The Strange Life of P. D. Ouspensky

Ouspensky’s work on accessing a higher level of conciousness beyond everyday reality is a valuable legacy well worthy of consideration today.

One of the most original thinkers of the twentieth century, Pyotr Demianovich Ouspensky was a complex and romantic soul. A promising young intellectual in Tsarist Russia, he won recognition as a novelist and philosopher, yet descended into self-chosen obscurity as a teacher of "the Work", the system of his great contemporary Gurdjieff. Today it is as Gurdjieff’s chief disciple that he is remembered, yet Colin Wilson argues convincingly that he is to be considered a major writer and man of genius in his own right.

A nostalgic melancholy Russian, one of Ouspensky’s deepest instincts was that man can find his own salvation, yet towards the end of his turbulent life he lost faith in the System and drank himself to death. With sympathy and admiration, Colin Wilson throws new light on this gentle man and deep thinker.