A new and attentively restored edition of the famous Rosicrucian classic, sharing the woeful tale of young Viola, who possessed a beauty so rare to catch even the eye of the mysterious Zanoni; however, instead of merely finding a suitor, she finds herself the mistress of fate, caught between one of the last surviving members of an ancient Chaldean brotherhood, and his young, unscrupulous novitiate. As the vicious jaws of the Reign of Terror close in upon her, she-the unfaithful one-is saved at the last by the ultimate sacrifice. Said by many to be an allegory of secret spiritual and occult wisdom, in the author's own words it is ..".a truth for those who can comprehend it, and an extravagance for those who cannot."