The Widow's Son Volume 2 (The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles) [Paperback]

Robert Anton Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2004

Throughout history, secret societies have played a crucial role in shaping events that have created our world. Only an inner circle of power elite know the full extent of the influence of the conspiracy...It is Paris, 1772, and Sigismundo Celine knows he is destined to play an important part in this history-behind-history. The masons, the English nobility, the Jabobites, the Rosicrucians, the ruling clique of pre-Revolution France: these are but a few of the factions involved in the machinations and intrigue in which Sigismundo has become enmeshed.Thrown into the Bastille, shot at, assaulted by assassins, tortured, and brutally interrogated, he knows only what he is and what he must do to become the one spoken of in the old texts. But what he doesn't know could kill him: the secret powers of Maria, the Italian beauty who has become an English Lady; the Irish fisherman, Moon, who stumbles across the inner workings of an unsuspected cult; and the question they keep asking: the identity of The Widow's Son.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Devilish... I loved it! -- Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone

More important than Ulysses or Finnegans Wake. -- Timothy Leary

The real history of Western Civilization, where our heroes (and anti-heroes), the Illuminati, roam the night. -- Jonathan Sellers, Antiquities of the Illuminati

About the Author

Robert Anton Wilson is the coauthor (with the late Robert Shea), of the underground classic The Illuminatus! Trilogy which won the 1986 Prometheus Hall of Fame Award. His other writings include Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy, called "the most scientific of all science fiction novels" by New Scientist, and many nonfiction works of Futurist psychology and guerilla ontology. Wilson, who sees himself as a Futurist, author, and stand-up comic, regularly gives seminars at Esalan and other New Age centers. Wilson has made both a comedy record (Secrets of Power), and a punk rock record (The Chocolate Biscuit Conspiracy), and his play, Wilhelm Reich in Hell, has been performed throughout the world. His novel Illuminatus! was adapted as a 10-hour science fiction rock epic and performed under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at Great Britain's National Theatre, where Wilson appeared in a special cameo role. He is also a former editor at Playboy magazine.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: New Falcon Publications; 1st Falcon Ed edition (August 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561841633
• ISBN-13: 978-1561841639
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #418,949 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Is Sex For The Brain!, October 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Widow's Son (The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles, Vol 2) (Paperback)

Robert Anton Wilson almost defines a new genre with this series. His intelligence and witt will leave you in stitches, and the conspiracies make the X-files look boring. The Chronicles series are part conspiracy, part satire, part historical fiction, part philosophical, and completely mind altering. The characters graft themselves to your skin, and you'll never look at history the same. Consider this book sex for the brain.If it were any better they'd have to make it illegal.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cool book., November 12, 2000

By 

Paul Tripp (Omaha, NE) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Widow's Son (The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles, Volume Two) (Mass Market Paperback)

The only RAW I had read before picking up this book wasIlluminatus!. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed it (even missing the firstof the trilogy/series). The book is about Sigismundo, an Italian goingto school in Paris, who happens to have...[upset] some very importantpeople. After being attacked, arrested, and going through variousother punishments, he goes through attempted brainwashing by a groupwhich believes he'll be their savior, the prophecized Widow'sSon. Worth buying for the excerpt from the Gospel According to MaryMagdeline alone, it's definitely a great book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book ever written by Robert Anton Wilson, November 4, 2007

By 

David Perry "David M Perry, Huntington Beach" (the road to the next big thing) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Widow's Son Volume 2 (The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles) (Paperback)

In 1989, I had the privelige to appear in a production of Wilson's play, "Wilhelm Reich in Hell". The play was extreme didacticism, but clever and fun in it's own right. We got to meet, and spend some time with the great Robert Anton Wilson.

I have already reviewed the first book in this series, but thought I would drop in and point out some stuff about this.

Wilson doesn't just walk a fine line here, he engages in metaplot. The story also serves as a platform for a critique on pedagoguery, via the seldom used function of the footnote war. Sigismundo's tale, at the same time, is a ripping adventure, a political diatribe, a lesson in various traditions and several kinds of funny all at the same time.

When the world turns upside down, watch carefully. Wilson moves a player off the board and into the action deftly, and, as always, with great humor. This is a book that you can read a hundred times and always discover something new. Buy all three now while they are available!

fnord
by the way...Robert Anton Wilson passed on earlier this year, and today's rabid conspiracy buffs should always read Wilson. He found humor in the most shocking of things, and dignity and honor in the oddest of places. So should we all.