Wow. Well, let me start with the one positive. This book is beautifully written. That's the only compliment I can give. It is otherwise a meandering burble of loosely-related anecdotes of interesting figures from the 19th century with no central thesis. What is the argument of this book?! The author seems to think writing with a thesaurus next to him makes up for a lack of content. Even the epilogue is just listing off, in brief paragraphs, bite-sized information on the figures touched on in these pages. This has all the worst aspects of historical fiction with none of the redeeming qualities of an actual work of history. Stay away if you want to know about the religious/spiritual movement of the 19th century. Im disappointed I spent the time to read through to the finish.