Customer Reviews

The Illustrated Beast: The Aleister Crowley Scrapbook

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I ran across this book while doing a search and just had to buy it as it's been many years since I've read anything by or about Crowley. When it arrived with several other books, I set it aside and promptly forgot about it. While watching Hellraiser II on DVD last week, I noticed that the Beast's picture (in Golden Dawn regalia) kept popping up at the Doctor's house and it reminded me of this book. As soon as I finished my current book, I started in on this one. It was chock full of photos, illustrations, and stories that that I'd never seen before. I enjoyed the reprinting of the rare story Big Game from his World War I era writing. I especially liked the section that showed the different guises (and disguises) of Crowley over the years. When David Bowie was mentioned later as one of the rock stars influenced by the Beast, I wondered how much of his frequent reinventing of himself was Crowley inspired. All in all, a nice reintroduction to the Beast for my collection. My only gripe is that none of the popular photos of Crowley are reproduced here in whole except for their use in commercial endeavors (magazine and album covers) nor is the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album cover. A minor quibble about an excellent book on "The Wickedest Man In The World". 'Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law'.