About Last Nightby Helen Alvare. In shedding its powerful light on the relationship between our sexual selves and the rest of our lives, Sigrid Undset's great novel Kristin Lavransdatter reveals the nature of virtue and inspires us to want to live more virtuous lives.
Arabic Christian LiteratureDr. George Khoury speaks about the contribution of the Melkites, the Jacobites, the Nestorians, The Copts and the Maronites to the Arab Christian Heritage.
Books of Michael O'Brienby Ellen M. Rice. Whatever I am reading, whether fiction or fact, lowbrow or highbrow, it must take a back seat if I find a new Michael O'Brien novel. For some reason, his books are addictive. After reading one O'Brien book, it is clear that we have among us in him a contemplative genius - one who has the gift of surveying the world around him with great sensitivity and accurately measuring the true meaning of things.
Catholic Church and Conversionby Robert Miner. Article about Chesterton's book of the same name. (from Catholic Dossier, May/June 1998)
Francois Mauriac1885 - 1970 A glance at the life of Francois Mauriac, one of the greatest French Novelists of the 20th century. A Nobel Prize winner who produced an astonishing amount of outstanding bestsellers.
FrankensteinDr E Michael Jones analyses the conflict that existed in the soul of Mary Shelley, the young wife of the poet Percy Shelley.
Gatsby's Epitaph: F. Scott Fitzgeraldby Jody Bottum. The best Catholic novels seem to be written by those who know, no matter how far they've fallen in faith and morals, that the truth is there. Take F. Scott Fitzgerald, who fell about as far as anyone can from the Church--though, of course, (and this is what everyone who reads Fitzgerald with even half an eye must eventually see) it turns out that you can't fall very far, no matter how hard you try.
Good Writer is Hard to Findby Ronald Weber. The great American author Flannery O'Connor once remarked, "When people have told me that because I am a Catholic, I cannot be an artist, I have had to reply, ruefully, that because I am a Catholic, I cannot afford to be less than an artist." "I have found… from reading my own writing, that my subject in fiction is the action of grace in territory held largely by the devil. I have also found that what I write is read by an audience which puts little stock either in grace or the devil."
Importance of the Classicsby Louise Cowan. The great books speak to us of honor and love and sacrifice; but they do not always speak in familiar phrases. They do not tell us what we already know. Transcending current opinion and fad, through symbol and metaphor they reveal a clear and uncluttered access to the realities that determine our lives.
Just a Fairy Story?by Michael O'Brien. Most of us do not learn about the nature of reality through theology or philosophy, but from those great stories which contain the rich spiritual truths of the unseen world.
Literature as Preparation for Deathby John O'Callaghan. As a writer of novels and occasional essays, Walker Percy is fascinated by our pilgrimage unto death. For autobiographical reasons, it is perhaps the most pervasive theme among the many in his writing. Percy prepared for death by making fun of the contemporary gods of Western culture, scientism, aestheticism, eroticism, and production in the name of the God of the Cross made known to him by means of his friends in the Church. It is appropriate to say that for Percy the novelist and essayist, literature is preparation for death.
Long Conversion of Oscar Wildeby Andrew McCracken . When he died, Oscar Wilde had passed from being a blithe devotee of things Roman to being a baptized and anointed member of the Catholic Church.
Novelist is a Rare Catholic Voice in Literatureby Ellen Rossini. To those who think the first and last words in Catholic American literature are Flannery O'Connor and Walker Percy, comes a worthy successor in, contemporary novelist Ron Hansen.
On Being a Catholic Writer by Ralph McInerny. Ralph McInerny, best selling author of the popular Father Dowling books, tells how he became a successful author, and defines what it means to be a "Catholic" writer.
Reading Sigrid Undsetby Cynthia Grenier. To Sigrid Undset, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature some seventy years ago, goes the distinction of being the premier Catholic novelist of this century.
Restoration of Christian Storytellingby Michael O'Brien. Great literature is not primarily about the implanting of praiseworthy ideas, though of course this is one of its roles. Most of all it is about the imparting of the great adventure, the majesty and mystery of the moral cosmos.
Shakespeare Scholars Say the Bard was... Catholic?by Paul Burnell. A connection with the Catholic underground - "headquartered" at Hoghton Tower during the time of Elizabeth's fierce persecution of Catholics - would make Shakespeare a much more subversive figure than many assume.
Sigrid Undset's Time WarpA sketch of Sigrid Undset's life by Kathryn Hagen. She was a 20th-Century Nobel Laureate, a convert and the author of Kristin Lavransdatter (from Catholic Heritage, September/October 1997)
Strange Shipwreck of Robinson Crusoeby Philip Zaleski. As if conscious of his role as father of the English novel, Daniel Dafoe, in Robinson Crusoe, bequeathed us a work that addresses the origin and destiny of human beings, of justice, freedom, and the state, of civilization itself.
The "Classics" Are Not the "Canon"by Roger Ludlin. In an age such as ours, when cynicism and suspicion can make it difficult for us to take seriously anything that fails to meet our own standards or to gratify our desires, the great classics of literature have a unique power to speak to us of our potential and our peril.
Tolkien: Man and Myth: book reviewby Daniel Kennelly . We have come from God, Tolkien said, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God.
Was Shakespeare A Catholic? : UnknownWhat influenced Shakespeare's writing? Was it Catholicism or Protestantism? This article, taken from the July 1854 issue of the "Rambler", provides an insight.
Waugh Revisitedby James Hitchcock. Perhaps rather than a Catholic novel, Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited should be called a sacramental novel in a particular sense. In the end Jesus' Eucharistic presence triumphs over artistry, mere good taste, and social class, the chapel now available for the use of waves of soldiers who in the lost ordered world which Charles mourns could never have entered its precincts.
