This reprint of the 1972 original biographical history of French occult figure Eliphas Lévi provides a new generation with access to an interesting work on the important writer and occult priest as well as the general history of the occult movement in the 1800s, its influence on later writers such as Aleister Crowley and its echoes through a variety of other cultural spheres such as art and philosophy. McIntosh teaches at the Centre of the Study of Esotericism at the University of Exeter, England Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)