I have mixed feelings about this book. In one respect it's an important read for any serious student of Gurdjieff as an eyewitness first hand account. But it's boring and confusing to actually slog through. The writer/s reproduce G's accented pidgin English. Indeed one gets the feeling the whole group started talking this way. It's an interesting approach that brings the reader closer to the experience of living and studying with G. But it's tiresome to read. I get no sense of who is talking and often feel lost in the lingo. Long meandering descriptions of the food they ate ... yet precious few details of their spiritual work or personal struggles. Perhaps they were forbidden to write about the spiritual work? I'm about 75% through the book. I keep falling asleep b/c it gets boring. The Bennetts' diaries give a more thorough account that touches upon the actual spiritual struggles they faced. Women of the Rope seems like it was written by food critics rather than spiritual seekers. Energetically, the book connects me with the 4th Way current ... so there is magic here. But it's missing something. I can't connect with the writers and wonder why they were there?

Must have if you into Gurdjieff! Good that this book doesn't include Patterson's narrative as in "Ladies of the rope"

Great

Compelling transcripts of years of meetings. A unique book.

This is the most entertaining of all the 4th way/Gurdjieffs books I've read so far. Gurdjieff was a flame thrower with his students, especially in the beginning of their education. That said, he got results and it was all supposed to happen in 6 months. What I find most hilarious is that Gurdjieff people have a reputation for being 'Spock-like,' people who do not emote. Gurdjieff was outrageous yet disciplined. There are so many hilarious and astonishing episodes. These women felt exhausted, stressed and emotionally stripped to the bone a lot of the time, but they learned and they changed for the better. It reads like a play, but actually it is taken straight from the women's notes during the months that they lived together with Gurdjieff in a French villa. Most of them were lesbians, a fact that does not make any difference in the book. Every day he assigned each one their personal thought exercises. He also dictated their health regime and aspects of their diet. One night he insisted they all had to enemas. It's not very abstract, it is mostly day to day gritty reality. He finds a thousand ways to make them see how stuck in their ruts they are and keep them desperately clawing their way toward liberation.

These notes taken from life – and death – have been an excellent reminder that high ideas are worth little if not stirred into the pot of daily events – our ordinary life. The words used by both teacher and pupil(s) are plainly printed on each page of human need-aspiring. That this giving-of-necessary-data even to such excellent examples of contemporary humanity could take place is not miraculous – it is utterly arresting. Of course this isn’t a good book in any conventional sense – it probably will not speak to “good” readers either. Frequent examples of “destroying mercilessly” and “providing new material” are to be found, as well as numerous apparently apt (and much enjoyed by their originator) “formulations” of Mr. Gurdjieff. It is a little surprising to note that while almost everyone mentioned in the book is “colored” in a quite specific manner, no one is ultimately painted with any undue sentimentality.

Recommended reading for all interested in George Gurdjieff and The Fourth Way Teachings.

A fascinating selection of entries giving snippets of who Gurdjieff was

just great

Even though there are new documents now recently discovered because of the 50 year release of political dossiers from America and the Soviet Union Germany and France, these were real meetings where you hear Mister Gurdjeff work with individual people in a way that you wouldn't believe if you just thought of him as a scoundrel or charlatan. He wasn't – he was a master and even though at times he professed that spiritual growth required sexual normalcy he ended up teaching this group of lesbians as a group telling them that they were tethered together like mountain climbers, and by God he worked hard with them. It's evident in this book which is probably drawn from the public record but is very well bound and a book that will last on your shelves. I'm not a fan of Patterson but there are 2 books that he's written that I cannot live without and this is one of them

This book takes you back to paris in the 1920's and 30's while giving a glimpse of how direct work with gurdjieff changed the lifes of his pupils

I really enjoyed this book. It gives a clear window into day to day interactions between Gurdjieff and 'pupils'. Something that shines through is the humanity and humour and obvious egalitarian nature of his relationships with these women. It puzzles me why so many Gurdjieff groups are the opposite of humane and light hearted. Jeez......what happened? If they are all trying to emulate Gurdjieff they are way way off according to these notes. Anyways....whatever. If you are into Gurdjieff then I highly recommend this book. It's a great read and a look into how it really was after he gave up all the headbanging at the Prieure. Only criticism is there are lots of references to exercises but hardly any full descriptions. But I suspect this is more to do with the ladies' papers than the book. Gurdjieff people are soooo secretive. Love to all.

... for publishing this book. I have on my bookshelf Patterson's "Ladies of the Rope", and I am very glad I got the chance to read this one first: from the diaries of the women who actually interacted and Worked with Gurdjieff. I feel that I will have a more objective understanding of who these women were, how they thought, and their relationship with G from their accounts. Of the three books Gurdjieff wrote my favorite from him - and one of my all times favorite - is "Meetings with Remarkable Men". It was the book that helped me See Gurdjieff as the man he was, through the people who influenced him in his life. And through his seeing them, I saw him. That's the only way I can express it in the moment. Later, reading Ouspensky's "In Search of the Miraculous", though I got a better understanding of his teaching, I didn't "find" the man I met in his own writings. Neither did I in Patterson's "Struggle of the Magicians", although I am not denying that both books were important in getting the "bigger picture". It was when I started reading the notes of these two women who were part of a small group among other intelligent women whom Gurdjieff taught in Paris in the years before WWII, that I Saw him again. And though for them he was their Master, through their descriptions of Work subjects for the development of an individual I, the cooking, cleaning and the magnificent dinners, the coffee dates and drives through France, the Easters and Christmases they spend with him, but above all, the intimate relationship each had with him, the spirit and humanity of Gurdjieff shines through.

A must for everyone interested in Gurdjieff as a teacher and his methods. I waited a long time for this material. A selection of it was already published by W. P. Patterson in his "Ladies of the Rope", but here you get the whole cake, complete without addition or omission. I found a lot of surprising and valuable hints in it, here is one of them - Karpenko, Dr. Ekim Bey and Skridloff represent the astral body of man. But this is not all, to read the intensive talks between these intelligent women and Gurdjieff is an vivifying experience in itself.