Alexandra David-Néel

"Marion Dapsance's new biography of the French exploratrice extraordinaire Alexandra David-Néel (1868-1969) delves into David-Néel's writings to rediscover her real message and reinterpret the myth that grew up around her. Though little known in the U.S., she is celebrated in her native land as a major spiritual figure of the 20th century, a fearless adventurer, the bringer of Buddhism to the West, an erudite chronicler and author of over 40 books. Far from adopting Buddhism, she is revealed in this work as a staunch materialist, hostile to all forms of religion. We follow her journey from Catholic convert to Protestantism, to her obsession with late 19th century esotericism, and finally to nihilism and anarchism, before she invented her own belief system after decades in the Far East, which she called Buddhist Modernism. This story shows how her free-thinking independence is the true source of the myth of the intrepid journalist-orientalist, the "lamp of wisdom," the "woman with soles of wind.""--