Customer Reviews

The Veil of Isis, Or Mysteries of the Druids

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I must disagree with the first reviewer. This is a cool book. Comparative religion is nothing new to us today, but this is a crisper, more direct and readable account than we usually get from our wordier writers. What may bother the first reviewer is that this is more polemical/openly opinionated and less encyclopedic than many of the books in its field, and the tone of the editorial and opinion is more bitter and cutting than one may be used to. However, Reade was an able writer and interesting thinker with his own style and wrote a good read here. He was certainly very opinionated and tendentious, the type of strong but problematic influencer we usually tend to conceal. It's OK and entertaining that he sometimes goes too far; just recognize that he's doing it, you don't have to agree with every single word to enjoy it. Provocateurs fill a niche.

Reade's role is similar to that of Harold Bloom: a provocateur who asks annoying questions and starts an argument that is too strong to absorb all at once, but which plants a seed in the mind. Provocateurs are important. By degrees their ideas steal in to one's questions and thoughts and have more influence than one would like to admit. They become the background to those opinions we more consciously espouse.

Overall, a quick, sharp, invigorating stab at comparative religious esoterica that will get one's attention and provide a few hours of diversion and ruminating. The Veil of Isis is worth reading not because it is comprehensive or the final word, but because of the personality infused into the learning--there is no other book exactly like it. The British bias toward the Druids is unabashedly nationalistic and should be taken with a grain of salt, but it does not detract from the caliber of Reade's general learning in ancient mythology and religion. The book will still trigger interesting thoughts even if is not always right. Above all this is a good, quick, provocative read one can enjoy and use to keep the mind sharp when time and attention do not allow for the longer compendia in the field such as The Golden Bough, The Hero with 1000 Faces, etc. If you don't come to it fraught with expectations, you might enjoy it.

I purchased this book because it kept popping into my message box, so I thought it may be worth it

Great marketing Amazon because it is a load or crapola that wasn't worth the postage