“It was such a revelation that instantly I was freed from my addiction” —Anthony Hopkins

I smoked for 45 years and I couldn’t stop...Allen Carr’s Easyway was the only thing that made me stop. It worked like crazy. —Mel Gibson

It’s Really True: Quit Smoking Permanently in Three Hours

Imagine sitting down with a pack or two of your favorite cigarettes and taking a few hours to read a special book. The author — a British gentleman named Allen Carr — invites you to smoke as much as you like while you read, but instructs you to make sure to read the whole thing in one sitting. And just as he promises from the beginning, as soon as you turn the last page, you realize you have literally become a non-smoker. Without any willpower whatsoever.

It Really Worked

When I first opened the book, Carr claimed up front that this method has worked for something like 90% or more of readers. I didn’t put much faith in that statement, but I gave it a try, in case. I wasn’t the worst smoker out there, but I was more or less chaining them whenever I had the chance. Anytime I was walking, driving, on breaks.

I smoked and I read, and I smoked and I read. And then I kept smoking and kept reading. Until I reached the last page.

And it worked. It worked immediately. I had actually become a non-smoker. It didn’t require willpower. I didn’t have to avoid seeing cigarettes. I didn’t have to stop hanging out with friends who smoke. I just didn’t need cigarettes anymore.

What Did It?

It’s not about scaring you; it’s about showing you the magician’s trick behind the urge.

I think it would be better to let you experience the book yourself than try to analyze it beforehand, but be reassured that it has nothing to do with scaring you about health effects. As a former, lifelong four-to-six-pack-a-day smoker himself, the author knows that you’ve heard all that and that it has no effect. From his web site:

Whatever addiction or issue you want to address we don’t use any scare tactics or shocking images of the harm that it causes – you know all about the downsides already.

Instead we examine and correct the misconceptions that keep all addicts trapped. We don’t just look at the physical addiction but the mental aspects as well.

You may be surprised that the addiction or issue is 1% physical and 99% mental.

The unusual success of Allen Carr’s book was so great that a network of seminars and such seems to have been founded that carries the message and other support into the greater world. That site is here. But the whole phenomenon started and succeeded with only the book alone, and that’s almost certainly all that most people need.

Just Get the Book and You’re Good

Peruse or preview a digital copy now. Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking is available for instant “borrow” at Archive.org now. An account requires nothing more than an email address.

Better would be to get a physical copy. This book is nowadays available from the usual places online, but Barnes & Noble has always carried physical copies in-store, in their Bargain Books section, ironically.

I recommend running out to your local B&N to get a physical copy so you don’t have to wait for delivery.

Celebrity Testimonies

See EasyWay’s web site for the many testimonials from regular people and celebrities who successfully quit smoking using this book. Below is a small sampling of the famous ones. (Many of these quotes are from public interviews, some of which clips which the EasyWay web site links to.)

“I smoked for 45 years and I couldn’t stop...Allen Carr’s Easyway was the only thing that made me stop. It worked like crazy.” —Mel Gibson

“My advice would be, read Allen Carr – not the comedian, the author of books on the way to quit addiction – he’s a hero of mine” —Chrissie Hynde (Musician, Singer & Songwriter - The Pretenders)

“His method is absolutely unique…. I’m pleased to say it has worked for many of my friends and staff” —Sir Richard Branson (Entrepreneur - Virgin)

“There’ll be no going back” —Neve Campbell

“It was such a revelation that instantly I was freed from my addiction” —Anthony Hopkins

“I haven’t smoked since!” —Ashton Kutcher

“I tried quitting five times before and failed. I tried nicotine patches and other methods, but nothing worked… then finally... Allen Carr’s Easyway To Stop Smoking... I smoked my last ciggie” —Hrithik Roshan (Actor)

“Allen Carr achieved for me a thing that I thought was impossible – to give up a thirty year habit literally overnight” —Anjelica Huston

“Stopped for 10 years but was miserable. This time was so easy due to Allen Carr’s Easyway. The great thing is he insists that you keep smoking until then end!” —James Spader

“I quit with Allen Carr’s Easyway.” —Robert Pattinson

“Quitting smoking is the hardest s*** ever. I’m finally quitting for good and am on day 3. Allen Carr’s Easyway” —Jonah Hill (actor)

Related Links:

Allen Carr’s EasyWay web site:
https://www.allencarr.com/about-allen-carrs-easyway/the-allen-carr-easyway-method/

Hundreds of client testimonials (in video form):
https://www.allencarr.com/success-stories/wall-of-fame/

Celebrity Testimonials:
https://www.allencarr.com/success-stories/?customer=celebrity#feedback

The premise in brief:

What if the people who ran the world figured out a way to disappear all voices of opposition in a single stroke, all while appearing to be completely innocent of any crime at all?

The method: Develop a deadly or incapacitating virus or toxin (along with its matching preventative or antidote) and make it ready to release on the world at any given time. Since it would affect all humans equally, the trick is to find a way to inoculate the desired population against this bioweapon before its release — and not inoculate the troublesome and unwanted minority referred to as “truthers,” independent researchers, “conspiracy theorists,” proponents of freedom, and the like.

The question is: how do you get truthers to refuse that inoculation?

The other question (to you) is: Is this premise plausible enough for a decent piece of dystopian or speculative fiction, or is it too strange for fiction?

MOTIVE AND MEANS

Motive: Silencing dissent is an ages-old dream.

In this fictional Earth in which elites stage-manage world events toward a controlled future of their own design, and in which millions of voices of truth around the world are constantly trying to warn their fellow man every step of the way, how advantageous would it be to that elite — assuming it were technologically possible — to get all voices of opposition to disappear once and for all, and to do so with perfect deniability?

If there were a way to accomplish this, it would remove the grit and sand and sabots and wrenches from the gears of their machine. Progress toward centralized world government and total control would proceed with infinitely greater speed and ease. The remaining population would be as credulous, trusting, and manipulable as the crowd in 1984’s daily session of “One Minute’s Hate.”

Means: How could it be done?

This could be done by using two engineered pandemics; one fake, the other real.

Pandemic #1. The Fake. The hidden purpose of the first pandemic is to inoculate the majority of the world’s population against a real virus or toxin that hasn’t yet been released.

This false pandemic hypes a flu-like illness that is accepted as real and dangerous by the average person but which is seen as transparently fake by those independent-minded researchers often called “truthers” or “conspiracy theorists.”

To combat this flu-like illness, a brand new kind of vaccine (already designed and ready) is presented to the people of the entire world, accompanied by urgent calls and demands, and even threats to take it — for everyone’s safety – even though it is eventually discovered that, curiously, it has essentially no effect on the illness it was allegedly made for. The average person — some billions of them all over the world— take this injection.

The truth-oriented people of the world, on the other hand, would be expected to refuse to take this clearly unnecessary and potentially harmful new injection. Moreover, by the end of the first pandemic — and for the first time in history — “truthers” would be permitted to be seen as “right all along.” The new vaccine would even apparently cause damage and death to many who took it, giving extra credence to the truthers’ belief and their resolve never to take the injection.

Pandemic #2. The Real One. After as much of the mainstream world as possible has been inoculated, a second pandemic is engineered which is real. This one isn’t an exaggerated flu-like illness but is instead something real and authentically dangerous, released surreptitiously into the world via any number of means you might name, and given any name or identifier that gives cover to its man-made origin.

Everyone is protected against this threat except the troublemakers whose own sight and wisdom has been used against them. The “good” populations having been pre-inoculated against it, the only people who will succumb are precisely those who can “see,” who cause trouble, who try incessantly to wake people up, who’ve tried to slow down or stop progress toward the Brave New 1984 world they saw advancing — step by step — for decades.

As the self-selected target group begins to fall, one by one, it may eventually be publicly remarked that the earlier inoculation seems to protect against this new illness. When and if this is made public, there are two possible outcomes: (1) if the illness works fast enough or is irreversible, then all the un-inoculated will be taken out in the course of this second pandemic; (2) if the new illness is slow to spread or can be reversed, it will force all the uninoculated who still remain to take the novel injection in order to save themselves.

Either way, it will make truthers appear to be fools for not trusting establishment science and government, and it will solidify the mainstream population’s faith and trust in the system whose pretended foresight and love for the people saved them from this otherwise certain fate.

And then comes the controlled world the elites have been planning for centuries.

The perfect crime on a cross-the-entire-world scale.

Here’s another explanation of the same concept in slightly different words:

Pandemic #1. Get the target group to select itself into vulnerability.

In this fictional scenario, the flu-like illness is a pretext for getting as many “normal” people as possible injected with a brand new paradigm of inoculation — the artists behind the con knowing from the start that no truthers would fall for it.

What group of people takes the new inoculation? Nearly everyone who was unaware that Pandemic #1 was a stage-managed con. In other words, most of the mainstream population of the world — people who, on the whole, are acquiescent, trusting, not particularly curious, more or less willing to conform to whatever is expected of them.

What group of people refuses the novel inoculation? Everyone who knew that the first pandemic was a con, which means, predominantly, all “truthers,” “conspiracy theorists,” etc. This kind of person is and has always been a thorn (however small) in the side of tyrants. They’re people who can see behind curtains, people who notice obscure facts and connect dots, people whose primary mission in life — as a general rule — is to wake up their fellow man to what’s really been going on to us and around us.

What remain, then, are two chemically different groups of people:

1. The majority of the world population that the elites want to “keep.”

2. The smaller percentage of the population that the elites want rid of. The people who ask questions and point out contradictions. The troublemakers.

Pandemic #2: Whereas the first pandemic served to protect the favored group, the second pandemic arrives to devastate the second:

For the purposes of this story, the new scheme of inoculation was advertised as a new kind of vaccination against a flu virus, but was in actuality a true and working inoculation against an engineered, deadly, but not-yet-released virus that is waiting to be released as part of a second pandemic. Not a hyped pandemic this time, but a real one.

When the second pandemic is staged, it is this truly deadly or incapacitating virus that is released, a pandemic whose only victims will be that exact, self-selected group of people who rightly refused the injection during the first scare, while all the normal people who accepted the injection will survive by virtue of that injection that they were doublecrossed into taking those years earlier.

Public alarm. Deaths. Furrowed brows on TV news. And then it’s over. After the culling of all voices of truth and opposition, the only people left in the world will be those disinclined by nature to make trouble for those who stand at the controls of the world’s cabal(s), banks, governments, corporations, media, and institutions.

It is a simple and perfectly ingenious two-step that accomplishes, essentially, the selective disappearance of all voices of truth at once. All without guns or roundups or camps or killing. Everyone will say nature did it, and that will be the end of it, and that will also be the end of the world as we know it.

OR, WHAT ABOUT A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ALTERNATIVE?

As a possible alternative to all the above, maybe the story could go this way instead:

The Pandemic Triplecross was never a thing after all. It was never a plan, was never intended to be carried out.

Instead, perhaps the actual plan is merely to get the objectors to the old inoculation to eventually give in and take it during a more fear-inducing second pandemic.

Psychological operations have history. Deception is often more productive than the ugly and visible use of force. All that would be needed is to start a rumor via the alternative media outlets and “trusted” but controlled alternative leaders to the effect that such a thing as a Pandemic Triplecross might be real. Though many truthers deride the idea or laugh it off, perhaps it becomes a general, wider concern, particularly due to subtle red herrings floated from time to time in the major media to make it all appear as though it’s coming true. (“In local news, a Mason County farmer, John Q. Smith succumbed to the mystery illness on Wednesday. His neighbors described him as ‘conspiracy theorist’ and a gun collector. He had not taken the inoculation.”)

In the end, the powers that be either succeed (or fail) in getting a significant number of truthers to actually take the original injection that they never wanted.

For each of the above scenarios, an interesting question is: What does the truther do?

Again, I ask the opinion of anyone interested: Is this plausible enough for readers of sci-fi or speculative fiction? Of course, many who dislike truthers and conspiracy theorists will jeer, applaud such a concept, and “wish it would really happen.” But speaking to those of more sober and empathetic mind, does this strike you as believable enough for a story? Or is it too strange even for fiction?

• The Art of Teaching, by Gilbert Highet

• Teacher in America, by Jacques Barzun

• Begin Here: The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning, by Jacques Barzun

Full Descriptions

The Art of Teaching

By Gilbert Highet. (Approximately 250 pages.)
Read entire book for free at archive.org. (Via a simple account.)

Gilbert Highet was a British classicist, writer, and historian who lived from 1906 to 1978. More information on him can be found at Columbia.edu and Wikipedia.

This is an “old-fashioned” book without “modules,” lists, charts, or references to studies. It’s a long talk with a man of many years of experience teaching high school back in the days when teaching and learning concerned important and useful subjects taught to real standards, and that often came along with corollary life lessons in independent and rigorous thinking, discipline, and good character generally.

It provides a hugely helpful, practical foundation to any new or even experienced teacher, imparting classic and rational how-to on the subject, not from a rigid, straight-laced know-it-all but from an intelligent, thoughtful, interesting, and humane expert in the subject.

Its table of contents is sectioned into major parts: The Teacher, The Teacher’s Methods, Great Teachers and Their Pupils, and Teaching in Everyday Life.

From the Preface:

This is a book on the methods of teaching. It does not discuss the subjects which are taught (or should be taught) in schools, in colleges, and elsewhere. There are thousands of books on the subjects, but not nearly so many on the general principles of teaching. Yet it is necessary to distinguish subjects from methods. The development of propaganda shows us how lies and stupidities can be efficiently taught; and the history of schools shows us how good subjects and important truths can be badly taught. Our interest here, therefore, is not to distinguish the good subjects from the bad subjects, but to work out the principles by which a subject — once it has been chosen — can be well taught. This is not a book of educational theory, but a book of suggestions drawn from practice.

Teacher in America

(Approximately 260 pages.) Teacher in America, by the great Jacques Barzun, is a collection of excellent essays on a variety of topics related to teaching and the teaching profession. A brief mention of who Barzun was follows at the bottom of this section.

You can easily and instantly borrow this book for free from Archive.org, though a peek at its frontmatter and table of contents are available without any account. I’ve also provided the table of contents page below.

If you find a copy of the more recent, 1980, Liberty Press edition, you’ll find an excellent preface that begins:

[….] The once proud and efficient public-school system of the United States—especially its unique free high school for all—has turned into a wasteland where violence and vice share the time with ignorance and idleness, besides serving as battleground for vested interests, social, political, and economic. The new product of that debased system, the functional illiterate, is numbered in millions, while various forms of deceit have become accepted as inevitable—”social promotion” or passing incompetents to the next grade to save face; “graduating” from high school” with eighth-grade reading ability; “equivalence of credits” or photography as good as physics; “certificates of achievement” for those who fail the “minimum competency” test; and most lately, “bilingual education,” by which the rudiments are supposedly taught in over ninety languages other than English. The old plan and purpose of teaching the young what they truly need to know survives only in the private sector, itself hard-pressed and shrinking in size.

Meantime, colleges and universities have undergone a comparable devastation. {….]

Begin Here: The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning

(Approx. 215 pages.) Fifteen more excellent essays on teaching from Barzun. See the table of contents below or at archive.org. Or, read the entire book for free. (Via a simple account at archive.org.)

About Jacques Barzun

Barzun was a highly respected professor of history at Columbia University who wrote over 40 eminent and readable books on a variety of subjects including teaching and schooling (Teacher in America and Begin Here), intellectual history, French poetry (An Essay on French Verse), and more. Born in France in 1907, he died in 2012 at the age of 104.

(There is more biography of Jacques Barzun at this centennial page, at Wikipedia, and at lectures about and interviews with Barzun on YouTube, just one of which is: Forgotten Thinkers: Jacques Barzun, by Wes Cecil.)

All three books available instantly and for free

Archive.org makes these books available for free right now, to peruse or to read in their entirety.

By setting up a simple account with just an email address, you can use your web browser to check out these books or any of archive.org’s millions of other books and media.

Direct link to sign-up: https://archive.org/account/signup

Barzun was a highly respected professor of history at Columbia University who wrote eminent and readable books (over 40 books) on a variety of subjects including teaching and schooling (Teacher in America and Begin Here), intellectual history, French poetry (An Essay on French Verse), and more. Born in France in 1907, he died in 2012 at the age of 104.

(There is more biography of Jacques Barzun at this centennial page, at Wikipedia, and at lectures about and interviews with Barzun on YouTube, just one of which is: Forgotten Thinkers: Jacques Barzun, by Wes Cecil.)

The official publisher’s blurb:

In Simple & Direct, Jacques Barzun, celebrated author and educator, distills from a lifetime of writing and teaching his thoughts about the craft of writing. In chapters on diction, syntax, tone, meaning, composition, and revision, Barzun describes and prescribes the techniques to correct even the most ponderous style. Exercises, model passages — both literary and unorthodox — and hundreds of often amusing examples of usage gone wrong demonstrate the process of making intelligent choices and guide us toward developing strong and distinctive prose.

Table of Contents

I DICTION, or Which Words to Use

II LINKING, or What to Put Next

III TONE AND TUNE, or What Impression Will It Make?

IV MEANING, or What Do I Want to Say?

V COMPOSITION, or How Does It Hang Together?

VI REVISION, or What Have I Actually Said?

VII TO USE OR NOT TO USE

VIII TAKE A LITTLE THOUGHT

It includes exercises, an appendix of hints toward improving sample sentences from the book, and an index of words, topics, and authors.

Why not just rely on more modern books on the subject?

1. Barzun is a great writer and teacher who always keeps in mind his intended audience: the average person wanting to learn to write well. He doesn’t use academic jargon, and he provides sufficient and interesting examples and exercises to illustrate and fix his points.

2. He was a champion of intelligence, clarity, and precision in thought and communication from before the disintegrating effects of modern education, the internet, and viral influencers could take their hold. Moreover, however “dated” the book may be (it was first published in 1985, and its latest version may be from 2001) the basic principles of language and communication haven’t changed. Barzun states in his Preface to the Revised Edition:

The reception of this little guide by the public has been so warm and widespread (some readers report reading it mainly for pleasure) that the publisher has summoned me to “bring it up to date.” The chief points, the good advice, are of course permanent; if sound yesterday, they will be tomorrow. But in writing at any time, new confusions and absurdities are cropping up, and it is these — or some of the worst of them — that I have added two chapters about, numbers VII and VIII. These new pages will serve as a guide through contemporary usage and at the same time supply an informal review of the main principles.

Amazon reviews from readers of Simple & Direct:

Bob

The only book on writing you need.

When it comes to effective instruction on good writing, there is this book, and all the others. The others may be thrown away. Strunk and White? You must be kidding. Don't waste your time. Buy this book. Study it. Do as it says. You will write 100% better than you do now, and better than many profs.

Stephen D.

Carry this with you!

Read this carefully along with something to put your notes into. This book is a slow burning branding iron. It leaves a lasting impression.

GoodReads.com reviews:

Interestingly, almost all the comments at GoodReads.com are quite bad. Almost no one from that page recommends this book. One lonely dissenting voice, however, said the following:

Dani Takhles

This book is for adults. Or more accurately, it's not for the capricious. It will not hold your hand, but only instruct; it does not aim to entertain but may do so anyway by virtue of its good sense and clarity of thought. It promotes the idea that one cannot be taught to write well—that is up to each man to learn on his own. It believes that good writing is the product of good thinking, not tricks and hacks. This book encourages each aspiring writer to help himself. For instance, the exercises encountered along the way are not supplied with "solutions," only hints. This will surely annoy the helpless, but the non-jittery reader will appreciate the chance to think for himself.

Those that perceive condescension in the author may not be accustomed to the discomfort of honest instruction. Those dismayed by "outdated" guidelines or expressions, have probably become too accustomed to shallow treatments of difficult subjects.

This is the perfect first book on rhetoric, and if its spirit and ideas are internalized, may prove to be the only such book one ever needs.

I agree.

To use a modern likening, this poem runs down the page like a seismograph recording, instead of an earthquake, the gradual arrival and eventual passing of this terrifying tumult of raucous spirits.

At the beginning, when the town is silent and calm, Hugo’s first line contains only two syllables. With later lines acquiring three, then four, then ever more syllables as the throng of spirits gets closer and louder.

By the time the terrifying turbulence is overhead, the midpoint of the poem has grown to its greatest physical width containing lines of ten syllables’ length.

As the spirits continue on, drifting past and slowly off into the distance, the poem itself diminishes in accord, slowly losing syllables as we read until, at the very end, we are left with two-syllables again and the same peace and calm with which we began.

Part of the wonder of Les Djinns, to me, is that Hugo manages to accomplish this special limitation of form without having to resort to forced meanings or poor rhyme. Hugo can make even single words and short phrases rhyme beautifully while still conveying profound meanings.

Below is the poem in its original French underneath of which is a translation by John L. O’Sullivan that I found at Gutenberg.org.

Les Djinns

Murs, ville
Et port,
Asile
De mort,
Mer grise
Où brise
La brise,
Tout dort.

Dans la plaine
Naît un bruit.
C'est l'haleine
De la nuit.
Elle brame
Comme une âme
Qu'une flamme
Toujours suit !

La voix plus haute
Semble un grelot.
D'un nain qui saute
C'est le galop.
Il fuit, s'élance,
Puis en cadence
Sur un pied danse
Au bout d'un flot.

La rumeur approche.
L'écho la redit.
C'est comme la cloche
D'un couvent maudit ;
Comme un bruit de foule,
Qui tonne et qui roule,
Et tantôt s'écroule,
Et tantôt grandit,

Dieu ! la voix sépulcrale
Des Djinns !... Quel bruit ils font !
Fuyons sous la spirale
De l'escalier profond.
Déjà, s'éteint ma lampe,
Et l'ombre de la rampe,
Qui le long du mur rampe,
Monte jusqu'au plafond.

C'est l'essaim des Djinns qui passe,
Et tourbillonne en sifflant !
Les ifs, que leur vol fracasse,
Craquent comme un pin brûlant.
Leur troupeau, lourd et rapide,
Volant dans l'espace vide,
Semble un nuage livide
Qui porte un éclair au flanc.

Ils sont tout près ! — Tenons fermée
Cette salle, où nous les narguons.
Quel bruit dehors ! Hideuse armée
De vampires et de dragons !
La poutre du toit descellée
Ploie ainsi qu'une herbe mouillée,
Et la vieille porte rouillée
Tremble, à déraciner ses gonds !

Cris de l'enfer! voix qui hurle et qui pleure !
L'horrible essaim, poussé par l'aquilon,
Sans doute, ô ciel ! s'abat sur ma demeure.
Le mur fléchit sous le noir bataillon.
La maison crie et chancelle, penchée,
Et l'on dirait que, du sol arrachée,
Ainsi qu'il chasse une feuille séchée,
Le vent la roule avec leur tourbillon.

Prophète ! si ta main me sauve
De ces impurs démons des soirs,
J'irai prosterner mon front chauve
Devant tes sacrés encensoirs !
Fais que sur ces portes fidèles
Meure leur souffle d'étincelles,
Et qu'en vain l'ongle de leurs ailes
Grince et crie à ces vitraux noirs !

Ils sont passés ! — Leur cohorte
S'envole, et fuit, et leurs pieds
Cessent de battre ma porte
De leurs coups multipliés.
L'air est plein d'un bruit de chaînes,
Et dans les forêts prochaines
Frissonnent tous les grands chênes,
Sous leur vol de feu pliés !

De leurs ailes lointaines
Le battement décroît,
Si confus dans les plaines,
Si faible, que l'on croit
Ouïr la sauterelle
Crier d'une voix grêle,
Ou pétiller la grêle
Sur le plomb d'un vieux toit.

D'étranges syllabes
Nous viennent encor ;
Ainsi, des Arabes
Quand sonne le cor,
Un chant sur la grève
Par instants s'élève
Et l'enfant qui rêve
Fait des rêves d'or.

Les Djinns funèbres,
Fils du trépas,
Dans les ténèbres
Pressent leurs pas ;
Leur essaim gronde ;
Ainsi, profonde,
Murmure une onde
Qu'on ne voit pas.

Ce bruit vague
Qui s'endort,
C'est la vague
Sur le bord ;
C'est la plainte,
Presque éteinte,
D'une sainte
Pour un mort.

On doute
La nuit...
J'écoute : —
Tout fuit,
Tout passe ;
L'espace
Efface
Le bruit.

Le 12 août 1828.
Victor Hugo. 

Following is an English translation by John L. O’Sullivan, from a book at Gutenberg.org called Poems, by Victor Hugo. Note that this translation isn’t a literal one; the translator could have chosen to render either the literal meanings of Hugo’s lines or the approximate impression and feel of the poem overall. I think he does a great job at that second task.

If one wants to know the literal interpretation of Hugo’s lines, there are at least a few different translations of the poem out there that may offer this. (I haven’t looked.) In any case, I would especially recommend a translation done by the great Jacques Barzun in his book, An Essay on French Verse, my copy of which isn’t accessible to me at the moment.

The Djinns

     ("Murs, ville et port.")

     {XXVIII., Aug. 28, 1828.}

           Town, tower,
             Shore, deep,
           Where lower
             Cliff's steep;
           Waves gray,
           Where play
           Winds gay,
             All sleep.

         Hark! a sound,
           Far and slight,
         Breathes around
           On the night
         High and higher,
         Nigh and nigher,
         Like a fire,
           Roaring, bright.

         Now, on 'tis sweeping
           With rattling beat,
         Like dwarf imp leaping
           In gallop fleet
         He flies, he prances,
         In frolic fancies,
         On wave-crest dances
           With pattering feet.

         Hark, the rising swell,
           With each new burst!
         Like the tolling bell
           Of a convent curst;
         Like the billowy roar
         On a storm-lashed shore,—
         Now hushed, but once more
           Maddening to its worst.

         O God! the deadly sound
           Of the Djinn's fearful cry!
         Quick, 'neath the spiral round
           Of the deep staircase fly!
         See, see our lamplight fade!
         And of the balustrade
         Mounts, mounts the circling shade
           Up to the ceiling high!

       'Tis the Djinns' wild streaming swarm
         Whistling in their tempest flight;
       Snap the tall yews 'neath the storm,
         Like a pine flame crackling bright.
       Swift though heavy, lo! their crowd
       Through the heavens rushing loud
       Like a livid thunder-cloud
         With its bolt of fiery might!

     Ho! they are on us, close without!
       Shut tight the shelter where we lie!
     With hideous din the monster rout,
       Dragon and vampire, fill the sky!
     The loosened rafter overhead
     Trembles and bends like quivering reed;
     Shakes the old door with shuddering dread,
       As from its rusty hinge 'twould fly!
     Wild cries of hell! voices that howl and shriek!
       The horrid troop before the tempest tossed—
     O Heaven!—descends my lowly roof to seek:

       Bends the strong wall beneath the furious host.
     Totters the house as though, like dry leaf shorn
     From autumn bough and on the mad blast borne,
     Up from its deep foundations it were torn
       To join the stormy whirl. Ah! all is lost!

         O Prophet! if thy hand but now
           Save from these hellish things,
         A pilgrim at thy shrine I'll bow,
           Laden with pious offerings.
         Bid their hot breath its fiery rain
         Stream on the faithful's door in vain;
         Vainly upon my blackened pane
           Grate the fierce claws of their dark wings!

       They have passed!—and their wild legion
         Cease to thunder at my door;
       Fleeting through night's rayless region,
         Hither they return no more.
       Clanking chains and sounds of woe
       Fill the forests as they go;
       And the tall oaks cower low,
         Bent their flaming light before.

       On! on! the storm of wings
         Bears far the fiery fear,
       Till scarce the breeze now brings
         Dim murmurings to the ear;
       Like locusts' humming hail,
       Or thrash of tiny flail
       Plied by the fitful gale
         On some old roof-tree sere.

           Fainter now are borne
             Feeble mutterings still;
           As when Arab horn
             Swells its magic peal,
           Shoreward o'er the deep
           Fairy voices sweep,
           And the infant's sleep
             Golden visions fill.

           Each deadly Djinn,
             Dark child of fright,
           Of death and sin,
             Speeds in wild flight.
           Hark, the dull moan,
           Like the deep tone
           Of Ocean's groan,
             Afar, by night!

           More and more
             Fades it slow,
           As on shore
             Ripples flow,—
           As the plaint
           Far and faint
           Of a saint
             Murmured low.

           Hark! hist!
             Around,
           I list!
             The bounds
               Of space
               All trace
               Efface
             Of sound.

Victor Hugo has produced so many brilliant, beautiful, and meaningful works of fiction and poetry that I think it would be worth learning the language just for the purpose of reading them. (Without doubting that the same is true of other great authors in their respective languages as well.)

I’m not very good at writing reviews, so I’ll just provide some info below and say that I got a lot out of this novel and recommend it highly. It’s not only the characters and the story that interest and inspire; it’s also the very numerous passages that let the reader in on how the world is really run behind the scenes. Utterly and profoundly eye-opening.

The book isn’t hard to find copies of, but you can also read the whole novel for free at Archive.org.

A Very Curious and Intriguing Foreward

Here is the author’s foreward from the novel, word for word from the hardback. I think it has profound relevance for today’s world. I’ve added boldface to draw attention to certain items.

FOREWARD

Dedicated to the young people of America, who are rebelling because they know something is very wrong in their country, but do not know just what it is. I hope this book will help to enlighten them.

There is not, to my knowledge, any family like the “Armagh Family” in America, nor has there ever been, and all characters, except those obviously historical, are my own invention. However, the historical background and the political background of this novel are authentic. The “Committee for Foreign Studies” does indeed exist, today as of yesterday, and so does the “Scardo Society,” but not by these names.

There is indeed a “plot against the people, and probably always will be, for government has always been hostile towards the governed. It is not a new story, and the conspirators and conspiracies became one, with one aim, one objective, and one determination. This has nothing to do with any "ideology" or form of government, or ideals or "Materialism" or any other catch-phrases generously fed to the unthinking masses. It has absolutely nothing to do with races or religions, for the conspirators are beyond what they call "such trivialities." They are also beyond good and evil. The Caesars they put into power are their creatures, whether they know it or not, and the peoples of all nations are helpless, whether they live in American, Europe, Russia, China, Africa, or South America. They will always be helpless until they are aware of their real enemy.

President John F. Kennedy knew what he was talking about when he spoke of "the Gnomes of Zurich." Perhaps he knew too much! Coups d'état are an old story, but they are now growing too numerous. This is probably the last hour for mankind as a rational species, before it becomes the slave of a "planned society." A bibliography ends this book, and I hope many of my readers will avail themselves of the facts. That is all the hope I have.

From the Book Jacket

This is a great surging novel about the amassing of a colossal fortune, the political power that comes with it, and the operation of a curse laid on an Irish-American dynasty and the ruthless, driving man who founded it.

Joseph Francis Xavier Armagh was twelve years old when he first saw America through a dirty porthole on the steerage deck of The Irish Queen. It was the early 1850s and he was a penniless immigrant, an orphan cast on a hostile Shore to make a home for himself and his younger brother and infant sister.

Some seventy years later, from his deathbed, Joseph Armagh last glimpsed his adopted land from the gleaming windows of a palatial estate. A multi-millionaire, one of the most powerful and feared of men, Joseph Armagh had indeed found a home. Captains and the Kings is the story of the price that was paid for it in the consuming, single-minded determination of a man clawing his way to the top; in the bittersweet bliss of the love of a beautiful woman; in the almost-too-late enjoyment of extraordinary children; and in a curse which uses the hand of fate itself to strike in the very face of success itself.

About the author (from the book jacket):

In 1937, Taylor Caldwell wrote Dynasty of Death, a novel about the building of a great munitions empire. It eestablished her as a major literary figure (Miss Caldwell has fixed her name to a significant and stirring work of literature, said The New York Herald Tribune). Since that time she has produced a succession of works of fiction that have received enthusiastic praise for their depth of research and remarkable emotional qulity. Among them are Dear and Glorious Physician, Testimony of Two Men, Great Lion of God. Now, thirty-four years after her firrst great success, she has written another huge novel in which the political and economic climate of America’s past is shown in a fresh, new light.

Comments by other readers of this book:

There are some excellent comments of this novel at Goodreads, which is a great place to look first.

Philip does a great job. Here’s an excerpt of his review:

CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS is about power - actually, even more than that, it's about the power behind power, the people behind the scenes - bankers, investors, manufacturers - who control politicians and the destinies of nations.

I was besotted with CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS as a teenager, and read it four times between 1972 and 1975. I re-read it two years ago, well over 30 years after my last reading, and enjoyed it all over again.

If you've never read Taylor Caldwell, CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS is well worth seeking out, along with DYNASTY OF DEATH, TESTIMONY OF TWO MEN, and DEAR AND GLORIOUS PHYSICIAN. With historical fiction once again highly popular, it's time Caldwell was rediscovered.

You can read this whole novel for free at Archive.org:

You can “check out” and read this book for free at archive.org. It just takes an email to get a free account. They seem to have some dozen copies there.

Miniseries

Captains and the Kings was made into a television miniseries in approximately the ‘80s. As I recall, it wasn’t badly done and the lead actor was excellent; but you can’t fit a novel of this size into seven hours. And especially if you want to get the conspiratorial details that the author includes in the novel, you’ll definitely want to read the book.

This Perfect Day tells the story of a young man growing up in a future new paradise of a world, a world where everything is run and all decisions are made by a single computer called Uni. Because everyone knows that Uni knows best, independent thinking is thought of as outmoded and even dangerous (to oneself and others), and is definitely socially frowned upon. But what if you’re one of those few who just can’t help themselves? What if there’s a nagging voice in the back of your head that prods you to question this, that, or the other? And what if your own grandfather let you in on some things about the pre-Uni days, trying to encourage you to think on your own? Are there things to be discovered that no one else even suspects?

Unlike Levin’s other four novels, This Perfect Day was never made into a movie and has been heard of by almost no one. Other dystopias have been assigned as high school reading for decades. This Perfect Day has remained in the shadows, un-ballyhooed and unnoticed. Did Levin do an uncharacteristically bad job on this particular novel, or did he go a little too far in revealing something or other? Maybe it contains a unique, intelligent, and possibly real-world twist that reveals too much for today's tyrant class to permit to be seen. If you find a copy of this book, keep en eye out for developments that may resemble things happening now.

This story would have been an exceptionally enjoyable movie (or even better, a short TV series) — even better, I think, than those of his other four novels if done with the brilliance and competence it deserves.

What do other people think?

If you peruse your fellow man's reviews of this book (at its Amazon page, for example), you'll find a whole lot of the following:

"Love this book!" ...

"Well ahead of its time — a masterpiece." ...

"Still futuristic and yet strangely of our time..." ...

"I remember when I heard they were making the movie of it, and I literally cheered. The next thing I heard was that some mysterious powers that be insisted it be shelved and never released." ...

"This is the third time I've read this book and truly love its message. Frankly, I'm surprised no one has made it into a movie. The future described in the book is a scary one .... My advice? If you like books such as "1984" and "Fahrenheit 451", you will definitely like this book. And if you're a screenwriter, dammit, write one and make a movie out of this!" …

Etcetera.

Links: Short review | Amazon page

I haven’t read this old book, but have downloaded a copy for future reference because it seems pertinent to understanding the world. There are surely more modern books that treat of the same general subject, but it’s always good to keep and look into older books; they often contain truths that can have been censored (or self-censored) in more modern times.

From Wikipedia:

The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (French: Psychologie des Foules; literally: Psychology of Crowds) is a book authored by Gustave Le Bon that was first published in 1895. In the book, Le Bon claims that there are several characteristics of crowd psychology: "impulsiveness, irritability, incapacity to reason, the absence of judgement of the critical spirit, the exaggeration of sentiments, and others..." Le Bon claimed that "an individual immersed for some length of time in a crowd soon finds himself — either in consequence of magnetic influence given out by the crowd or from some other cause of which we are ignorant — in a special state, which much resembles the state of fascination in which the hypnotized individual finds himself in the hands of the hypnotizer." …. 

One short extract from the text itself:

The most striking peculiarity presented by a psychological crowd is the following: Whoever be the individuals that compose it, however like or unlike be their mode of life, their occupations, their character, or their intelligence, the fact that they have been transformed into a crowd puts them in possession of a sort of collective mind which makes them feel, think, and act in a manner quite different from that in which each individual of them would feel, think, and act were he in a state of isolation. There are certain ideas and feelings which do not come into being, or do not transform themselves into acts except in the case of individuals forming a crowd. The psychological crowd is a provisional being formed of heterogeneous elements, which for a moment are combined, exactly as the cells which constitute a living body form by their reunion a new being which displays characteristics very different from those possessed by each of the cells singly.

Links:

Wikipedia Link

FULL BOOK AT GUTENBERG PRESS

FULL BOOK AT ARCHIVE.ORG

COMPLETE AUDIOBOOK AT YOUTUBE at Expanding Horizons