John Inglesant: A Romance Complete

by John Henry Shorthouse

"I have read nothing more thoughtful and suggestive since Middlemarch." -Lord ActonThe eponymous hero is an Anglican, despite being educated partly by Jesuits, and remains so, largely on the advice of his Jesuit mentor, despite strong temptations to convert to Roman Catholicism. Even so, he finds himself involved in intrigues between the Roman Catholic Church and the High Church party of the Church of England, and becomes a courtier of Charles I. He falls in love, he fights in the English Civil War, is tried for treason, undergoing many adventures. Despite all the above, this is a book of ideas as much as action. Every page of brisk activity or intrigue is usually followed by debates on such topics as Arminianism, Quietism, and the Papacy. A major literary figure in Tolkien’s day, John A Romance was a smash hit.As a boy, Tolkien passed Shorthouse’s front-door every morning on his way to Mass. Few people today have read John Inglesant, but its preoccupation with the virtue of pity may well have affected Tolkien’s development of that theme in The Lord of the Rings.

110 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 16, 2021