Dubbed the wickedest man in the world and the Great Beast, Aleister Crowley has a terrifying reputation. Stories abound of drugs, orgies and magical ceremonies involving the sacrifice of babies. Many who associated with him died tragically, including his wife and child. This biography offers an agnostic view, concentrating not on Crowley the impenetrable mystic and bizarre character, but on Crowley the comprehensible man. The book presents the Great Beast as an accessible character: a flawed and egotistical individual who nonetheless left an ineradicable mark on the 19th century.