This short novel is a 19th-century classic of supernatural literature with a significant influence on francophone occultism. It is well worth a read, although the opening passages--consisting of a long-drawn meditation on Norwegian geography--are slow and off-putting. The third chapter includes a fairly detailed introduction to Swedenborg's life and work that could be interesting to those unfamiliar with the topic, and can be skimmed without loss by those who know it. The book ends with a spectacular mystical vision that is unusual in its shared nature and the nature of its sharedness. (Let's say it leaves Augustine and Monica in the dust!)

"God welcomes boldness. He loves to be taken by violence; He will never reject those who force their way to Him. Know this! desire, the torrent of your will, is so all-powerful that a single emission of it, made with force, can obtain all; a single cry, uttered under the pressure of Faith, suffices. Be one of such beings, full of force, of will, of love! Be conquerors on the earth!"