It is becoming increasingly common — to my great dismay — to find one of two scenarios in both Catholic and Public schools in the United States when it comes to its exploration of great literature. The first is that … Continue reading

It is becoming increasingly common — to my great dismay — to find one of two scenarios in both Catholic and Public schools in the United States when it comes to its exploration of great literature. The first is that … Continue reading
It shall come as a surprise to no one that I am a great fan of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work. Having discovered The Lord of the Rings in Junior High (thanks in no small part to having been introduced to C.S. … Continue reading
Some Modern Catholic (or Neo-Modernist) Churchmen have advocated –at least since Pope Pius XII’s 1950 Encyclical, Humani Generis, or soon thereafter — “the demolition of the bastions,” seeming to refer to a timely removing of the barriers between the Catholic … Continue reading
One year after Hilaire Belloc’s four-year term in the British House of Commons (1906-1910), he published The Four Men: A Farrago (1911), wherein he memorably depicts the robust and eccentric and magnanimously generous Squire Fuller of Brightling, an honored native … Continue reading
Ten years after the sacred events at Fatima, Portugal, as well as a full decade after the 1917 Bolshevik revolutionary takeover in Russia, Maurice Baring — who knew the Russian language very well — wrote another book on Russia (and … Continue reading
I am reading Part One (of three parts) of The Wondrous Childhood of the Most Holy Mother of God by Saint John Eudes. It is a masterpiece of filial devotion to the Mother of God, reflecting on her holy childhood, … Continue reading
Two years before he was to die in early April of 1966 on Easter Sunday after Mass, Evelyn Waugh wrote a new Preface to his pre-War 1938 novel, Scoop.1 In that brief 1964 Preface and retrospect, he recalls the atmosphere … Continue reading
Autumn is, for me anyway, an acutely nostalgic time. I think of the New England and New York of my childhood, of cool crisp weather and falling coloured leaves — and these memories are all the more vibrant when faced … Continue reading
While slowly reading the second of the three volumes of Josef Pieper’s Memoirs, Not Yet the Twilight (Noch Nicht Aller Tage Abend), I came more and more to think of him as a cultivated and disciplined man who so graciously … Continue reading
On this 64th anniversary of the death of Hilaire Belloc (and fitting Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel), I thought to select a few passages from our beloved friend’s versatile writings both before and shortly after World War I: … Continue reading
The Imaginative Conservative, Joseph Pearce: In a recent essay for the Imaginative Conservative I wrote about what I called the Mercutio Option, based on the character in Romeo & Juliet who cursed both the warring factions in Verona, the Capulets and the Montagues, suggesting that, … Continue reading
This short essay proposes to consider, not only the above-mentioned Major B.K. and General de Castelnau, but also Maurice Baring himself, as “one of God’s gentlemen,” as one whose own generous and chivalrous character is marked by a sincere, deep, … Continue reading
Through the prompt kindness of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, I recently received a gift copy of Daniel Kelly’s book that they had just published on L. Brent Bozell, Jr., entitled Living on Fire After at once reading the book, whose … Continue reading
While attempting to retrieve a memorable 1909 Hilaire Belloc essay (“The Missioner”) for a College student — to be then conveniently found in a 1926 Anthology entitled Representative Catholic Essays — I unexpectedly saw and read for the first time … Continue reading
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