Before You Begin

Before you begin.

In a crowded service at Prague’s Teyn Church, the Wanderer glimpses a woman he has searched for across years and cities. That recognition draws him through churches, old lanes, private rooms, a cemetery and a convent, where questions of memory, devotion and influence gather around Unorna and the people in her orbit.

Published in 1891, F. Marion Crawford’s novel belongs to a period when hypnotism and the hidden powers of the mind held wide popular fascination. Its Gothic atmosphere shares space with intimate conversation and long reflections on love, belief and the limits of reason.

The novel’s Jewish characters are sometimes described through the caricatures common in nineteenth-century writing. Crawford’s words remain part of the work’s historical record; they should not be read as descriptions of Jewish people today.

The illustrated edition follows the novel’s sequence: character portraits introduce the cast, World plates locate its Prague settings, and scenes, Recaps and Story Medallions accompany the chapters as the story unfolds.