[5][6][7] In November 1881, Helena Blavatsky, editor in chief of The Theosophist, started publishing her translation into English of "The Grand Inquisitor" from Book V, chapter five of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov.

"[10][note 3] According to Brendan French, a researcher in esotericism, "it is highly significant" that [exactly 8 years after her publication of "The Grand Inquisitor"] Blavatsky declared Dostoevsky to be "a theosophical writer.

If asked what is it then that will help, we answer boldly:—Theosophical literature; hastening to add that under this term, neither books concerning adepts and phenomena, nor the Theosophical Society publications are meant... What the European world now needs is a dozen writers such as Dostoyevsky, the Russian author...

She concluded: "No foreign translator, however able, unless born and bred in Russia and acquainted with Russian peasant life, will be able to do them justice, or even to convey to the reader their full meaning, owing to their absolutely national idiomatic language.

In November 1904, Rudolf Steiner gave a lecture in Berlin entitled "Theosophy and Tolstoy",[26] where he discussed the novels War and Peace, Anna Karenina, the novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and the philosophical book On Life (1886–87).

[45] Literary scholar Richard Ellmann wrote of him: "Yeats found in occultism, and in mysticism generally, a point of view which had the virtue of warring with accepted belief...

[48][49] In his article on Blavatsky, Prof. Russell Goldfarb[note 8] mentions a lecture by American psychologist and philosopher William James in which he said that "mystical truth spoke best as musical composition rather than as conceptual speech.

[52][53][51][note 9] In Buddhist writer Dennis Lingwood's opinion, the author of The Voice of the Silence (abbreviated VS) "seeks more to inspire than to instruct, appeals to the heart rather than to the head.

"[55] A researcher of NRM Arnold Kalnitsky wrote that, in spite of inevitable questions on the origins and authorship of VS,[note 10] the "authenticity of the tone of the teachings and the expression of the sentiments" have risen above the Theosophical and occult environment, receiving "independent respect" from such authorities as William James, D. T. Suzuki and others.

[57] Russian esotericist P. D. Ouspensky affirmed that VS has a "very special" position in modern mystical literature, and used several quotes from it in his book Tertium Organum to demonstrate "the wisdom of the East.

"[64] William James said of mysticism that: "There is a verge of the mind which these things haunt; and whispers therefrom mingle with the operations of our understanding, even as the waters of the infinite ocean send their waves to break among the pebbles that lie upon our shores.

[70][71] This novel is especially important for followers of occultism because of "the suspicion—actively fostered by its author—that the work is not a fictional account of a mythical fraternity, but an accurate depiction of a real brotherhood of immortals.

[note 11] However, her main philosophical works, Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine, can be considered as rich sources that contain "much raw material for creators of fantasy worlds".

"[4][note 12] In Prof. Antoine Faivre's opinion, Ghost Land, or Researches into the Mysteries of Occultism[86] by Emma Hardinge Britten,[87][79] one of the founders of the Theosophical movement, is "one of the principal works of fiction inspired by the occultist current".

[69] Mabel Collins,[note 13] who helped Blavatsky edit the Theosophical journal Lucifer in London, wrote a book entitled The Blossom and the Fruit: A True Story of a Black Magician (1889).

[97] Russian philologist Alexander Senkevich noted that Blavatsky perfectly understood that the titular 'Talking Image' was her "caricatured persona", but nevertheless continued publishing the novel in her magazine for many months.

[98] In the foreword to the first edition its author proclaimed that the characters of the novel are "so to say, composite photographs of living people", and that it was created "with the sole object of showing to what absurdities a merely intellectual research after spiritual truths will lead.

[104][84] In his fiction collection, Leadbeater gave a brief description of Blavatsky as a storyteller of occult tales: "She held her audience spell-bound, she played on them as on an instrument and made their hair rise at pleasure, and I have often noticed how careful they were to go about in couples after one of her stories, and to avoid being alone even for a moment!

She listed some novels that can be categorized as Theosophical and mystical literature, including Mr Isaacs[115] (1882) and Zoroaster[116] (1885) by Francis Marion Crawford;[117] The Romance of Two Worlds[118] (1886) by Marie Corelli;[119] The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde[120] (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson;[note 18] A Fallen Idol[122] (1886) by F. Anstey;[123] King Solomon's Mines[124] (1885) and She: A History of Adventure[125] (1887) by H. Rider Haggard;[78] Affinities[126] (1885) and The Brother of the Shadow[127] (1886) by Rosa Campbell Praed; A House of Tears[128] (1886) by Edmund Downey;[129] and A Daughter of the Tropics[130] (1887) by Florence Marryat.

[117] Rosa Campbell Praed[137] was interested in spiritualism, occultism, and Theosophy, and made the acquaintance of many Theosophists who, as French pointed out, "inevitably became characters in her novels".

[140][141] In their article "Theosophy and Popular Fiction", the esotericism researchers Gilhus and Mikaelsson point out that in his novel The Human Chord[142] (1910), Blackwood warns readers about the dangers of occult experiments.

[146][2][79] Writer Talbot Mundy[2] created his works on the basis of the Theosophical assumption that various forms of occultism exist as evidence of the ancient wisdom that is preserved at the present time, thanks to the secret brotherhood of adepts.