G.M. Hopkins S.J. (1848-1889) wrote the following poem, probably in the summer of 1885 (R.B. Martin, Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1992, p.382) My own heart let me more have pity on; […]
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Category: Literature
I discuss works of literature, chiefly from a spiritual perspective. I believe that religious culture is important, and can manifest even if one is not explicitly talking about religion. That is, religion has an effect on values, and they can be reflected in secular literature.
Nelson, Shakespeare and Hermetism
Jane E. Nelson, Shakespeare and Religio Mentis: A Study of Christian Hermetism in Four Plays, Brill, 2022. This book is in seven main chapters with miscellaneous additions. The chapters are “1. […]
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Shakespeare from the Perspective of the Fourth Way
In the East my Pleasure Lies: A Fourth Way Interpretation of Shakespeare’s Plays, Beryl Pogson, Eureka Editions, Utrecht, 1999 Beryl Pogson (1895-1967), a pupil of Maurice Nicoll who, after his […]
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R.H. Benson, “The Sentimentalists,” 5
The next section begins with Dell complacently arriving in the countryside for a splendidly luxurious holiday with Fr Yolland’s wealthy father. The moment Dell sees the elderly Mr Yolland, he […]
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R.H. Benson, “The Sentimentalists,” 4
Significantly, Dell launches into a full-throated defence of the truth of all religions (20): which makes one wonder why he converted to Catholicism. Fr Yolland sees that his friend is […]
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R.H. Benson, “The Sentimentalists,” Pt 3.
When Fr Yolland opens the package of all Dell’s worldly belongings he finds: … a neat pile of pyjamas—silk, for he felt them incredulously—a spotless collar, an Indian silk tie, […]
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R.H. Benson, “The Sentimentalists,” I
Robert Hugh Benson’s The Sentimentalists, was published in London by Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons Ltd., 1906. Pitman himself (1837-1897) invented Pitman shorthand, and distance education using the English postal […]
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This Word, “Meddle”
I am reading Robert Hugh Benson’s early novel By What Authority? One of RBH’s strong suits as a novelist is his graceful employment of an extraordinarily wide vocabulary: his use of […]
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Firmly I Believe and Truly
This anecdote about Walter Scott, otherwise unknown to me, is extracted from the writings of Mary Josephine “Maisie” Ward 1889-1975, who had the signal honour to be the great-great-granddaughter of […]
Read moreAnne of Geierstein or The Daughter of the Mist
Many readers do not like Anne of Geierstein (1829). Schoolchildren who were obliged to read it are said to have been turned many readers off Walter Scott’s novels altogether. I […]
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