To Fathom the Gist

The majority of readers of Beelzebub's Tales find it very difficult to read and many abandon the book as a consequence - perhaps not having appreciated that Gurdjieff spent more time writing this book than he did doing anything else. (The record indicates that the book took 7 years to write and involved a team of many people in addition to Gurdjieff himself to get to a "first draft" in 1931. After than Gurdjieff spent a further 18 years refining the book, which was eventually published following  his death in 1949.) Clearly, if he did want the book to be read, he would not have devoted many years to writing it. 

Nevertheless he wrote it in such a way that very significant effort would be required to read it. The reader's problem is that this book cannot be read in the normal way. To Fathom The Gist was written to help the sincere reader of The Tales to improve their ability to read the book.