I just noticed that some authors on the CL book lists can be found in Francis Beauchesne Thornton's anthology Return to Tradition (RTT, 1948; I got a recent reprint for $35).
The anthology has excerpts of some of the works listed. It also has other works and excerpts by the authors, which is helpful to me in getting a fuller context on each author.
I've compiled a list of authors on these lists:
Book of the Month (BOM); Books of the Christian Spirit (BOCS); Other Recommended Readings (NA); work by author is not on the lists (Other).
Author name - title - book list - description
Benson, Robert Hugh - Lord of the World - BOM 1997 - excerpt: Chapter 6
Bernanos, Georges - The Diary of a Country Priest - Other - excerpt: Part 4
- The Star of Satan - NA - excerpt: Book 3
Bourget, Paul - The Disciple - NA - excerpt
Claudel, Paul - The Tidings Brought to Mary - BOCS - Prologue
- Tete D'Or - NA - Act II
Dawson, Christopher - "Humanism and the New Order" - NA - excerpt from Essays in Order
- "Democracy" - NA - excerpt from The Modern Dilemma
- "The Rise of Western Civilization" - NA - excerpt from Progress and Religion
- "The Age of Empire in the Near East" - NA - excerpt from The Age of the Gods
Greene, Graham - The Power and the Glory - BOM 1999 - excerpt: Chapter 2
- Brighton Rock - NA - excerpt
Marshall, Bruce - Father Malachy's Miracle - BOM 1995 - excerpt: Chapter 10
- The World, the Flesh and Father Smith - BOM 1999 - excerpt: Chapter 2
Newman, John Henry - "The Second Spring" - NA - Sermon
- "St. Chrysostom " - NA - from Historical Sketches
- "Idea of the University" - NA - Discourse V
- "History of My Religious Opinions" - NA - from Apologia Pro Vita Sua
- "The Dream of Gerontius" - NA - poetry
- "The Pillar of the Cloud" - NA - poetry
Peguy, Charles - "The Supplicants and the Supplicated" - NA - excerpt from translation: Men and Saints, trans. Anne and Julian Green
- "Mortal Sin and Leprosy" - NA - excerpt from translation: excerpt from Men and Saints
- "Freedom" - NA - excerpt from translation: Basic Verities, Prose and Poetry
- "War and Peace" - NA - excerpt from translation: Basic Verities, Prose and Poetry
- "The Rights of Man" - NA - excerpt from translation: Basic Verities, Prose and Poetry
2 comments:
A literary anthology has only texts excerpts, not the complete work. This means that it cannot give you the "complete experience" of reading a work of art, it is like seeing the face of the Monalisa and not the complete painting. As a literature academic, I recommend that you read a complete text than three excerpts.
Yes. And when you do read excerpts, you are at the mercy of the selector, who determines what is important - acting as a censor.
So, I would not recommend replacing a work with an excerpt. I would, however, recommend sampling an author by reading excerpts from several works. As a teacher, I would even introduce students to a work by having them read excerpts.
I'm more of a both/and person. It is valuable to read the whole, but it can also be valuable to read the part.
For example, many folks have meditated on one line from Greene's book, The End of the Affair: "For me, the present is never now." So much power is contained in one sentence. It's also desirable for folks to read the whole novel.
With the anthology, Return to Tradition, I can read the entire prologue of Claudel's The Tidings Brought to Mary. I can also read selections from Dawson to supplement my reading of several of his other books. I appreciate having the small samples from Peguy to supplement what I know of his writings from The Portal of the Mystery of Hope and secondary literature.
The ideal of the New Critics (1950s) was that every line, every word contribute to the overall effect. But this is not always the case. For example, book 17 (if I recall correctly) of the Odyssey is nothing but a series of proverbs and may easily be skipped in an introductory reading (unless one attends Thomas Aquinas College).
I remember trying to pull a quote from CS Lewis's Perelandra once, but his prose so diligently builds its effect that I found this task very difficult. The same is true, by the way, of Peguy so it's a good thing that the Peguy pieces in Return to Tradition are essays.
Fred
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