The Herald of Coming Good [Paperback]

G. I. Gurdjieff (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0916411729 | ISBN-13: 978-0916411725 | Publication Date: June 1987

First printed on 26 August 1933 by La Société Anonyme des Editions de l¿Ouest, this is the 75th anniversary edition, a reprint of the first edition. This edition has been digitally retypeset and is not a facsimile.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Holmes Pub Grou Llc (June 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0916411729
• ISBN-13: 978-0916411725
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,953,856 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't be put off, May 1, 2007

By 

Ashok Nair - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Herald of Coming Good (Paperback)

For some reason Herald seems to get a bad rep in Gurdjieff biographies for being both mad and incomprehensible. I disagree with this. I found it just as interesting and challenging as G's other writings. It's written in the same deliberately convoluted style as Beelzebub's Tales which means you have to work at understanding it; but at the same time this is a rewarding process. G figured he had to make his writing difficult in order to jolt the reader out of his rut. The content of the book is basically an announcement of the forthcoming publication of Beelzebub, Meetings and Life is Only Real which he had spent the last decade working on, as well as a short history of his teaching the Work.
As with Beelzebub it's probably better if you already have a familiarity with G's philosophy from someone like Ouspensky.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gudjieff as Black Magician, March 30, 2004

By 

Sophia Wellbeloved (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Herald of Coming Good (Paperback)

Gurdjieff as Black Magician

In Herald of Coming Good Gurdjieff portrays himself as a black magician in contrast to his role a white magician in Life is Real Only Then When 'I am'.

In terms of Gurdjieff's Law of Three, these books convey two opposing results of the processes expressed in his other two books, Beelzebub's Tales To His Grandson, which expresses a negative or destructive force, and Meetings With Remarkable Men which expresses a positive or creative force. Herald is the expression of a negative result, or in Gurdjieffian teaching terms, a negative third force leading to devolution, while Life expresses the result from a positive or evolutionary third force.

Seen in this way Herald should be included as an important part of Gurdjieff's writing, and though he 'exiled' this book, echoing Beelzebub's exile from the Sun Absolute, readers should ignore Gurdjieff's instructions not to read it. Herald should now be re-embraced back into the sequence of Gurdjieff's writings where it belongs, just as Beelzebub was himself pardoned and allowed to return to the Sun Absolute.

All four of Gurdjieff's books have themes related to time. The Tales shows a continuing devolution from past to present, while Meetings shows Gurdjieff and the Seekers 'reversing time' by returning to the past sources of ancient wisdom via teachings in texts and monasteries. The title of Life is Real Only Then When 'I am', emphasises the eternal present while the Herald Of Coming Good suggests the unreality of the future.

If we look at Gurdjieff's books in this way it makes sense to follow his instructions to read three of them in the order he prescribes, and to disobey his instruction not to read Herald.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Question to the previous reviewer, May 5, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Herald of Coming Good (Paperback)

How do you review a book if if you did not acually read it? The book is essential for understanding Gurdjieff's experimental attitude to the search for esoteric language.Do not be afraid of reading it. Incidentally a quote from THOCG appears in the 'offical' version(Penguin Arkana) of "Life is Real Only Then When 'I Am'" without citation. "No one interested in my writings should ever attempt to read them in any other than the indicated order; in other words, he should never read anything written by me before he is already well acquainted with the earlier works."=Herald p.57