This intelligently balanced octave of essays holds interest less as a Work primer than as a sampling of the vast spectrum of Work writings. Some pieces are new, some date back to Gurdjieff's day. Some are by Gurdjieff's first-rank disciples like A. R. Orage: some by second-generation pupils.  J. Walter Driscoll's scholarly bibliography is stylistically offset by Pierre Schaeffer's brilliant if contentious evocation of Gurdjieff at 6 Rue des Colonels Renard. Each reader will resonate to particular pieces and question others; conceivably there is even a typology of 'Gurdjieffians' to be discerned here?