Literary Converts: Spiritual Inspiration in an Age of Unbelief

by Joseph Pearce

Literary Converts is a biographical exploration into the spiritual lives of some of the greatest writers in the English Oscar Wilde, Evelyn Waugh, C.S. Lewis, Malcolm Muggeridge, Graham Greene, Edith Sitwell, Siegfried Sassoon, Hilaire Belloc, G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy Sayers, T.S. Eliot and J.R.R. Tolkien. The role of George Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells in intensifying the religious debate despite not being converts themselves is also considered. Many will be intrigued to know more about what inspired their literary heroes; others will find the association of such names with Christian belief surprising or even controversial. Whatever viewpoint we may have, Literary Converts touches on some of the most important questions of the twentieth century, making it a fascinating read.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Religion, Catholic, Christianity, Literature, Faith

452 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author with this name on GR

Joseph Pearce (born 1961) is an English-born writer, and as of 2004 Writer in Residence and Professor of Literature at Ave Maria University in Ave Maria, Florida; previously he had a comparable position, from 2001, at Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He is known for a number of literary biographies, many of Catholic figures. Formerly aligned with the National Front, a white nationalist political party, he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1989, repudiated his earlier views, and now writes from a Catholic perspective. He is a co-editor of the St. Austin Review and editor-in-chief of Sapientia Press.

Reviews

[booklady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book by a favorite author! Combines a number of my favorite subjects: literature, English literature in particular, Catholicism, personal spiritual conversion and inspiration. Fascinating look at the power of literature to ignite and spread ideas like wildfire. Beginning with Oscar Wilde, this book traces conversion experiences in prominent English authors, to include: Hilaire Belloc, G. K. Chesterton, Ronald Knox, Evelyn Waugh, Robert Hugh Benson, Edith Sitwell, T. S. Eliot, Muriel Spark, Malcolm Muggeridge, and Graham Greene. Beyond those who officially changed -- or 'got' -- religion there was also a literary revival described by Dorothy L. Sayers as 'a network of minds energizing each other' which also included C. S. Lewis' and "Inklings" members, Charles Williams, and J. R. R. Tolkien. It was an exciting time to be a writer and in England! Lucky for us readers too! Book reads like a novel tracing the progress of ideas and lives across the span of the 20th Century.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the things I found fascinating about this book was discovering the number of people who came to faith via Chesterton and Dante. Into the former I have leapt with abandon and enjoyed a jolly good swim, into the latter I have only dipped my toe; maybe i should delve deeper. The book was interesting but, owing to its way of writing it was very repetitive. Pearce chose to dedicate individual chapters to many of the men and women but this would have worked better if there had been greater variety. The insular nature of so many of the converts and by that I mean their criss=crossing of relationship and association though understandable led to a sometimes monotonous drone of the same fact and same anecdote which bored. I read this book over a short time period; perhaps it is better to use somewhat like an encyclopaedia of catholic coversion; in that way the repetition would not be so noticeable. The book served to make me want to read more of certain of the people reflected upon and it drove me back to Sassoon's poetry...and that can never be a bad thing but in of itself the book skated over the surface of so many of the characters. I was left frustrated because I didn't feel a great encounter with any of these people. You could say that the net was thrown so wide that it's holes became too big and all but the most obvious and bland insights seemed to have escaped. That is probably a little unfair on my part because the author took on a mammoth task and he struggled manfully with it. I would recommend the book to anyone interested in writers of faith and although these happen, in the main, to be catholic ones with the notable exceptions of TS Elliot and Dorothy L Sayers, I would suppose their struggle to faith in God might well be echoed in that of men adn women who came to belief on other faith journeys.

[Manuel Alfonseca · Rating 4 out of 5]

ENGLISH: A good book revising the history of the twentieth century through the eyes of many writer converts, most of them based in the United Kingdom. I have collected several interesting quotations I did not know before. This book has moved me to buy or download and read several books by authors I did not know, such as Christopher Dawson, Maurice Baring, Ronald Knox and Ernest Schumacher.

ESPAÑOL: Un buen libro que repasa la historia del siglo XX a través de los ojos de muchos escritores conversos, la mayoría de ellos basados británicos. Me ha proporcionado varias citas interesantes que no conocía. Este libro me ha impulsado a comprar o descargar y leer varios libros de autores que eran antes desconocidos para mí, como Christopher Dawson, Maurice Baring, Ronald Knox y Ernest Schumacher.

[Dan Gallagher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found Joseph Pearce's prose taut and intriguing, despite expecting the opposite from an academic examination of literary greats and their conversion to Catholicism. What a fun and interesting read: exhaustively researched; even riveting!

[Marta LBB]

I have always liked to know how someone gets to God without being a cradle catholic

[Ben House · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book some years ago and loved it. God raised up a number of brilliant Christian thinkers in Britain during the 20th century. We all know of Lewis and Tolkien, but we overlook others like Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, historian Christopher Dawson, and poet Sigfried Sassoon. We also overlook the greater contributions of Dorothy Sayers who wrote mystery novels and some great theological works.
Add to that the life and conversion of T. S. Eliot: Here is another example of a great thinker who was converted to Christianity and whose life is covered in this book.
Reading this book spurred me on to read more of the authors that Pearce covered. It also made me a fan of Joseph Pearce's books. I have collected most of them and intend on reading everything he has written.
Yes, he is a bit too Catholic for my tastes. But I am able to enjoy his writings, learn from them, and delight in the authors and beliefs that he and I share.
Final note: Maybe the one great omission from this book is the historian Herbert Butterfield. Butterfield was an ardent believer and an acclaimed scholar, but he rarely gets included in the type of discussions this book contains.

[Friar Stebin John Capuchin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last one month I was enjoying this book. I am a slow reader and the pages which I went through in this book helped me to understand the struggle a person to be a convert. It is not an easy task to leave what they are believing and follow the path of truth. This book gives the testimony that, the road to Catholic Church is really a tough thing. One will enjoy only he or she reaches inside the home. To living under the protection of Mother Church requires grace. These persons whom we meet in this book shares the way they found that shelter. Joseph Pearce clearly shared their story. I recommend everyone this book. God speaks to philosophers in the language of philosophers and to simple souls in the language of simple ones. God is always there to converse with us, an open heart is the only necessary thing to hear his voice and accept the truth. May the grace of God led many more souls to the Truth.
Happy Reading...
A special thanks to my friend Fonch for recommending me this book.

[Padre Zurita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sorprende a cada página la ingente cantidad de conversiones que se van sucediendo y entreverando, constatando que las almas se salvan en racimo y que del sí de uno dependen muchos.
Desprende numerosos autores, obras y citas que invitan a la lectura y a la investigación.
El único pero es lo prolijo que es en detalles, pero merece la vida de cada uno de los personajes.

[Isabel Keats · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impresionante saber que tantos intelectuales ingleses del S.XX se convirtieron al catolicismo. Lo que menos me ha gustado son los continuos saltos en el tiempo y en los personajes, que lo hace un poco lioso.

[Celeste · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Is cynicism the sin which is destroying the soul of civilization?”

Literary Converts is the most readable type of scholarly work. Not exactly conversational, but there is something wonderfully readable about Pearce's writing. It's incredibly informative, but it's never dry. He allows these literary giants (mostly Catholic converts with a few well-known exceptions) and their lesser known counterparts to walk onto the page seemingly under their own volition, to speak in their own voices and aid in the presentations of their own stories. This was accomplished in large part by the inclusion of so many excerpts from letters and articles and even fiction penned by his subjects during their lives.

"Above all, there was a deep disillusionment with 'the world' and what it had to offer, a longing for depth in a world of shallows, permanence in a world of change, and certainty in a world of doubt.”

Pearce did a wonderful joy honing in on the tension between flesh and faith that so defined the twentieth century, and continues to be prominent in today’s world. This age of skepticism was something of a proto-Deconstructionist movement. It was encouraging to see so many brilliant minds succumb to skepticism only to reevaluate Christianity and return to it. And it was fascinating to see how many of these figures converted to faith through sheer intellectual conviction, even when feelings didn't come into play until after they became entrenched in the Church, if ever.

"Suddenly he perceived that the faltering, flickering candle of the sincere sinner was as much in need of the oxygen of grace as was the flaming faith of the saints.”

While I did find this book fascinating on the whole, I have to confess that some chapters and trains of thought are more interesting and easier to follow than others. For example, I was deeply invested in learning more about the faith lives of Chesterton and Eliot and Sayers, getting a refresher on Lewis and Wilde, and being introduced to the likes of Belloc and Knox. For me personally, the front half of the book was more compelling than the back half, but I think that’s because there were so many huge, well-known personalities in the first half of the twentieth century. Even considering the slight unevenness of my reading experience, I thoroughly enjoyed this meaty, erudite work.

[Manuel Alfonseca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book revising the history of the twentieth century through the eyes of many writer converts, most of them based in the United Kingdom. I have collected several interesting quotations I did not know before. This book has moved me to buy or download and read several books by authors I did not know, such as Christopher Dawson, Maurice Baring, Ronald Knox and Ernest Schumacher.

[Jorge Criado · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro que te abre la puerta a una multitud de escritores del siglo XX unidos por su reencuentro (o su encuentro a secas) con la fe católica.
La única pega que le puedo poner es que a veces me parecía que contaba las cosas de una forma un poco desordenada. Pero es algo perdonable, al ver la cantidad de escritores y que no eran islas, sino que se interrelacionaban.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

True to its title, Literary Converts is a succession of conversion stories of all or most of the reputable British authors who converted to Catholicism at some point in the 20th century, with nods to prominent converts to High Church Anglicanism (T.S. Eliot and C.S. Lewis). The individuals on whom the light is brightest are Malcolm Muggeridge, Dorothy Sayers, Evelyn Waugh, Ronald Knox, Hillaire Belloc and G.K. Chesterton. These authors are frequently mentioned but the biographical information provided is hit and miss. There is a fairly thorough description of the conversion experience, a generally uneven description of their biographical history and some discussion of some of their literary works.

This random organization is more apparent with respect to the multitude of other authors mentioned. The comprehensiveness of the book in discussing probably every qualifying author is the book’s greatest strength and weakness. The comprehensiveness is the primary reason for the perfunctory nature of the biographies. I did not count, but I would estimate that this book included the conversion stories of much more than 50 writers. Some chapters read like detailed notes written on a subject, where the author moved on to researching the next author before finishing the previous.

While the uneven writing was hard to miss, it was fascinating to see unfold before my eyes a long procession of literary, articulate, intellectual and opinionated British authors queuing up to join the Catholic church. I was particularly interested in learning about the opinions and writings of Evelyn Waugh, Muriel Spark and Dorothy Sayers, and I plan to read more of their works. I would have liked to read more about Graham Greene, who comes off looking about as sheepish as the priest in his the Power and the Glory.

J.R.R. Tolkien, who might be expected to figure prominently in such a work is occasionally alluded to, nothing more. He was not really a convert after all, since his mother became Catholic when he was an infant. Likewise, C.S. Lewis, while he is discussed more often that Tolkien, is held in the background, because this is a book about Catholics, and Lewis never made it that far. There is a section that speculates that Lewis and T.S. Eliot might have become Catholics if they had lived to see the controversial reforms of the Anglican Church.

Chesterton is the big revelation, who hovers, like a benevolent spirit, over the spiritual life of a surprising number of authors who found religion in the last century. His influence was enormous. And who can resist such an energetic, jolly, benevolent author like Chesteron?

It seemed appropriate that Oscar Wilde was only briefly discussed, but Siegfried Sassoon and Edith Sitwell, both pictured on the cover of my copy (along with Chesterton and Waugh), also got a very abbreviated treatment. There just wasn’t room to tell the whole story with so many authors to discuss. Nevertheless, this book becomes a great jumping off point for a massive amount of further reading.
3.5 stars.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The value of this book is in chasing down the people he uses as examples and reading them in their own words (have just started with David Jones). There are virtually no insights into any of their characters from Pearce himself (he is particularly annoying about Sassoon, I have to say, and I really think he missed a great deal of Evelyn Waugh's persona as well). The book relies heavily, and I mean heavily, upon secondary sources, and feels cobbled together. But as an introduction to a substantial group of writers, some of whom have lapsed into obscurity, this ia very effective.

[Alonso Hilka Sares · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enciclopedia de escritores conversos, principalmente ingleses, que se lee como una novela familiar. Lo leí hace doce años y todavía tengo impresas en la cabeza miles de anécdotas y momentos mágicos. Sigue poblando ampliamente mi experiencia literaria, de ahí saqué decenas de libros y autores que quería explorar, y se me pobló la cabeza de intuiciones cristianas que han alimentado mi vida religiosa. Merece mucho la pena.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Literary Converts is a historical survey of the 'second spring' of Anglo-Catholic literature and all that followed, covering most of the twentieth century. Its author would call it a history of grace acting through literature, and Joseph knows about the power of literature; his own soul was rescued through it. In his youth he was the publisher of Bulldog, a vicious racial newspaper in the U.K, but while exploring economic debate he encountered Chesterton, and through Chesterton the redemptive power of the Christian faith. In Literary Converts, he takes on nearly a century of English literary society, focusing on a group of authors whose paths brought them closer to Rome, even as the rest of society became more secular. While the 32 sections appear to be miniature biographies, they are in fact intertwined; Pearce tells here the story of a multi-generational community, one decade’s converts inspiring the next through literature and personal conversation. There are many familiar names here, the greatest being G.K. Chesterton, but some have passed into obscurity. Many caused scandals when they converted, either because of their social status (R.H. Benson, the son of an Anglican archbishop), or because of their long-respected stature as libertines, like Evelyn Waugh. What did they see in tradition and the Catholic church, amid increasing material prosperity?

In an age of dehumanizing work and political machines, of eugenics and social darwinism, they saw an institution which insisted on the dignity of the human person, regardless of the ideology of the hour; when populations were being shifted from the fields to the cities, when everything seemed chaotic and new, they saw stability in a tradition that had weathered the storms of centuries and would, most likely, stand fast through these,As monstrous factories belched smoke, armed mobs brawled in the streets, and ugliness was enthroned, they saw in the west's tradition a preserve of beauty, truth, and love. The work produced by these authors -- a lifetime's worth of reading -- wasn't mere spiritual dabbling. Chesterton and Belloc, for interest, provided works of political economy in The Servile State, What's Wrong with the World, and An Outline of Sanity; T.S. Eliot created The Waste Land, and Christopher Dawson contributed insightful history. Even if they did not join the Catholic church, as was the case with C.S. Lewis and T.S. Eliot, they still drew very near it, and did so through literary engagement – and often through engagement with one another. To read this book is to eavesdrop on a great conversation, a century of passionate and introspective men and women grappling with the fundamental question of meaning.

While Pearce is an accessible writer, this is a book of density, and may fall on the obscure side for those who aren't passionate about -- even smitten by -- literature. I only heard of it while listening to Pearce lecture the 'English spring' following the Romantic period in literature.

Related:
Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis
The Fellowship: the Literary Lives of the Inklings, Phillip Zaleski
The Third Spring: G.K. Chesterton, Graham Greene, Christopher Dawson, and Davis Jones; Adam Schwartz

[sch · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book surveys a vast terrain - Catholic (and several Anglo-Catholic) convert writers across the whole of the twentieth century. (The title doesn't indicate that the focus is almost exclusively the British Isles.) Pearce convinced me of his two main theses: that G.K. Chesterton was an essential influence (a term the author understands in a capacious sense) in many or even most of these conversions, and that the converts comprised informal but substantial intellectual, artistic, and spiritual communities.

The author's criticism, however, is mostly uninteresting -- and what's worse, the 32 chapters (32!) are repetitive. His faux-Chestertonian prose is not infrequently triumphalist; witness the chapter on Greene (he's better on Waugh). He sometimes speculates at crucial moments in his argument. More importantly, one doesn't quite trust his use of sources: he usually relies, uncritically, on autobiographies and friends' memoirs.

On the other hand, Pearce corresponded with and interviewed a number of his subjects, their surviving family members, and their biographers -- which is valuable, if not necessarily more reliable.

[Quanah Jeffries · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two things I really appreciated about this book.

1. It speaks of each author in the context of their time and what they did. It wasn't just about faith and literature, but also politics, economics, society, et al.

2. Second it looks at each other in relation to others. They are not treated in isolation within their own individual chapters.

On a more personal note: This was the book that opened me up to literature. It is because of this book that I love literature so much. It is also the reason why I began smoking. I figured if these guys were smoking cigars when writing then I should smoke a cigar when reading what they wrote.

[Vijaya Bodach · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book took me a loooooong time to finish because invariably I had to go read more books by the author I just read about. I loved this book so much. Pearce has such a great knack for bringing people to life, for selecting the best quotes, for sharing wonderful details. I especially enjoyed how one person influenced another; it's the narrative thread through Literary Converts. Recommend it highly. This book is partly responsible for my ever-increasing collection of books. Been reading his Shakespeare plays in a nutshell essays and again I'm so impressed with how deep he goes. He's one of my favorite authors.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I truly admire the research that must've gone into this book. Although I wasn't familiar with about half of the greats covered in this work, the relationships among them and their influence on one another in their progress toward or within the realm of Christianity were fascinating. However, Literary Converts is a heavy read, so I recommend it for in-depth history and not for entertainment unless you are already familiar with the names of those who lived during this age of unbelief.

[Bruno Ramos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me encantó. Como todas las biografías de Pearce, merece la pena.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly researched and clear, with plenty of fodder for thinking and exploring. I couldn't give this five-stars because the converts were mostly converting from Anglicanism to Catholicism. There wasn't a depth to their theological and spiritual internal debates that I had thought, and sadly, a lot of the referenced books from many of the literati are lost to time unless you have a very good library nearby. I was also saddened by the nagging thought of what was the point of all of those smart people struggling over converting to Catholicism given the state of the church today.

[Emily Giuffre · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very heartening account of 20th Century English writers finding the Catholic Faith through the writers before them. Amazing how such worldly and educated people who had no use for the Faith, some even hostile towards it, eventually find themselves all at home in Mother Church. We are overdue another revival!

[Felicitas Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es una compilación de muchos autores del siglo XX con sus luchas, sus ideales y los conflictos en temas de la fe religiosa, la moral. En definitiva es la visión que cada uno de ellos tiene sobre el para qué de sus vidas.

Muy buena. Algunos personajes son desconocidos y otros muy famosos.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent!

[Adrianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rounded up from 3.5 stars

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a surprisingly moving look at English converts to (mostly) the Catholic Church during the 20th century. The breadth and scope of the book is large, but Pearce manages to keep the book very intimate, which was probably helped by the interconnectedness of most of the writers who were discussed. It’s remarkable to see how these people struggled with much of the same issues we have today - I can’t decide if I should feel worse that we have only gotten worse in society or hopeful that these things are cyclical. The wonderful thing, though, is that this book really is a reminder of the joys in following Truth. Another great thing is that I discovered a bunch of new books to read! Highly recommended.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Literary Converts: Spiritual Inspiration in an Age of Unbelief by Joseph Pearce is a terrifically rewarding book that covers the intellectual and spiritual development of some of Europe's leading thinkers along with their conversion to Roman Catholicism. The time period covered is roughly from 1880 to the 1980s and beyond. (Roughly 100 years)

This is a book written along the lines of Colin Wilson or Ken Wilbur style scholarship; i.e., an enormous amount of self-education and erudition is applied. The author never went to college or took any sort of professional instruction. It is rich with obscure quotations and depictions of very interesting lives that should not be obscure. The writing is crisp and compelling. The author wastes few words in his analysis of a period of time that still holds a treasure trove of wisdom for the present.

"The Roman Catholic Church has the unique power of keeping remote control over human souls which have once been part of her. G.K. Chesterton has compared this to the fisherman's line, which allow the fish the illusion of free play in the water and yet has him by the hook; in his own time, the fisherman by a 'twitch upon the thread' draws the fish to land." --Evelyn Waugh (part of memorandum he wrote for MGM studios for Brideshead Revisited)

[Skylar Burris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book explores the spiritual lives of converts to one form of Christianity or another, but primarily to Catholicism. Some authors discussed in the book are converting from Protestantism to Catholicism, others are moving out of the world of atheism and agnosticism into the light of Christianity for the first time. These conversions, set against the backdrop of the 20th century (an age in which God was declared to be "dead"), and occurring in such rapid numbers among the most elite intellectuals of the time, are fascinating. The author touches on the spiritual lives of numerous literary figures - Eliot, Tolkein, Lewis, Waugh, Knox, Sassoon, Sidwell, Chesterton, Greene, and so on. Literary Converts is at once historical, biographical, literary, and religious in subject matter, and the variety enables the book to remain fascinating. It is difficult to discern any order to Literary Converts. The books seems to be a collection of essays more than anything else, and consequently information from earlier chapters is often repeated and there is no logical development of theme. Although it might have been better organized, the book is never confusing or dull to read.