The next section begins with Dell complacently arriving in the countryside for a splendidly luxurious holiday with Fr Yolland’s wealthy father. The moment Dell sees the elderly Mr Yolland, he […]
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Category: Literature
I discuss works of literature, chiefly from a spiritual perspective. I believe that religious culture is important, and can manifest even if one is not explicitly talking about religion. That is, religion has an effect on values, and they can be reflected in secular literature.
R.H. Benson, “The Sentimentalists,” 4
Significantly, Dell launches into a full-throated defence of the truth of all religions (20): which makes one wonder why he converted to Catholicism. Fr Yolland sees that his friend is […]
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R.H. Benson, “The Sentimentalists,” Pt 3.
When Fr Yolland opens the package of all Dell’s worldly belongings he finds: … a neat pile of pyjamas—silk, for he felt them incredulously—a spotless collar, an Indian silk tie, […]
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R.H. Benson, “The Sentimentalists,” I
Robert Hugh Benson’s The Sentimentalists, was published in London by Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons Ltd., 1906. Pitman himself (1837-1897) invented Pitman shorthand, and distance education using the English postal […]
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This Word, “Meddle”
I am reading Robert Hugh Benson’s early novel By What Authority? One of RBH’s strong suits as a novelist is his graceful employment of an extraordinarily wide vocabulary: his use of […]
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Firmly I Believe and Truly
This anecdote about Walter Scott, otherwise unknown to me, is extracted from the writings of Mary Josephine “Maisie” Ward 1889-1975, who had the signal honour to be the great-great-granddaughter of […]
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Anne of Geierstein or The Daughter of the Mist
Many readers do not like Anne of Geierstein (1829). Schoolchildren who were obliged to read it are said to have been turned many readers off Walter Scott’s novels altogether. I […]
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Jasper Dryfesdale (“The Abbot”)
Walter Scott’s 1820 novel, The Abbot, has fared rather better with critics than with the reading public. I am one amateur critic who also likes it, although I would not […]
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A Legend of the Wars of Montrose by Walter Scott
Why do most commentators undervalue Sir Walter Scott’s short novel, A Legend of the Wars of Montrose (1819)? I wonder if it is not because of the Catholic sympathy he […]
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The Black Dwarf (second and final part)
Having said something about the purpose and possibilities of literature, and introduced Walter Scott’s 1816 novel The Black Dwarf, I shall now discuss its contents. 3. The Issues As stated, […]
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