More Housekeeping

Four weeks ago I looked at the Blogs to which this blog linked. I found that many of them are no longer active.

Today I checked the other linked pages. Some of them are still active, but some have ceased to exist. 

All the Wikipedia Pages links still work: 

Muggeridge @ Wikipedia
H.G. Wells @ Wikipedia
Owen Barfield @ Wikipedia
Hilaire Belloc @ Wikipedia
Maurice Baring @ Wikipedia

Of the Chesterton Friendly links, only the American Chesterton Society is still active, though it is now The Society of G. K. Chesterton. If you want Gilbert Magazine,  you need to go there (and join the Society - if you haven't, why not?!). The Chesterton Quote of the Day link also no longer works.

The link to the Malcolm Muggeridge Society is no longer active. Ditto for the Dawson Collection at St. Thomas University, The Vision of Christopher Dawson, James V. Schall @ Ignatius Insight, and Joseph Pearce @ Ignatius Insight.

The Oscar Wilde Homepage still works. The same holds true for the Ronald Knox Society of North America, the Ronald Knox Bio, The Bernard Shaw Society, The Tolkien Society, and the Into the Wardrobe: Lewis Site.

The link to What About Charles Williams? does work, but it's a Touchstone and you need a subscription to gain access to the online content. It's aa great magazine, but I'm only a print subscriber to it, so I can't get to the articles. Sigh.   

Since I'm the most junior member of this blog's team - though apparently I'm the only still-active one - I have hesitated to make changes beyond my weekly posts. But I may do some cleaning up of the links, eliminating the ones where the links no longer work, and perhaps adding some new ones. 

I've started by changing American Chesterton Society to The Society of G. K. Chesterton. 

Peter Maurin, G. K. Chesterton, and Hilaire Belloc

Peter Maurin was a social activist and theologian, and a co-founder (with Dorothy Day) of the Catholic Worker movement. In his thinking he was influenced by Chesterton and Belloc, particularly when it came to economics. He specifically cited the distributism espoused by Chesterton and Belloc as part of the antidote to communism. 

Maurin, who was born in France and moved to the United States, summed up his thinking in poems called "Easy Essays." In those essays he cited Chesterton multiple times, and especially Chesterton's observation, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.” He sometimes quoted this observation directly, but more often paraphrased it. 

Over the years the Easy Essays were printed in the Catholic Worker newspaper. He used many of the essays repeatedly, changing them slightly, or adding or removing portions of them. Here is a version of one known as "Not Practical." 

1. Chesterton says

     "The Christian ideal 

     has not been tried 

     and found wanting. 

2. It has been found difficult 

     and left untried." 

3. Christianity has not been tried 

     because people thought 

     it was impractical. 

4. And men have tried everything 

     except Christianity. 

5. And everything 

     that men have tried 

     has failed.
6. And to fail
     in everything
     that one tries
     is not to be practical
7. Men will be practical
     when they try to practice
     the Christianity
     they profess
     to believe in.

When he recommended books to read he included two by Chesterton: The Outline of Sanity and St. Francis of Assisi.

He cited Belloc less often, but he is there. He also liked his book The Servile State. 

One Easy Essay where Belloc appears is called "The Trouble Has Been."

Hilaire Belloc says:

1. The modern proletarian

     works less hours

     and does far less

     than his father.

2. He is not even

     primarily in revolt

     against insecurity.

3. The trouble has been 

     that the masses

     of our town

     lived under

     unbearable conditions.

4. The contracts

     they were asked to fulfill

     were not contracts

     that were suitable

     to the dignity of man.

5. There was no personal relation

     between the man

     who  was exploited

     and the man

     who exploited him.

6. Wealth has lost

     its sense of responsibility.

Given his appreciation of Chesterton and Belloc, and of distributism, I think it's safe to say Maurin could be counted as a "Friend."

Joining Some Inklings Fan Groups

I was continuing my look at some of the blogs and pages to which this blog is linked when I came across ones about C. S. Lewis and the Inklings (Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Christopher Tolkien, Owen Barfield, Hugo Dyson, Warren Lewis, etc.). That led me in turn to Lewis and Inkling Facebook groups.

Yes, not only do I blog, I am on Facebook. I guess I am old!

Anyway, being easily distracted, I joined a few of them. One of them required that I list first some of the Inkling books I have read and/or taught.

So I compiled a list of ones I'd read in the five years since I retired.

Tolkien related:

Tolkien’s Faith: A Spiritual Biography by Holly Ordway

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter

The Father Christmas Letters by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Two Towers by J. R. R Tolkien

The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

C. S. Lewis related:

Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis

The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis

Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis

Perelandra by C. S, Lewis

That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis

The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis

The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis

The Screwtape Letters (with Screwtape Proposes a Toast) by C. S. Lewis

And one by Charles Williams:

Descent Into Hell by Charles Williams

I have not read the works of some of the other Inklings. To be honest, I looked, but they are hard to find in our local libraries, or even for purchase (plus I'm trying to downsize anyway, so I don't want to buy more books at this time).

I was accepted by the Facebook pages, by the way.

Since this is a Chesterton blog, I also compiled a list of works that are Chesterton-related, or written by his circle of friends, that I've read in the last five years.

The Poet and the Lunatics by G. K. Chesterton
The Surprise by G. K. Chesterton
The Judgement of Dr. Johnson by G. K. Chesterton

Heretics by G. K. Chesterton

The Flying Inn by G. K. Chesterton

The Ball and the Cross by G. K. Chesterton

Saint Thomas Aquinas by G. K. Chesterton

The Secret of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton

The Incredulity of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton

The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K, Chesterton

“The Donnington Affair” by G. K. Chesterton

“The Vampire of the Village” by G. K. Chesterton

The Ballad of the White Horse by G.K. Chesterton 

Lepanto: With Explanatory Notes and Commentary by G. K. Chesterton

Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton

Knight of the Holy Ghost by Dale Ahlquist

The Path to Rome by Hilaire Belloc

The Children’s Crusade by Frances Chesterton

Sir Cleges by Frances Chesterton

Piers Plowman’s Pilgrimage by Frances Chesterton

The Golden Key and Other Fairy Tales by George MacDonald

Phantastes by George MacDonald

The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald

Trent’s Last Case by E. C. Bentley

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers

Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers

Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers

Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers

Busman’s Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers

The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy Sayers

Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers

The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers

Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers

Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers

Okay, enough of that. Back to looking at the linked pages.

Did He, Or Didn't He?

 

A page on Facebook posted the following meme:

Being a trusting sort, I reposted it. Yikes. I got jumped on by multiple people claiming he never said that, that Billy Sunday said it.

Knowing that there are all sorts of memes out there falsely attributing quotations to various people, I went off into the interuniverse searching for the source of the quotation.

I found multiple attributions to Chesterton, but also multiple attributions (or variations of it) to Billy Sunday. So then I tried digging deeper to see if indeed Chesterton said it where he said it. Alas, he was regularly quoted as saying it, but no documentation was offered where he supposedly said it. 

So, any Chesterton experts out there know if he did indeed say this, and where he said it?

Blogging Buddies Go Bye-Bye

 

Back when I started contributing to this blog there was a team that posted multiple times a week. There were also a number of other blogs about Chesterton and his compatriots.

Blogging has declined as people have turned to other outlets.

The team behind this blog faded away, so I am the only member still posting here. I suspect the other members of the team found more meaningful things to do!

As for the other blogs, I noted that their posts became sporadic, or basically ceased. Here's a look at few of them.

Discover the Wit & Wisdom of Gilbert Keith Chesterton - one post in 2024, one in 2012, and 16 back in 2020.

Old World Swine - Says the last post was seven years ago, but it seems to have moved to a new platform as well. I was not allowed to enter!

GKC's Favourite - Last entry ten years ago

THE BLOG OF THE AMERICAN CHESTERTON SOCIETY - there was one post in 2017, but then you have to go back to 2010 to find another one.

The New Distributist League - They announced back in 2010 they were moving. The last entries in the new site were from 2018.

The ChesterBelloc Mandate - The same crew as the Distributist League, same results.

The Distributist Review - Ditto!

The Flying-Ins (i.e. The Chesterteens) - Last entry in 2010.

The Blue Boar - Is now only open to invited people. I was not invited. I don't know if they still continue.

That's it for those listed as blogs. There are links to other sites related to Chesterton and his compatriots, but I have not checked them yet.

So - seems this is the only still active Chesterton-related blog of the ones we knew in the good old days. Maybe there are others out there, but I do not know them.

Meanwhile, I continue posting. This one is the 27th post of 2025. 

Three Clerihews

Three of my clerihews made it in to the latest issue of Gilbert:

T. S. Eliot
was not appreciated by the proletariat.
"Those new-fangled poems kinda bore us.
He writes like he's sittin' with an open thesaurus."

St. Paul,
by modern standards wasn’t tall,
but he did go from guarding the coats
to being one of the Church’s GOATs.

Alfred Hitchcock
developed a bad case of writer's block
despite his use of a bran muffin
as the MacGuffin.

Ballade to Our Lady of Czestochowa - and Tolkien

A tidbit gleaned from Holly Ordway's Tolkien's Faith: A Spiritual Biography. 

In 1960, Tolkien was contacted about about writing out a version of Hilaire Belloc's poem, "Ballade to Our Lady of Czestochowa". Belloc had written the poem long before World War II and had made a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa where a framed copy of the poem was hung on the chapel wall. But during the war, the framed copy disappeared. "Known for his beautiful calligraphy," Tolkien was asked to make a copy to replace the missing one. Although, according to Ordway, he "had misgivings about the literary merit of Belloc's poem," he approved the devotional act and did produce a calligraphic copy. It was hung in the chapel in 1961.

Ballade to Our Lady of Czestochowa

By Hilaire Belloc

I

Lady and Queen and Mystery manifold
And very Regent of the untroubled sky,
Whom in a dream St. Hilda did behold
And heard a woodland music passing by:
You shall receive me when the clouds are high
With evening and the sheep attain the fold.
This is the faith that I have held and hold,
And this is that in which I mean to die.

II

Steep are the seas and savaging and cold
In broken waters terrible to try;
And vast against the winter night the wold,
And harbourless for any sail to lie.
But you shall lead me to the lights, and I
Shall hymn you in a harbour story told.
This is the faith that I have held and hold,
And this is that in which I mean to die.

III

Help of the half-defeated, House of gold,
Shrine of the Sword, and Tower of Ivory;
Splendour apart, supreme and aureoled,
The Battler's vision and the World's reply.
You shall restore me, O my last Ally,
To vengence and the glories of the bold.
This is the faith that I have held and hold,
And this is that in which I mean to die.

Envoi

Prince of the degradations, bought and sold,
These verses, written in your crumbling sty,
Proclaim the faith that I have held and hold
And publish that in which I mean to die.

Tolkien and Anti-Semitism

 

The sin of anti-Semitism has been in the news lately.

It was also a prominent issue during the life of J.R. R. Tolkien as he watched with horror the rise of Hitler and Nazism, the Holocaust, and World War II.

According to Holly Ordway in her book, Tolkien's Faith: A Spiritual Biography, Tolkien loathed anti-Semitism. 

In 1938, for example, a German publisher producing a translated version of The Hobbit asked Tolkien to supply a declaration that he was Aryan, not Jewish. Tolkien told his own publisher that in light of that request he was willing to let the German edition "go hang" if need be. He declared, "I have many Jewish friends, and should regret giving any colour to the notion that I subscribed to the wholly pernicious and unscientific race-doctrine." He responded to the German publisher refusing to make any such declaration. 

Ordway contends that Tolkien believed that Jews and Christians "could enjoy companionship and mutual respect." He even brings that to life in The Lord of the Rings.

Tolkien repeatedly noted that the Dwarves in the epic and his legendarium parallel the Jewish people. He also displays in the trilogy the Elvish racism against Dwarves. Ordway points out that Tolkien addressed that issue through Gimli's friendship with the elf Legolas. "Writing in a time when overt racism and anti-Semitism were commonplace, Tolkien shows two characters of different races, whose cultures have a history of conflict, overcoming stereotyped assumptions and becoming the best of friends."

In a draft of his response to that German publisher, Tolkien wrote, “If am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people .…”

According to Ordway, the actual response was even more strongly worded.

That tends to make his position clear.

Tolkien respected the Jewish people, and hated anti-Semitism.

Shadowlands

 

Every month, our parish has a movie night. Our pastor, who is a film buff, shows a movie that has moral/religious themes. We view the movie, he gives us some details about it and the actors, then we have a discussion afterwards. 

Last night, the movie was Shadowlands, a movie about the courtship and marriage of C. S. Lewis and Joy Davidman, her death due to cancer, and how Lewis deals with that death.  Anthony Hopkins played Lewis, and Debra Winger played Davidman.

Lewis later wrote a book about dealing with her death, A Grief Observed. The movie - and the play from which it was adapted - was based on that book.

I had seen the movie decades ago when it was in the theaters. I also read A Grief Observed.

I highly recommend both.

Father is usually ready to answer any questions during the after-movie discussion, but a few stumped him last night.

In the movie, Joy had one son Douglas, with her from her previous marriage (in real life, she had two sons). When she dies, Lewis took in the boy. Someone in the audience asked what happened to the boy as Lewis himself would die just three years after Davidman. Father did not know.

Lewis had adopted both Douglas and his older brother David. At the time of Lewis's death, Douglas had just turned 18, so he was no longer a child. David at that point was 19. Douglas later became an actor, voice actor, producer, and more, and he and his wife had five children. He also shared in Lewis's estate after Lewis's older brother, Warnie, died. 

Two question rose about Warnie that Father could not answer. There was a hint in the movie that he had a drinking problem and someone wondered if he did have that problem.

Turns out he was indeed an alcoholic. But he apparently somewhat controlled his drinking with his brother's help, though not always successfully. I don't know what happened after Lewis died in terms of his drinking; Warnie survived him by 10 years, and was involved with helping to edit his bother's works, so perhaps he was able to keep his drinking under control. But I don't know for certain. 

Someone also wondered if after Lewis's death if he raised Douglas and David, his step-nephews. But they were 18 and 19, so no longer children, per se. He did maintain contact with them, however. He had inherited his brother's estate, and when he died in 1973 it all went to Douglas and David.

Some added notes: Douglas remained a Christian, but David reverted to his family's Orthodox Jewish faith. Lewis while he was alive tried to make sure there was kosher food provided for him.

Sadly, David had mental issues, and he and Douglas were estranged. David later died in a mental institution in 2014. 

Douglas is apparently still alive. 

Saint Tolkien?

 

I know there has been discussion of the G. K. Chesterton's canonization - though that seems to have stalled for now.

But now I'm seeing some folks raise the idea of canonizing J. R. R. Tolkien.

I don't see it - in either case.

Now first let me note that all those who reach heaven are saints, so if Chesterton and Tolkien are there - and I strongly suspect they are or will be - then they are indeed saints.  

I won't get into Chesterton's case, though I do view him as a good and holy man.

As for Tolkien, his Catholic faith clearly played a significant role in his life. He talked about his own struggles, particularly after the horrors of World War I, but he became solid and devout in his faith. It influenced how he raised his family - one of his sons, John, later became a priest, through there was a shadow over him later on - in his teaching, and in his writing. Scholars have noted the very Catholic nature of The Lord of the Rings. 

But to be canonized by the Church there has to be evidence of extraordinary sanctity. I've read a few biographies of him, and while I see evidence of his strong Catholic faith, I haven't seen anything that rises to the level of "extraordinary sanctity."

Now it may be there, and if there ever is a cause perhaps wiser minds than mine might find evidence of such sanctity.

As far as I know, there has been no formal cause started.

I do have a copy of this book. 

Maybe it's time to read it!

The Surprise

I just finished reading Chesterton's The Surprise. 

It was his final play, written in 1932, but it was not published or performed during his lifetime.  His secretary, Dorothy Collins, edited the manuscript and it was published in 1952.

I had read Magic before, but none of his other plays.

The Surprise was clever, entertaining, and I found the dialogue witty. Shaw was correct to suggest Chesterton should write plays. Too bad he did not write more.

I won't discuss the plot, other than to say it does include a couple of surprises.

One surprise is that Chesterton looks at some deeper issues such as free will, obedience, and omnipotence.

There was a production of it done by the Chesterton folks for EWTN.

  

Quite enjoyable!

A C. S. Lewis Poem

I have long been a fan of C. S. Lewis. I read his fiction, his fantasies, his essays, his theological works, his talks, and others his prose writings.  But I had read little of his poetry. 

Then I recently stumbled across this poem by C. S. Lewis. As I, an oldster, am increasingly dealing with various aches and pains, it spoke to me! 

As One Oldster to Another

Well, yes the old bones ache. There were easier 
Beds thirty years back. Sleep, then importunate, 
Now with reserve doles out her favours;
Food disagrees; there are droughts in houses. 

Headlong, the down night train rushes on with us,
Screams through the stations…how many more? Is it
Time soon to think of taking down one’s 
Case from the rack? Are we nearly there now?

Yet neither loss of friends, nor an emptying 
Future, nor England tamed and the ruin of 
Long-builded hopes thus far have taught my 
Obstinate heart a sedate deportment. 

Still beauty calls as once in the mazes of 
Boyhood. The bird-like soul quivers. Into her 
Flash darts of unfulfill’d desire and 
Pierce with a bright, unabated anguish. 

Armed thus with anguish, joy meets us even in
Youth--who forgets? This side of the terminus, 
Then, now, and always, thus, and only
Thus, were the doors of delight set open.

Come Rack! Come Rope!

Our local Chesterton Academy did a production of  Come Rack! Come Rope! The play is an adaptation by Dale Ahlquist and Adrian Ahlquist of the novel by Robert Hugh Benson.

In the novel, Queen Elizabeth only appears once in a scene in which she processes through London. In  the adaptation, they added a scene about William Cecil, Lord Burleigh convincing Elizabeth to execute Mary, Queen of Scots.

The directors asked two teachers and one former teacher - me! - to play the roles of Elizabeth, Burleigh (again, me), and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. 

Part of the pleasure for me was that I was in this production with some of my former students, some of whom I had directed in plays.

Gethsemane (C. S. Lewis)

All may yet be well. This is true. Meanwhile you have the waiting—waiting till the X-rays are developed and till the specialist has completed his observations. And while you wait, you still have to go on living—if only one could go underground, hibernate, sleep it out. And then (for me—I believe you are stronger) the horrible by-products of anxiety, incessant, circular movement of the thoughts, even the Pagan temptation to keep watch for irrational omens. And one prays; but mainly such prayers as are themselves of anguish.

Some people may feel guilty about their anxieties and regard them as a defect of faith. I don’t agree at all. They are afflictions, not sins. Like all afflictions, they are, if we can so take to them, our share in the Passion of Christ. For the beginning of the Passion—the first move, so to speak—is in Gethsemane. In Gethsemane a very strange and significant thing seems to have happened.

It is clear from many of His sayings that Our Lord had long foreseen His death. He knew what conduct such as His, in a world such as we have made of this, must inevitably lead to. But it is clear that this knowledge must somehow have been withdrawn from Him before He prayed in Gethsemane. He could not, with whatever reservation about the Father’s will, have prayed that the cup might pass and simultaneously known it would not. That is both a logical and psychological impossibility. You see what this involves? Lest any trial incident to humanity should be lacking, the torments of hope—of suspense, anxiety—were at the last moment loosed upon Him—the supposed possibility that, after all, He might, He just conceivably might, be spared the supreme horror. There was precedent. Isaac had been spared: he too at the last moment, he also against all probability. It was not quite impossible…and doubtless He had seen other men crucified…a sight very unlike most of our religious pictures and images.

But for this last (and erroneous) hope against hope, and the consequent tumult of the soul, the sweat of blood, perhaps He would not have been very Man. To live in a fully predictable world is not to be man.

At the end, I know, we are told that an angel appeared ‘comforting’ him. But neither comforting in the sixteenth-century English nor in Greek means ‘consoling’. ‘Strengthening’ is more the word. May not the strengthening have consisted of renewed certainty—cold comfort this—that the thing must be endured and therefore could be?

We all try to accept with some sort of submission our afflictions when they actually arrive. But the prayer in Gethsemane shows that the preceding anxiety is equally God’s will and equally part of our human destiny. The perfect Man experienced it. And the servant is not greater than the master.

- C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm, Chiefly on Prayer 

Good Friday

From The Everlasting Man

All the great groups that stood about the Cross represent in one way or another the great historical truth of the time; that the world could not save itself. Man could do no more. Rome and Jerusalem and Athens and everything else were going down like a sea turned into a slow cataract. Externally indeed the ancient world was still at its strongest; it is always at that moment that the inmost weakness begins. But in order to understand that weakness we must repeat what has been said more than once; that it was not the weakness of a thing originally weak. It was emphatically the strength of the world that was turned to weakness and the wisdom of the world that was turned to folly.

In this story of Good Friday it is the best things in the world that are at their worst. That is what really shows us the world at its worst. It was, for instance, the priests of a true monotheism and the soldiers of an international civilisation. Rome, the legend, founded upon fallen Troy and triumphant over fallen Carthage, had stood for a heroism which was the nearest that any pagan ever came to chivalry. Rome had defended the household gods and the human decencies against the ogres of Africa and the hermaphrodite monstrosities of Greece. But in the lightning flash of this incident, we see great Rome, the imperial republic, going downward under her Lucretian doom. Scepticism has eaten away even the confident sanity of the conquerors of the world. He who is enthroned to say what is justice can only ask: ‘What is truth?’ So in that drama which decided the whole fate of antiquity, one of the central figures is fixed in what seems the reverse of his true role. Rome was almost another name for responsibility. Yet he stands for ever as a sort of rocking statue of the irresponsible. Man could do no more. Even the practical had become the impracticable. Standing between the pillars of his own judgement-seat, a Roman had washed his hands of the world.

Since that day it has never been quite enough to say that God is his heaven and all is right with the world; since the rumour that God had left his heavens to set it right.

Substack

 

Several of my friends were on the Substack, and suggested I consider posting on it.

The platform is more for writers, and not for the kind of political and theological battles that dominate so many other social media platforms.

I took the plunge. I started posting as "Franciscan Poet." 

As I began posting, I tried to think of a possible identity that would set me apart, and then it hit me that given my post's name, why not some of my poetry? So I created two days on which I would post some of my poetry: Haiku Tuesday, and, in keeping with my Chestertonian roots, Clerihew Thursday. 

I also added a day for another interest: Dad Joke Sunday. 

For the haiku and the clerihews, I posted not just the poems, but also art with them. I also noted if the poems had been published and where. With the clerihews, that means Gilbert.

Here are the first cllerihews:

Albert Einstein
had to pay a traffic fine
for trying to reach the speed of light
in a Packard one night.

Herman Melville
chose to fill
his epic novel with page after page of involved but possibly plagiarized details
about whales. 

Robert Burns

hid behind some ferns.

He feared that he might be shot

by the husband of an auld acquaintance he forgot.  

I'll continue to post there - and, of course, here. I may share some of my posts on both platforms.

And I'm happy to say there are Chesterton and C. S. Lewis fans over there!

 

.   

A Bookshop Honoring C. S. Lewis?

Over on substack there is a woman who is chronicling her efforts to open a bookstore honoring to C. S. Lewis.

Sarah Bringhurst Familia discusses her efforts to create "The Wardrobe" in Narni, Italy in her page, Escape to the Bookshop.

The name Narni, she notes, is similar to Narnia. She discovered the town when on vacation in 2022. But, she observes, she was not the first to notice the similarity of the names.

"I was not the first. C.S. Lewis, too, found this city on a map. He loved the name so much he underlined it on a well-thumbed page of his Latin atlas, which his personal secretary, Walter Hooper, later gifted to the town. Narnia is the original Latin name, shortened in Italian to the chic and modern Narni."

She admits to loving the Narnia stories since childhood:

"I grew up reading The Chronicles of Narnia, not once, but over and over. We always seemed to have a set of tattered paperbacks. When one copy got read to death, I’d find another at a secondhand shop. Sometimes I’d check them out from the library too. I read those books so many times that Narnia lives permanently in some corner of my mind."

Indeed, she notes, "I’d spent my whole childhood looking for Narnia—through every stone arch and cupboard door. And though the years passed with nary a glimpse of snowy woods or talking animals, I never quite gave up hope.

"Still, as an adult, I never expected to find Narnia on a map. But there we were, on holiday in Italy, and on the map, I’d noticed a town called Narni. It wasn’t even hard to get to: just an hour and a bit north of Rome."

She and her husband, who currently live in Amsterdam, bought a house in Narni that has a cellar sh believes would be perfect for their bookstore. They are currently cleaning, painting, building bookshelves, looking for furniture, and collecting books.

They have not moved there full-time, but hope to do so soon, and to open The Wardrobe.

Sounds like a worthy dream! Certainly it's fun to follow her quest.

The Poet and the Lunatics

 

Every year I make a list of books/works I will try to read that year. The Poet and the Lunatics was one of those books, and I just finished it.

I so enjoyed it I wished Chesterton had added a few more tales to the collection!

The book consists of eight stories featuring Gabriel Gale - the Poet - as he encounters various Lunatics. In the process he solves or prevents crimes and mysteries, and helps troubled people.

Father Brown uses his knowledge of human nature gained through Confessions to solves mysteries. Gale uses his own "lunacy" to solve the mysteries and help the people he faces. In one story  - "The Crime of Gabriel Gale" - his friends even think of committing him. 

He is not crazy, but sauntering on the edge of it he is able to see into others' craziness.

One of the stories - "The Shadow of the Shark" - is even an actual murder mystery of the closed room variety, though it takes place on a public beach. 

The stories form a loose thread, not quite enough to be a novel, but clearly developing the Gale and the other characters who keep appearing. 

I also like the fact that Gale focuses on small details that other miss in a seemingly childlike way. He is mocked for this, but his observations often lead to solving the mystery. And I was reminded of Chesterton himself and how he celebrates all the small wonders in the world. The stories also abound in paradoxes - so Chestertonian. And Gale, like Chesterton, is both a poet and an artist. Maybe Chesterton was projecting himself into his fiction? 

As I noted, when I finished the book I wished he had written another story or two involving Gale. Alas, no.

Although I enjoy Chesterton's novels, I enjoy his short stories even more. This book deserves more attention.     

  

The Norwegian Chesterton!

Last week, having just finished Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset, I wrote a post about hearing Undset being called the Norwegian Chesterton - "The Norwegian Chesterton?". I praised the book, and noted that she knew Chesterton's work, and had even translated The Everlasting Man into Norwegian. I wondered if they ever met.

This week, I uncovered the January/February issue of Gilbert. I had received it weeks ago, but had put it aside to read later, and it had gotten buried under some notebooks. When i finally opened it what did I find on page 22? "The Norwegian Chesterton" by David P. Deavel!

Great minds think alike?

Okay, my piece is a simple blog post. His is an actual article, discussing her life and work, and linking her to Chesterton in a more complete way. He also answered my question. Apparently Undset did meet Chesterton (and Belloc) in 1928, the same year she won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

By the way, if you do not subscribe to Gilbert, consider doing so. It is the officially "Magazine of the Society of G. K. Chesterton." You subscribe by joining the Society - a worthy organization, and the membership/subscription is considered a tax-deductible donation.  

Go to WWW.Chesterton.org to find out more.

The Norwegian Chesterton?

 

I've seen multiple people refer to Sigrid Undset as the "Norwegian Chesterton."

I am not qualified to make such a claim. I have read just two of her books. Back in 2019 I read Stages on the Road, and I just finished Kristin Lavransdatter.

But having finished her epic novel, I can say it's a better book than any of Chesterton's novels.

Kristin Lavransdatter reminded me  of the great 19th century novels that like. The leisurely pace, the multiple characters explored in depth - especially Kristin - the portraying of life as untidy and even the good characters as flawed; that all resonated with me.

A wonderful read.

I was amused to see that she was also apparently a fan of Chesterton. There is a story that before she. like Chesterton, became a convert she declared to a publisher that The Everlasting Man be translated into Norwegian, then did it herself. Her translation was published in 1931. 

She had earlier lived in London for a year back in 1913, and I wonder if she ever ran into Chesterton somehow, perhaps even attending one of his lectures?

Pearce looking Fierce Clerihew

The look on the face of Joseph Pearce 

was positively fierce. 

As he was about to send his latest out the door 

he suddenly realized he'd written the same thing before.

Spiritual Electric Shock Therapy — Dappled Things

Spiritual Electric Shock Therapy — Dappled Things: Why today’s writers need G. K. Chesterton

Narnia Is for More Than Kids

 

I came across this meme on Facebook. It reminded me of not only Lewis, but, or course, Chesterton, who was a stanch supporter of good children's literature.

I did not have the pleasure of encountering Lewis as a child. I had heard of him, but he was not on the curriculum in my elementary or high schools.

When I was 19, I discovered a set of the Narnia stories in an apartment in New York City I was allowed to stay in for a while (that's another story!)  I borrowed them, and read them all in just a week. I credit them with helping to restore my faith and returning me to the Church from which I had strayed. I read them at the same time as I first read Chesterton's St. Francis and St. Augustine's Confessions, two other works that spoke to me at a time when I needed to encounter such works.

Since then, I've gone back and reread all the Narnia stories, and even required The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as summer reading when I taught middle school.

They are more than just children's stories. They teach life lessons, and prepare children - or in my case, child-like 19-year-olds - to face cruel enemies, including, as with me, worldly temptation. 

In them, we see seeming defeats turned to victory, feats of courage, former enemies and perpetrators of evil repenting and finding salvation, and, sadly, people we love turning away (like Susan). Reality. 

One of my favorite scenes is in The Last Battle. Seemingly on the verge of defeat by the Calormines, the followers of Aslan are able to enter "further up and further in," and with them is Emeth, a Calormine. Aslan tells him that his service to a false god, Tash, done sincerely, obeying the natural moral laws (though that term is not used) was actually service to Aslan. The lesson is that even seeming enemies, those who follow false beliefs, can be saved. As adults, we can understand that means people of different faiths may find their way into eternity if they honestly follow the promptings of the Spirit in their hearts.

There are so many more lessons in the books. They are children's stories, yes, but they prepare the children to face life and to know they will defeat the forces of darkness in the end. 

That certainly was a good lesson for a particular 19-year-old who was adrift.

A Political Clerihew - Letitia James

 

NY AG Letitia James
was fond of targeting political foes with legal games.
In a twist, this time
she's the target, and there is an actual crime.

Jules Verne

 

Today, February 8, is the 196th birthday of Jules Verne. Happy birthday. 

Verne, of course, gave us such works of fantasy and science fiction as Journey to the Center of the Earth, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, and Around the World in Eighty Days.

I don't know if Chesterton wrote much about Verne. In the essay "The Domesticity of Detectives", he did mention Verne when discussing French writers.

"Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, for instance, both wrote fairy-tales of science; Mr. Wells has much the larger mind and interest in life; but he often lacks one power which Jules Verne possesses supremely—the power of going to the point. Verne is very French in his rigid relevancy; Wells is very English in his rich irrelevance." 

Perhaps Chesterton did write more about Verne. Perhaps some more knowledgeable person could offer some wisdom?  

As for me, I have read some Verne - Journey to the Center of the Earth, From Earth to the Moon, and a children's version of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - but I have read far more of Wells's science fiction, and I prefer what I have read of his works.

Still, it might be worth giving Verne some attention - after I finish some of the books currently in my "To Read" pile.

At least I should start with a full version of Twenty Thousand Leagues.