Avatars

Besant, Annie, 1847-1933Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.3

Word count: 177K words
Chapters: 18

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Avatâras by Annie BesantAuthor: Besant, Annie, 1847-1933,Language: English, Class: BP: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Islam, Bahaism, Theosophy, Other and new beliefs, Release Date: Mar 6, 2009

Editor's review

Annie Besant was a major Theosophist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and Avatâras is an expository text on the concept of the avatar, situated at the intersection of Theosophy and philosophy of religion. Its value lies not in empirical knowledge but in showing how Western intellectuals in a particular historical context understood the idea of divine manifestation in Eastern religious traditions. The topics discussed touch on comparative religion, spiritual evolution and humanity's spiritual mission, and the style carries the exhortatory tone of a lecture; readers can observe the habits of thought and expression of the Theosophical movement. As a public-domain e-book it is easy to search and cite, and serves as supplementary material for the history of religion, mystical currents, or Victorian intellectual history. Read it with critical distance, as a document in intellectual history rather than a doctrinal guide, and preferably alongside relevant background sources.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars studying the late nineteenth-century Theosophical movement and Western esotericism
Readers interested in comparative religion and the intellectual history of the avatar concept
Learners seeking public-domain English texts for textual analysis or translation practice
Fans of religious philosophy curious about Besant's lecture-style writing

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting systematic theology or authoritative religious exposition
General readers seeking empirical science or historical-proof conclusions
Beginners with weak English reading skills who need a Chinese guide

Reading tips

Read the introduction or first chapter to clarify the author's definition of "avatar", then proceed chapter by chapter.
Keep a notebook for the religious terms used and consult background sources as needed.
Read alongside histories of the Theosophical movement or nineteenth-century comparative religion, keeping a critical perspective.
If using it only for research citations, prioritize the chapters discussing specific religious traditions.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a scholarly work?

It is an expository text in philosophy of religion, discussing the concept of the avatar in a lecture-like, exhortatory style. It is neither fiction nor a strictly academic monograph.

Can I understand it without a background in Theosophy?

Yes, but you will need to do some extra reading. Much of the terminology and many assumptions come from the Theosophical system, so it helps to first learn about Besant herself and basic Theosophical tenets; otherwise the author's personal views may be mistaken for general religious-studies common knowledge.

What are the features of this edition?

This edition comes from Project Gutenberg: a free, public-domain e-book in the original English, easy to search, copy and cite, but usually without modern scholarly notes or an introduction, so readers must supply their own background material.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Besant, Annie, 1847-1933 Author

Annie Besant (Besant, Annie, 1847-1933) was an active thinker and writer from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. Publicly available details of her life are quite limited, yet her works address a strikingly wide range of themes. The library holds 18 of her titles, spanning autobiography, social reform, religious philosophy, and moral inquiry. Notable among them are Annie Besant: An Autobiography and Autobiographical Sketches, which use personal experience to reflect the issues of her time; My Path to Atheism, Marriage, As It Was, As It Is, and As It Should Be, and The Basis of Morality examine faith, the institution of marriage, and the foundations of ethics with a sharp, argumentative edge. Esoteric Christianity and Avatâras turn to esoteric religion and spiritual themes, while The Case for India shows her concern with political realities. She is often categorized under inspirational growth, but her writing is more reflective and reform-minded, best seen as the work of a writer who combines personal testimony with social critique.