherto been unpublished. The Original documents speak for themselves, but cross-references, clarifications and annotations of actual misstatements have been supplied by the compiler in footnotes, Appendices givings chronological table and a discussion of Solovyoffs "A Modern Priestess of Isis" as well as a bibliography, a list of references and an index, enable the serious student to check the narrative which gives full details of the early life of Mrs. Blavatsky prior to the formation of the Theosophical Society in 1874, Painstaking as is this method and particularly useful on so controversial a subject, this meticulous reproduce tion of the details of the life of Mrs. Blavatsky as well as much material on occultism seems, to the general reader at least, to have missed an opportunity for giving a vivid biography of its subject in the manner of the modern writer, As it stands, the volume is rather for the avowed student of Theosophy rather than an interpretation of the life and influence of this much-discussed woman which would appeal to the general public:—R.B.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.