All and Everything: Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

Rating:
Summary: A new conception of God
Review: Gurdjieff (1866?-1949) was an eminently practical philosopher. After a traumatic car accident in 1924 from which he miraculously survived, Gurdjieff decided to transmit all of his lifelong learning into book form, and embarked upon an intensive writing effort that resulted in Beelzebub's Tales to this Grandson.

Gurdjieff advises us to read Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson thrice, with the open heart of a child listening to a fairy tale. This is not an easy task, for one is dealing here with an account of God, World and Man intentionally composed to provide a self-transforming shock. However, any sincere effort to 'fathom the gist' of this work will provide unexpected benefits. The ultimate impression one recieves is of unsurpassed compassion for the human condition and a heartfelt call to awaken a dormant conscience.

The manuscript was edited into readable English by A R Orage from the literal translation done from Gurdjieff's original Russian by Thomas and Olga de Hartmann. The result was then read to Gurdjieff who consequently revised the text, which was again refined by Orage. This arduous cycle was repeated for the full seven years (1924-31) that Gurdjieff worked on Beelzebub's Tales.

This Two Rivers Press edition is a fascimile of the original 1950 edition whose publication was directly supervised by Gurdjieff.

I wish you good hunting in your quest for the Hidden Learning.

Rating:
Summary: The Worlds Number One Unread Book
Review: If the book is the World's Number One Unread Book it is simply that the book is not very easy to read. However, if the effort is made, not only is the book intensely funny but the wealth of knowledge contained therein is truly priceless. Gurdjieff was the ultimate rascal mystic and Beelzebub's tales is a tour de force. I actually enjoyed this book alot! It took many years and many false starts and I have only read it through once but it is clear this book deserves an important place in the history of literature. And even though the book is somewhat tragic in its approach, I say it is easily one of the funniest scifi novels to come along ever.

Rating:
Summary: A must read for anyone interesting in the work of Gurdjieff.
Review: It speaks for itself. But in short, profound, shocking and earth shattering. It wold take any man 10 lifes to accomplish what Gurdjieff did in 1.