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Annie Besant: An Autobiography
by
Annie Besant
This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally importan
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Paperback
,
248 pages
Published
October 11th 2007
by BiblioLife
(first published 1893)
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The autobiography offers little to no insight into Besant's leap from activism and the firm belief in societal progress by reforms that redistributed power (from industrialist to worker, from clergy to the sceptic, from double standards to acceptance of e.g. Birth control etc) to her latter surrender to the esoteric mumbo jumbo theosophical teachings of HP Blavatsky;
I think I detect a weariness of the cynicism that her political life must have caused Besant, and the times being what they were, ...more
I think I detect a weariness of the cynicism that her political life must have caused Besant, and the times being what they were, ...more
Annie Besant, a female disciple who puts Theosophical theory to work, a way to practice, after receiving teachings from "Master" H.P. Blavatsky, wrote about her life, and her life-changing events; from a girl overly protected by her mother, struggling through hardened life after loss of her child and divorce, somewhat ironically, from a clergy spouse, to the first-hand experience of the poor through atheist devotion to socialistic cause and continuous struggle in court trials, defending freedom
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I loved this book!
Annie Besant lived a passionate life: passionate about truth, justice, compassion, and loyalty. Her descriptions of a sheltered girlhood, traumatic transition to married life, spiritual passages from devotion to atheism and then to Theosophy, commitment to education, service, and idealism, and lively involvement with the spiritual and political issues of her day make for exciting, inspiring reading.
Personally, I have never before read an account of the journey of devotion thro ...more
Annie Besant lived a passionate life: passionate about truth, justice, compassion, and loyalty. Her descriptions of a sheltered girlhood, traumatic transition to married life, spiritual passages from devotion to atheism and then to Theosophy, commitment to education, service, and idealism, and lively involvement with the spiritual and political issues of her day make for exciting, inspiring reading.
Personally, I have never before read an account of the journey of devotion thro ...more
I enjoyed this but I was amazed by her switch around to Theosophy from Atheism.
Annie Besant is a pretty badass heretic. She's eccentric and apparently not entirely truthful about her life story, but it is inspiring to read about a woman from a deeply repressed period in England who was disowned, stigmatized, and still able to become an ardent voice for justice on behalf of the poor and unorthodox varieties of faith.
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Annie Besant (1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was a prominent British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self-rule.
She married aged 20 to Frank Besant, but separated from him over religious differences. She then became a prominent speaker for the National Secular Society (NSS) and writer and a close friend of Charles Bradlaugh. ...more
More about Annie Besant...
She married aged 20 to Frank Besant, but separated from him over religious differences. She then became a prominent speaker for the National Secular Society (NSS) and writer and a close friend of Charles Bradlaugh. ...more
“The position of the Atheist is a clear and reasonable one. I know nothing about ‘God’ and therefore I do not believe in Him or in it; what you tell me about your God is self‐contradictory, and therefore incredible. I do not deny ‘God,’ which is an unknown tongue to me; I do deny your God, who is an impossibility. I am without God.”
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“The moment a man uses a woman's sex to discredit her arguments, the thoughtful reader knows that he is unable to answer the arguments themselves.”
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