In attempt to break my streak of nonfiction of reading, I elsewhere solicited advice on good fictional literature. That exercise has inspired me a little bit to see what people would put on a list of catholic literature. I would include Catholic, Orthodox, and high Anglican writers for purposes of constructing this list. To spur discussion, I will offer some writers off the top of my head.
Fyodor Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment, Brothers Karamazov
C.S. Lewis: Chronicles of Narnia
J.R.R. Tolkien: Lord of the Rings
Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina, War and Peace
Evelyn Waugh: Brideshead Revisited, Helena, the Sword of Honor Trilogy
Flannery O’Connor: All
Walker Percy: Love in the Ruins, The Thanatos Syndrome
Graham Greene: The End of the Affair, The Power and the Glory
Charles Williams: War in Heaven
Madeline L’Engle: Wrinkle in Time series
I second all of the above (especially Flannery O’Connor) and would add:
Evelyn Waugh: The Loved One
Tolkien: Leaf by Niggle
Lewis: The Screwtape Letters
Dante: The Divine Comedy
Shakespeare: Hamlet, King Lear
Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose
J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter series
Shusaku Endo: Silence
Lewis’s The Great Divorce is at the very top of my list, for sure. Also Till We Have Faces.
As a note, my preference would be to limit this to dead authors, no offense intended against the living.
Also didn’t Tolstoy reject Orthodoxy? I’ve never read any of his works but I thought he reviled the Russian Church and all organized religion; don’t know how much this came out in his fiction, though.
A Canticle For Liebowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
And let’s not forget G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday !
Regarding Tolstoy, he later did reject Orthodoxy and also was excommunicated per Wikipedia. That was relatively late in his writing career.
I’ve never understood the deference given to dead writers. Did Crime and Punishment only become great after Dostoevsky’s death? Do we really need a certain amount of time to decide that a work of art is deserving? What’s the rationale?
Regarding my two living selections: I might grant you Rowling, but I think Eco’s been around long enough that his canon deserves consideration.
An inclusion of contemporary writers tends to cause discussion to dominate around them. That is my rationale.
Two under-read authors:
The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
Rasselas by Samuel Johnson
I will only add a few which have not been said, but some which have I would have also added (I won’t name names, but people who know me would know which), and there are many more I could add, but won’t for various reasons. One I know is unorthodox but he is that good that he can’t be missed.
August Derleth, Sac Prairie People (or some of his other works of fiction that are literary and not genre related).
Charles Williams, All Hallow’s Eve
William Morris (even though he is not really Anglican, Catholic or Orthodox, he is necessary reading): House of the Wolfings and The Well at the World’s End.
Dostoevsky, The Idiot
Bernanos, Diary of a Country Priest
H. Boehl, The Clown
Mauriac, Vipers’ Tangle, et al.
Paul Claudel, Satin Slipper, et al.
Just wanted to add my seconds and thirds of some of the books above, some of which have changed my life in fundamental ways (especially O’Connor):
Brideshead Revisited
Canticle for Liebowitz
All Flannery O’Connor
Shusaku Endo’s Silence
T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral; Four Quartets; Ash Wednesday
G.M. Hopkins, The Wreck of the Deutschland
Edmund Spenser, The Fairy Queen
After further reflection, I’d add Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.
Also, while strictly speaking it goes beyond the question, there are two “group biographies” of several of the above listed authors that I would recommend: The Life You Save May Be Your Own, by Paul Elie, which recounts the intertwining lives of Thomas Merton, Walker Percy, Flannery O’Connor, and Dorothy Day, and The Inklings, by Humphrey Carpender, which deals with the literary friendships of Lewis, Tolkien, and Charles Williams. The latter book is a bit uncharitable when it comes to Lewis IMO, but otherwise both books are excellent.
I would second many of the recommendations above and add my own, Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter Trilogy.
John Kennedy Toole, The Confederacy of Dunces
Henryk Sienkiewicz’s Quo Vadis?
Well, since we went slightly off topic, let me add two fantastic books regarding Walker Percy. (I’m not sure his The Moviegoer has been listed. It is superb).
Jay Tolson’s A Pilgrim in the Ruins is a fantastic biography of Percy, and the collection of letters between Percy and his life long friend, fellow novelist, civil war historian, and agnostic (?) Shelby Foote, The Correspondence of Shelby Foote & Walker Percy is also insightful.
Has anyone read Tim Gautreaux? He’s Catholic. A fellow Flannery O’Connor aficionada friend of mine loves him, especially his book The Clearing.
Georges Bernanos,
Diary of a Country Priest.
Please read it!
I am kind of upset that it hasn’t been mentioned yet.
8 posts above yours, G. Alkon. Take a peak.
Edmund Spenser’s the Faery Queen is an ANTI-CATHOLIC epic, and the “Grand Inquisitor” episode of the Brothers Karamazov is ample evidence of Dostoevski’s sectarian hatred of the Roman Catholic Church. The only major Russian novelist who was pro-Catholic was Gogol (a much greater writer than Dostoevski, selon moi and Nabokov), who wrote that, in Rome, he had no qualms about attending Catholic mass, because it was “the same.”
There is much recent scholarship indicating that SHAKESPEARE is a “Catholic writer”–whatever that means.
I personally think that Cervantes is far more deeply imbued with Catholic faith than most of the Anglo-Saxon authors mentioned above. But, of course, I think Montaigne is a cultural Catholic, just the same as Joyce is.
I don’t know what it means to say that a writer is “Catholic.” Does it mean that he endorses, in his works, the theology of the Catholic Church? Not even O’Connor does that overtly. Does it mean that his or her style is influenced by the arts or liturgies of the Church? THAT would mean that Ronald Firbank is a “Catholic writer,” and Vox Nova friends, you definitely DO NOT want to read Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli!
When I say Catholic writing I mean writing reflecting the virtues the Church intends to impart. For example Crime and Punishment’s treatment of the isolation that sin brings about and the redemption found in communion with others I think is very Catholic.
In addition to many of the texts already cited (especially Bernanos), I am a big fan of the Loyola Classics series edited by Amy Wellborn. Classics I would recommend in light of this post include:
In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden
Vipers Tangle by Francois Mauriac
The Keys of the Kingdom by A.J.Cronin
Mr. Blue by Myles Connolly
The Devil’s Advocate by Morris West
Others I recommend include:
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
The Silence by Shusaku Endo
Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien
Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
War in Heaven by Charles Williams
Brothers Karamazov by Doestoyesky
Thanks for the invitation!
What strikes me about the recommendations is that these are the same novels that immediately came to my mind. I was hoping to discover something new (to me.)
I would only add additional works, not additional authors. Anything by Percy, O’Connor, or Shusako Endo, for example.
I can think of some living writers, but that will have to wait for another post.
I heartily second Evelyn Waugh!
I second Kristin Lavransdatter, which is amazing. I’ll recommend The Painted Veil, by Somerset Maugham
MZ
With that definition I would add many of the writings of Lord Dunsany as well as even more of William Morris. Dunsany’s King of Elfland’s Daughter is an all out classic. Both Dunsany and Morris are musts. And I would also add Frank Herbert’s Dune.
But again, only from how you describe the situation.
And, even though he is still alive, Gene Wolfe’s major “series” — the “Solar Cycle” of New Sun, Long Sun and Short Sun. And Wolfe IS Catholic and works as one of the major literary writers alive today — whose Catholicism can be read all over his works (but they can also be some of the most challenging — and disturbing — works as well).
I’d also include Tim Powers’ Declare and his Fault Lines Trilogy in the canon.
Well, one can certainly see the line of Charlemagne’s empire in some of these lists, with the Anglospehere and Russia added. (It is something of a truism how much Americans neglect other parts of Europe.)
No Polish authors?
No *Spanish* authors? (For some reason, Perez Galdos’ “Marienela” comes to mind; “Misericordia” doesn’t exactly make the Catholic Church seem all that great, and the attempt by the Spanish crown to nominate him for a Nobel prize was not welcomed by the Spanish church. But I digress)
No Latin American authors?
I am not a big fiction reader, so I am weak on offering suggestions.
Glad to see Manzoni’s “I Promessi Sposi” mentioned. A fabulous read all who are unfamiliar with it should undertake. Remember, Verdi wrote his Requiem for Manzoni.
I enthusiasticallyl join the Flannery O’Connor Chorus(TM). She would, of course, probably cast a gimlet eye at the lot of us. And rightly so.
Liam,
Sienkiewicz is Polish, Cervantes is Spanish. It’s not surprising that English speaking authors would predominate in people’s lists, given that the first language of most of the participants here is English.
By Manly Wade Wellman: “The Ballad of Silver John,” The Old Gods Waken,” “The Lost and the Lurking,” and “After Dark.”
By Stephen R. Lawhead: “Arthur,” Taliesin,” “Grail”
Francois Mauriac: Therese; Flesh and Blood; and The Desert of Love
Heinrich Boll (Boehl): The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum;Billiards at Half-past Nine; Group Portrait with Lady; And Never Said a Word: The Safety Net
End of a Mssion; The Silent Angel; and The Clown
Well, he’s not dead yet, but he is 90 yrs old, so I’ll suggest Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The Cancer Ward, and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.
Another few works came to mind by an Anglican author! I respectfully submit for your consideration the Space/Science Fiction Trilogy by C.S. Lewis (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength). It is far more “adult” than the Chronicles of Narnia and the prayer sequence/vision near the end of Perelandra was quite nearly sacramental!
are films books? if so, everything by Robert Bresson (he adapted The Diary of a Country Priest, listed above, and another story by Bernanos, Mouchette.) He is, in my opinion, one of the great Catholic Thinkers.
also, what about the poets? precious few of those listed so far!
Racine, Phedre
Pascal, Pensées
St. Francis DeSales, Introduction to the Devout Life
here are just a few…
T. S. Eliot
George Herbet
John Donne
Czezlaw Milosz
Geoffrey Hill
R.S. Thomas
Seamus Heaney
Robert Lowell (started out as a RC Convert)
John Ashbery is, amazingly, an Episcopalian
James Joyce – A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Rose Macaulay, The Towers of Trebizond
A few people have mentioned All Hallows Eve and War in Heaven, but there are several others by Williams which are at least as good: Descent into Hell, Greater Trumps, and Place of the Lion, with Many Dimensions not far behind. The only bad novel he wrote is Shadows of Ecstasy, and even that can be worth a read.
There’s also at least one of the Peter Wimsey stories (Sayers) which can be included in the list–The Nine Tailors.
Kazantzakis’ Greek Passion is probably another one that should be on the list.
Mansfield Park (Jane Austen) is definitely one.
If you want CS Lewis, you should include Pilgrim’s Regress.
Fielding’s Tom Jones and Amelia.
That should last you a couple of days :)
Looking at your original list, I’d personally suggest reading at most one Tolstoy novel and if you want a good Russian fix bulk up on the Dostoyevski.
You might consider adding a piece or two by mid-19th century Anglican writer Anthony Trollope. The Warden and Barchester Towers are good examples (the first two) from his Barchester series, which deals with Anglican ecclesiastical life and politics.
Dorothy Sayers is another English writer worth reading from a religious perspective. I’d recommend Unnatural Death (which is set in part among a set of “roaming catholic” Anglo Catholics) and also Gaudy Night and Busman’s Honeymoon.
Also, if you’re willing to violate your “dead guys only” rule, I’d recommend Tim Powers’ Declare and Donna Tartt’s Secret History.
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather.
Teaching Racine’s Phedre and Mauriac’s Therese just now, I’d like to add the latter’s Destins (Lines of Life — ET out of print).
There are great German novels but they lose a lot in translation — Musil, Mann, Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship (trans. Carlyle) and Elective Affinities (aka Kindred by Choice), Fontane’s Effi Briest and Unwiederbringlich.
Flaubert, Balzac, Austen, Eliot’s Middlemarch, Henry James, are of course must reads.
George Moore, The Lake (1921 version) and Muslin.
Look at the anthology The Substance of Things Hoped For by John Breslin, SJ. It is out of print (although I am trying to change that) but it contains a shopping list for this discussion. These are short stories and while some of the authors have wirtten novels, in many cases the short story is their method of choice.
You can find copies of the book at Amazon, Abe’s Books and Alibris…if I don’t buy them all first.
Many of the authors prefer to think of themselves as Catholics who write literature and not Catholic writers.
Flannery O’Connor had to deal with a prominent critic who claimed that beccause she was a Catholic, it was not possible for ner to write good literature (not an exact quote obviously).
One in the collection, Bernard MacLaverty, describes himself on his own web site as no longer being Catholic. But in the short story he wrote, there is no doubt what he was. And if you look at the collection that The Beginnings of a Sin comes from, A Time to Dance, you will find someone very Catholic.
I just finished All Hallow’s Eve by Charles Williams, and have to say that I was not impressed. His War in Heaven was definitely a better written and more engaging novel. There were exquisite sentences in All Hallow’s Eve (a previous reader of this particular library book had even bracketed some of them in red ink), but unfortunately they were few and far between. Notwithstanding my disappointment with the work, I will take the image of “cascading kindness” in the form of a late-night glass of water for one’s spouse with me forever.
Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poetry. This guy was the greatest poet of the Victorian Age and wrote Modernist poetry before Modernism arose. He was a Jesuit priest.