i consider this to be a psychological thriller. it has a good plot, though i am unsatisfied with the ending. the main person is seduced by his chances to manipulate people. but how well can he control what he started? i can't give away more. sorry. but it's interesting read. i love manipulation (in books, in life not unless i'm doing it)

Traveller extraordinaire Frank Braun decides to retire for a while in a little village in the Italian mountains to write a book. On his arrival, he notices a preacher, a local who recently came back from America. Stunned by his charisma, Frank Braun decides to start what could be the religious phenomenon of the 20th century. However, like the sorcerer's apprentice, he rapidly loses control of the forces he unleashed.

"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" is a story about the horrors started by the manipulation of innocent people. The horror has very little to do with surnatural. It is instead about the cruelty inbred in human nature and our need to believe in something.

Ewers' descriptions are very detailed, and some of the scenes are almost unbearable.

This book will always hold a special place in my heart, since it was one of the first classics of the occult genre that I read. This was a popular novel in its time (1911) from what I understand...and no wonder! Imagine Frankenstein's monster all over again, but female, ten times as cunning and without a need for compassion. I can only assume that this was supposed to be a warning to all liberal minded women of the period...Highly recommended!