The essays here translated by Jess Karlin represent the origins of occult tarot. Although Tarot dates back to mid-fifteenth century Italy, Antoine Court de Gebelin and M. le Comte de Mellet were the first to perceive in the deck a philosophic lineage stretching back to the ancient Egyptians. Later, better-known occult writers such as A.E. Waite and Aleister Crowley would adopt their ideas in surprisingly exact detail. Karlin has for the first time presented a full English translation of these early essays, with comprehensive notes that situate the works within both a critical and a historical context.

It is hard to overestimate the importance of this book. Anyone wishing to understand "what the Tarot cards mean" would be well advised to begin at the beginning; and here, for the first time, is the beginning. Ideas that Court de Gebelin and Comte de Mellet pioneered -- such as the notion that tarot symbolism was Egyptian in origin, or that the 22 trump cards should be related to the 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet -- altered the development of tarot forever.

The writing in _Rhapsodies_ is dryly engaging, and often very funny, and the translations are straightforward and readable.