Friday, December 30, 2022

Chesterton (and Friends) Reading in 2022


Each year, I keep a tally of works read - books, plays, etc. And a number of those works this past year certainly fit under the heading of "Chesterton and Friends."

Chesterton is well represented: 

The Ballad of the White Horse 
Lepanto: With Explanatory Notes and Commentary 
The Secret of Father Brown 
"The Donnington Affair" 
“The Vampire of the Village”  
St. Thomas Aquinas 

The last work was reread as part of the group reading by our local Chesterton Society. 

I had reread The Lord of the Rings last year. This year, Tolkien was represented by The Father Christmas Letters.

C. S.  Lewis put in an appearance with two of his Narnia books that I reread: 

The Silver Chair 
The Last Battle 

Though more of a predecessor than a "friend," George MacDonald also joined the tally with Phantastes. 

A more recent "friend" of Chesterton is Joseph Pearce. I read two of his histories:

Heroes of the Catholic Reformation: Saints Who Renewed the Church 
Faith of our Fathers: A History of True England  

I also read a recent novel in which Chesterton, Lewis. Tolkien, and Owen Barfield are characters! In Toward the Gleam by T. M. Doran, Chesterton even saves the life of the main character.

Finally, Chesterton was a fan of  Dickens, and though Dickens is not a "friend" the way Tolkien or even Lewis would be, I think it's safe to include Oliver Twist in my tally.

Next year, there will certainly be more Chesterton, Lewis, and Dickens. I'm already in the process of rereading The Everlasting Man with my Chesterton Society group, and The Screwtape Letters with my Campion reading group. I'm in the process of trying to read all the Father Brown mysteries. I have only The Scandal of Father Brown and "The Mask of Midas" to go, so they are on my list for 2023. I recently got a copy of The Story of the Family by Dale Ahlquist, and will read that in the coming months. I also plan to reread Dickens' David Copperfield.  

Who knows what words of other friends will also pass before my eyes.

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