Rating: 
Summary: Great look at a particular slice of history
Review: A friend loaned me this book. I read it and loved it so much that I went out and bought my own copy (and I rarely buy hardcover books!). This is a wonderful introduction to English Christian writers (mostly converts) of the twentieth century. It is an introduction only, for further details about each one you'll have to find individual biographies. The book discusses the impact of the time period on various people in a way that really illuminated some events in history for me. The biggest frustration that I had after reading this book is that so many of the authors mentioned are largely out of print and our local libraries don't have their books either. I'm still trying to track down Robert Hugh Benson's Lord of the World. But I have managed to read some Knox, and a lot more Chesterton after reading this book.If you want to know why some Christians supported Franco, why the post World War I generation was so disillusioned, and why a lot of very bright young men and women became Christian in an age when many were turning their back on the Church this is a book that touches on all of these issues. Just be prepared for frustration when you can't easily find books by the authors that Pearce is writing about.
Rating: 
Summary: scattered convertions
Review: I bought the book with the idea of entering those great minds and their struggles with conversion amid opposition and rejecttion. But Pearce's books is a mountain of scattered information about these monumental figures. I struggled to finish it each time I took to reading it since, I would get lost with the too abundant disgresions/distractions from the person he is dealing with at the time. I do find the book a great piece of research, not of literature (so disordered! ) and came out with a feeling of being shorthanded in the issue of their motives. It's a GOOD portrait of the times when they were alive and changing our society. All in all I do not recomend it for gaining insight in the lives of these writers, but good for a glimpse at their times and the cultural environmet. Sorry.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating portrait of the British literary giants
Review: I picked it up over the weekend and was fascinated by Pierce's portrait of the 20th century Christian literary world. I could be very wrong, but I have trouble imagining any of the contemporary Christian writers interacting much with each other. But early in the 20th century, it seems things were much different. I never guessed that writers as diverse as Lewis, Sayers, Tolkien, Williams, Waugh, Chesterton, Greene, and Eliot would interact so much with each other. Just reading the correspondence between these literary giants is a joy.
Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: Intellectual and inspirational too. Packed with info on great authors I was unfamiliar with, like Fr. Knox. Now I want to get one of his books!
Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: Intellectual and inspirational too. Packed with info on great authors I was unfamiliar with, like Fr. Knox. Now I want to get one of his books!
Rating:
Summary: Pearce is at his best here . . .
Review: Joseph Pearce has built a strong reputation by writing wonderful biographies of Catholic literary greats. His volumes on Chesterton and Belloc are particularly noteworthy. But in "Literary Converts" we are treated to an excellent survey of the large number of English literary greats who either converted from the Anglican Church to Catholicism, became Catholics after having no faith at all, or otherwise embraced Christianity in the first half of the twentieth century. Evelyn Waugh, G.K. Chesterton, Robert Hugh Benson, T.S. Eliot, Hillaire Belloc and many other colorful characters appear throughout the book. Perhaps the best way to read Pearce is to begin with Literary Converts and then read his biographies on single subjects like Belloc, Chesterton, and Tolkien for more detail. Once you read one, I think you'll come back for more.
Rating:
Summary: Pearce is at his best here . . .
Review: Joseph Pearce has built a strong reputation by writing wonderful biographies of Catholic literary greats. His volumes on Chesterton and Belloc are particularly noteworthy. But in "Literary Converts" we are treated to an excellent survey of the large number of English literary greats who either converted from the Anglican Church to Catholicism, became Catholics after having no faith at all, or otherwise embraced Christianity in the first half of the twentieth century. Evelyn Waugh, G.K. Chesterton, Robert Hugh Benson, T.S. Eliot, Hillaire Belloc and many other colorful characters appear throughout the book. Perhaps the best way to read Pearce is to begin with Literary Converts and then read his biographies on single subjects like Belloc, Chesterton, and Tolkien for more detail. Once you read one, I think you'll come back for more.
Rating:
Summary: A Collage of Biographies
Review: Noted biographer, Joseph Pearce, adds to and moves beyond his biographies of G.K. Chesterton and J.R.R. Tolkien with this wonderful collection. Pearce examines the spiritual lives of some of the greatest writers: Oscar Wilde, Evelyn Waugh, C.S. Lewis, Malcolm Muggeridge, Graham Greene, Edith Sitwell, Siegfried Sassoon, Hilaire Belloc, Dorothy Sayers, T.S. Eliot, and of course Gilbert and Tolkien as well. The book takes a look at what inspired these great writers, as well as the role played by non-Christian converts H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw in the religious debate.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant survey of 20th century English Catholic writers
Review: Starting with Oscar Wilde (of all people) and ending more or less with the rather sad deaths of Evelyn Waugh, Hugh Ross Williamson, and Alec Guiness, Joseph Pearce has created an enjoyable, readable, and enormously fun history of English converts and near-converts to Catholicism. It's hard to even recall how many names wander about this book. There are so many of them - Chesterton & Belloc, of course, but also Waugh, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Ronald Knox, Roy Campbell, Graham Greene, Dorothy Parker and many others wander in and out of the narrative. His writing style is very rapid - some chapters are only a few pages long, and the book is a very quick read. More an introduction than in-depth biographies, the author aims at breath rather then depth. As he has written many other biographies on the same subjects and includes many footnoted sources, if you want more info you can easily find it. One complaint is a total lack of goodies aside from the footnotes mentioned above -no forward or intro, no conclusion, no photos, and, what really would have been helpful, no list of works these authors wrote.
The star of the book, if he can be called such, is Chesterton. Through his personality, writing, and wit, he seems to have drawn more converts to the Catholic Church than all of the others combined. Ironically enough, Chesterton did not convert until 1922, only 14 years before his death and long after many were persuaded to join through his writings. His writings pop up over and over, long after his death, and I suspect he will continue to draw in converts far into the future - the author himself converted because of reading Chesterton.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Survey of 20th Century Christian Writers
Review: This book explores the spiritual lives of converts to one form of Christianity or another, but primarily to Catholicism, which is increasingly portrayed (if not by the author himself than by the quotes from the literati) as the one true religion. However, the book also deals with some famous Anglican converts, such as T.S. Eliot and C.S. Lewis. Some authors discussed in the book are converting from Protestantism to Catholicism, others are moving out of the world of atheism and agnosticism into the light of Christianity for the first time. These conversions, set against the backdrop of the 20th century (an age in which God was declared to be "dead" and in which man was attempting to make of himself a superhuman), and occurring in such rapid numbers among the most elite intellectuals of the time, are fascinating.
A good portion of the book also deals with the horrified reactions of literary converts (such as Evelyn Waugh) to the modernization of the Catholic mass. Though not a Catholic myself, I found this portion of the book interesting because it sheds (whether intentionally or not) a penetrating light on the current, largely vapid, state of worship in a great many of the churches in all of the denominations today.
Upon approaching the book, I had not expected such a focus on Catholicism, but the author is, after all, dealing with history, and the fact of the mater is that most great literary figures who wished to escape the overwhelming secular wasteland of their time were drawn to the Catholic, and not some Protestant, church. The author touches on the spiritual lives of numerous literary figures - Eliot, Tolkein, Lewis, Waugh, Knox, Sassoon, Sidwell, Chesterton, Greene, and so on. Even Oscar Wilde makes an appearance, with a death bed conversion to Catholicism. Literary Converts is at once historical, biographical, literary, and religious in subject matter, and the variety enables the book to remain fascinating. So too does the author's liberal use of quotes from the letters, conversations, and writings of the literary figures themselves, which proves far better than would have any mere narration.
It is difficult to discern any order to Literary Converts. The books seems to be a collection of essays more than anything else, and consequently information from earlier chapters is often repeated and there is no logical development of theme. Although it might have been better organized, the book is never confusing or dull to read. I only wish more had been said about certain figures and less about others. For any Christian interested in literature, this book is absolutely a must read.
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