Literary Giants, Literary Catholics

by Joseph Pearce

British author Joseph Pearce has firmly established himself as the premier literary biographer of our time, especially in interpreting the spiritual depths of the Catholic literary tradition. In this new book, Pearce examines a plethora of authors, taking the reader through a dazzling tour of the creative landscape of Catholic prose and poetry. Literary Giants, Literary Catholics covers the vast terrain from Dante to Tolkien, from Shakespeare to Waugh. Focusing on the literary revival of the 20th century, Joseph Pearce touches on well-known authors like G.K. Chesterton and J.R.R. Tolkien, but also introduces readers to lesser-known writers like Roy Campell, Maurice Baring, and Owen Barfield. Anyone who appreciates English literature will be entranced by the wealth and depth of this new masterpiece.

Genres: Catholic, Nonfiction, Literature, Religion, Classics, Biography, Ebooks

425 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2005

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

[Audrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the idea of this book, and I did learn a lot from it. However, it frustrates me how poor the editing was—especially for a second edition. There is very little scope for the volume as a whole. It’s as if the author found a file folder of things he’d written and decided to loosely string them together and call it a book. This poor organization results in the repetition of entire snatches of text, phrases, or analogies that were included in previous sections of the book. It seems Pearce frequently cut-and-pasted among his essays and never bothered to weed out the oft-recycled parts.

Also, the title is rather misleading. I had hoped for an orderly indexed account of major Catholic authors—perhaps with an essay on each one. Instead, the focus is mainly on British Catholic literary figures, or just figures that the author is interested in … or even just topics he wants to write about. Reading essays about John Paul II, Salvador Dali, and Modern Art were all very interesting, but why are they in this book? When subjects branched off into reviews on Paul McCartney and Mel Gibson projects, essays on “The Magic of Technology,” then personal short stories and musings on the seasons … well, that’s when I got really confused about the mis-marketing of this book. It’s not what the cover promised!

Furthermore, I wish the literary coverage was more balanced. The book is divided up into five parts (for the class I took, we read all but Part Four): Part One is called “Tradition and Conversion,” but it includes a mix of topics; Part Two is dedicated to the Chesterton/Belloc duo; Part Three is mostly Modernist writers; Part Four is devoted to Tolkien and the Inklings; Part Five is a scrambled mix of random offerings—cultural commentary, book and movie reviews, and personal reflections.

At times, Pearce’s writing style annoyed me. Depending on the topic, he alternates between hostility and fawning, and he sometimes seems to effusively slant his topic ever-so-slightly to fit his own narrative. Editorializing a bit is fine, but I would’ve preferred more honesty and less elaboration. He also uses wordplay and alliteration a bit too much—to the level of distraction. Pearce is probably a lovely fellow, and I do not mean to be unnecessarily critical, but surely someone along the line could have caught these things?

Despite the flaws, I did enjoy the book, and I learned a lot about various literary figures and topics. It just was not the text I expected or hoped it would be. However, it is a great idea for a book that still should exist. With more work, editing, and input, I think Ignatius Press still could create such a volume.

[Manuel Alfonseca · Rating 4 out of 5]

ENGLISH: An excellent collection of short articles by Pearce about the main English catholic writers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: John Henry Newman, Oscar Wilde, Robert Hugh Benson, the Chesterbelloc (G.K.Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc), Maurice Baring, Evelyn Waugh, Roy Campbell, Graham Greene, J.R.R.Tolkien, and many more. In addition to this, Pearce has added some articles with his opinions on general topics, such as modern art, Dalí, and other issues. Let us look at an interesting quote:

[C]ynics have no time for sin. Or so they say... In fact, of course, they have no time for anything else. Unable or unwilling to banish sin from their lives, they seek instead to ban it from the language.

ESPAÑOL: Excelente colección de artículos cortos de Pearce sobre los principales escritores católicos ingleses de los siglos XIX y XX: John Henry Newman, Oscar Wilde, Robert Hugh Benson, the Chesterbelloc (G.K.Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc), Maurice Baring, Evelyn Waugh, Roy Campbell, Graham Greene, J.R.R.Tolkien, y muchos más. Además de esto, Pearce ha añadido algunos artículos con sus opiniones sobre temas generales, como el arte moderno, Dalí, y otras cuestiones. Veamos una cita:

Los cínicos no tienen tiempo para el pecado. O eso dicen... De hecho, por supuesto, no tienen tiempo para otra cosa. Incapaces u opuestos a desterrar el pecado de sus vidas, tratan en cambio de prohibirlo en el lenguaje.

[Marie Trotter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Other Goodreads reviewers have already commented on the unevenness of this volume - while individual chapters and essays have their strengths, the overall scope is unwieldy and poorly designed. The volume is not an overview or introduction to the Catholic literary tradition but rather a series of spotlights on Pearce's personal interests and pet peeves within said tradition. In his attempts to be bold and provocative he makes seriously biased (and offensive) overstatements, at one point suggesting that modern literary critics are of a kind with Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, and that Oscar Wilde is somehow responsible for contemporary abortion rates. Hyperbole is a rhetorical technique - here it undermines the author's credibility. Pearce's preference is obviously for certain figures within the Catholic literary tradition - Chesterton, Tolkien, etc., which is fine, but in his focus on their writing, his concept of the Catholic literary tradition emerges as exclusive and narrow, consisting of mostly men from the 20th century. It's worth noting that only 2 of the 67 chapters in this 400+ page volume are on women writers, and one of those chapters is an attack on a female literary critic because of her feminist views. There's also a random chapter at the end about how feminism (in a very vague, general sense) is bad, because women wanting liberty is somehow crass? It's a shame that the strengths in Pearce's research and writing on Chesterton and Tolkien are overshadowed by his grandstanding and his biases against anything modern or remotely progressive.

[Thadeus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book lived up to the subtitle, it truly is a field guide. After having read through a first time, I feel myself much more aware of the sources of 20th century literary revival and what authors and works that I might pick up to connect with this good literature.

I feel that this work will be a regular companion as I attempt to educate myself in the humanities after having not pursued or appreciated them in my youth.

Highly recommended for connecting with good authors and literature!

[Therese · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book about books! I enjoyed his commentary and perspective throughout.

[Cris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of essays and articles by Joseph Pearce is very informative and, I would say, contains material that is more than your basic introduction to English language Catholic literature (and films)...... However, I feel that in certain instances he gets carried away not by the literary merits of a piece but by his zeal for the faith. This is great in a speaker but unseemly in a researcher. And in listening to my betters, sober persons better-informed than I, I find that I am not alone in finding him a little over-enthusiastic. Some of the authors he writes about ARE more obscure than others and frankly maybe lacking in style, to me. On the other hand, several of the longer essays however are worthwhile because they tackle the history and influences of movements, like the Oxford Movement and the Modernity of Anglo-Catholic T.S. Eliot and Edith Sitwell (whom he includes as a neo-oxfordian). John Henry Newman and the Chesterbelloc figure largely in this book as does Peter Jackson. However, I think many persons feel that he overstates the evidence for the Catholicism of Sheakspeare. Though yes, Hamlet does touch prominently on the sacrament of confession and many of his other works lace Catholic topics in -- the truth is that there isn't a uniform consensus on wether Shakespeare was a recusant Catholic. I would say interested lit people can read this with profit but not as gospel.

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating overview of the English literary movement of the early twentieth century. Personally, I'm a little divided over the use of so much space of G.K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc. and J.R.R. Tolkien, since the author already wrote biographies of each author; on the other hand, Mr. Pearce also included some new information on each author, such as the recently discovered first novel of Chesterton, and recent books on Tolkien.

What prevented this book from getting five stars was the author's acceptance of Vatican II as being in line with Catholic tradition; for example, in chapter 7 he states that the council "truly understood, had precious little to do with opening the windows to let in the malodorous scent of modernity". This not only contradicts the work of such men as Michael Davies and Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (and thoroughly documented in journals such as Catholic Family News) but also the words of Paul VI himself.

Mr. Pearce also seems to equate Protestantism with Christianity, such as referring to C.S. Lewis as "the most influential Christian apologist of the twentieth century", and finding it necessary to refer to refer to "Catholic Christianity", as if the two words were not synonymous.

[Kristy Flowers · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted desperately to love this book. Instead, it was a struggle to even finish. It reads like a collection of essays and rants that only sometimes fit together in theme and that are redundant to the point of annoyance. This really was an editorial miss.

The first half of the book doesn’t really dig in to the religious elements of the writers so much as it talks about their lives and public critics of them. The writing goes from stiff and academic to flowery alliteration and dramatic overkill. In my opinion, far too much time was spent discussing the “Chesterbelloc” and opinions on those writers than was spent showing how Chesterton and Belloc shared their faith in their works.

It seemed to me to be an opinion piece rather than a factual presentation of writers of faith. The amount of space devoted to adjectives fawning over various writers was ridiculous. In several places it seemed to be a shameless plug for the author’s other works, even going so far as to quote his own works and cite them. Are there so few other sources that you have to cite yourself?

It’s clear that the author is passionate about JRR Tolkien and his work, because that’s when the book FINALLY begins to delve into religious writing. THIS section is what I thought the entire book would be. It dives deep into the religious influence on Tolkien’s life and how he translated that to his work. (It does get slightly fan-girly in this section) However, even the Tolkien sections repeat and become tough to wade theough.

Overall, the book felt like a textbook more than a tool for enjoyment and learning for everyday Catholics. If used in a class in pieces instead of reading as a whole “book,” I do think this could encourage helpful discourse; however, I think this was a missed opportunity to reach masses of Catholics who love literature. If I had known this, I never would have read it.

[Masha · Rating 2 out of 5]

[sigh]....

Every time I read Joseph Pearce, I'm disappointed. I don't know how much of my frustration comes from the consistently poor editing (Do Better, Ignatius Press); and how much of it comes from Pearce's tone in all of his writing - which tends to be arrogant and pedantic - and the awkward combination of poor editing and arrogant tone.

This is a collection of essays. Like many collections, it has essays that are good and essays that are less good.

I was sad to see that in a collection called "Literary Giants, Literary Catholics" it lacked some really delightful Catholic authors - a lot of really delightful Literary figures - while including essays on non-literary people like Dali, Paul McCartney, and Mel Gibson. In a lot of ways, it felt very much like Pearce just told his editor he wanted to write essays on all his Random Thoughts and his editor tried to market it to Pearce's audience by picking a title that only partially fits.

[Kevin W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Often the material was annoyingly redundant. The last 1/5 of the book was like a random series of blog posts. Also, I didn’t realize the scope was going to be limited to pretty much only covering 20th century European authors. Nevertheless, I was amazed at how insightful the author was into the historical, political, cultural, philosophical, and theological visions of the time of each work and author mentioned.
Content: 4/5
Format: 2/5
Overall: 3/5

[Leslie Moellering · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I learned much in this book and I now have so many more books and so many more authors I want to read. Pearce makes me even wish I had learned to appreciate poetry more so I could also enjoy all the poems he references. The book bogged down slightly in the repetitive essays on Tolkien, but it was still informative to read.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Didn't totally finish this as it is more of a reference book (ex. what to read when you have nothing to read and that's not an issue for me rn). I will pick through it as life proceeds but I'm not going to sit and read it as it's not meant to be that type of book.

[Almachius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pros: There's lots of repetition, so by the end, you really feel like you've learnt some stuff - and it's good stuff.

Cons: There's lots of repetition, so it almost feels like it you never get beyond introductory ideas.

On balance, a very worthwhile and enjoyable read.

[Judine Brey · Rating 3 out of 5]

While these essays were interesting, it was evident they had been originally written for other places. This made the Tolkien section, especially, repetitive.

[Brianna Osborne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Had a few useful book recommendations, but mostly repetitive and strayed from its purported topic.

[Fides · Rating 3 out of 5]

collection of essays

[Judine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pearce is a literary scholar specializing in British authors (which makes sense, since he's British). The primary focus of this text was British authors who were also Catholics, and whose religion influenced what and how they wrote. Tolkien and Lewis (as well as the other Inklings) are covered, as are Chesterton and Belloc (as well as their friends). This book was valuable in giving me a wide range of authors and titles that I now want to look into; however, Pearce's essays in the last two sections of the book left a little to be desired. The Tolkien essays were interesting, but as they were often essays he had written for other publications, they tended to be repetitive. The final section was a disperse conglomerate of authors, ranging from Shakespeare to Oscar Wilde to (yes) Paul McCartney. The themes were a bit too far-flung to make for coherent reading. The first two sections were well-worth the time and if the final two had been of this caliber, the book would have received a higher rating.

[Ruth Paszkiewicz · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a selection of of essays the range here interesting, but as a book, the collection does not necessarily hold together, as many of the essays make the same points repeatedly. They are also short, which makes the book very readable, but sometimes seems that the author has not given himself the space to fully discuss his later subjects. Pearce also quotes himself liberally, and while he has written a lot on catholic authors, it gives the impression of a lack of depth which is perhaps misleading.

[Horacio Carreno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty baller book.