The sixth and final of Robert Hugh Benson's "mainstream" novels, Loneliness? examines the life of a woman who sacrifices everything to be accepted by people who can see her only in terms of her singing ability and the roles she plays on the stage. She is abandoned by them when she can no longer fit into their preconceived ideas. Published posthumously in 1915, Loneliness? may be Benson's least known, yet one of his most insightful - and entertaining - novels.
This edition features a foreword by Benson scholar Michael D. Greaney.
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 300 pages
Fiction
Based on the True Story of a Priest who Sacrifices all to Maintain the Seal of Confession
Come Rack! Come Rope!
Come Rack! Come Rope!
by Msgr Robert Hugh Benson
Come Rack, Come Rope is one of Robert Hugh Benson’s best-known novels. Based on true events and individuals in the time of the Elizabethan persecution of Catholics in England, it centers on Robin and Marjorie, who give up their love for another and hope of marriage in order to minister to their persecuted neighbours.
Masterfully weaving the historical source material with his own creative additions, Benson presents an unflinchingly truthful portrayal of the terror of those times along with an achingly beautiful depiction of true faith.
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 330 pages
by Msgr Robert Hugh Benson
Come Rack, Come Rope is one of Robert Hugh Benson’s best-known novels. Based on true events and individuals in the time of the Elizabethan persecution of Catholics in England, it centers on Robin and Marjorie, who give up their love for another and hope of marriage in order to minister to their persecuted neighbours.
Masterfully weaving the historical source material with his own creative additions, Benson presents an unflinchingly truthful portrayal of the terror of those times along with an achingly beautiful depiction of true faith.
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 330 pages
Angels in Iron
Angels in Iron
by Nicolas C. Prata
The year is A.D. 1565 and the tiny island fortress of Malta, defended by an anachronistic crusading order called the Knights of St. John Hospitallers, is all that stands between the war machine of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and the very heart of Christendom. Pitifully outmatched and against impossible odds, the indomitable Grand Master Jean Parisot de La Valette nevertheless inspires his knights to "strike a blow for Christ" and sacrifice their lives to halt the invading Turks at the gates of Europe. Nicholas Prata relates the actual events of the Great Siege in riveting and graphic prose which brings the extreme heroism of the knights and the horror of combat sharply into focus.
Age range: 12 years up
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 292 pages
by Nicolas C. Prata
The year is A.D. 1565 and the tiny island fortress of Malta, defended by an anachronistic crusading order called the Knights of St. John Hospitallers, is all that stands between the war machine of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and the very heart of Christendom. Pitifully outmatched and against impossible odds, the indomitable Grand Master Jean Parisot de La Valette nevertheless inspires his knights to "strike a blow for Christ" and sacrifice their lives to halt the invading Turks at the gates of Europe. Nicholas Prata relates the actual events of the Great Siege in riveting and graphic prose which brings the extreme heroism of the knights and the horror of combat sharply into focus.
Age range: 12 years up
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 292 pages
At the Foot of the Sandhills
At the Foot of the Sandhills
By Rev. Henry S. Spalding SJ
After spending four years boarding with the Blakestone family during his medical studies, Dr. Murt is thrilled to finally return the favour by inviting young Walter to come and stay with him in Nebraska for a few months. Walter learns to hunt ducks and geese, trap muskrats, and most of all, he gains a new appreciation for the beauty of nature and its ways. But even in this idyllic setting, something is not quite right. What plagues the Dobbs family, and can Dr. Murt help dispel this shadow with Walter’s help?
Suggested Age Range:9-12
Suggested Age Range:13-15
Paperback, 5.5" x 8.5", 174 pages
By Rev. Henry S. Spalding SJ
After spending four years boarding with the Blakestone family during his medical studies, Dr. Murt is thrilled to finally return the favour by inviting young Walter to come and stay with him in Nebraska for a few months. Walter learns to hunt ducks and geese, trap muskrats, and most of all, he gains a new appreciation for the beauty of nature and its ways. But even in this idyllic setting, something is not quite right. What plagues the Dobbs family, and can Dr. Murt help dispel this shadow with Walter’s help?
Suggested Age Range:9-12
Suggested Age Range:13-15
Paperback, 5.5" x 8.5", 174 pages
Out of Stock
$26.00 Inc Tax
The Ball and the Cross
The Ball and the Cross
by G.K. Chesterton
When two men decide to fight for their respective beliefs, they discover to their astonishment that an unbelieving world won’t let them, and they find themselves partners and fugitives from the law in this steampunk satire.
Penned by G.K. Chesterton in 1909, this whimsical and biting novel eerily foreshadows a world in which “tolerance” is the only god and all those who believe ideas are worth dying for are forced to stand together to defend freedom of speech and belief.
Paperback, 272 pages
by G.K. Chesterton
When two men decide to fight for their respective beliefs, they discover to their astonishment that an unbelieving world won’t let them, and they find themselves partners and fugitives from the law in this steampunk satire.
Penned by G.K. Chesterton in 1909, this whimsical and biting novel eerily foreshadows a world in which “tolerance” is the only god and all those who believe ideas are worth dying for are forced to stand together to defend freedom of speech and belief.
Paperback, 272 pages
Crusader King
Crusader King
A Novel of Baldwin IV and the Crusades
by Susan Peek
A new historical novel about the unusual life of King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, the leper crusader king who - despite ascending to the throne at only 13, his early death at 24 and his debilitating disease - performed great and heroic deeds in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Teenagers and avid readers of all ages will be amazed at this story and be inspired by a faith that accomplished the impossible!
Age range 13 - adult
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 185 pages
A Novel of Baldwin IV and the Crusades
by Susan Peek
A new historical novel about the unusual life of King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, the leper crusader king who - despite ascending to the throne at only 13, his early death at 24 and his debilitating disease - performed great and heroic deeds in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Teenagers and avid readers of all ages will be amazed at this story and be inspired by a faith that accomplished the impossible!
Age range 13 - adult
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 185 pages
A Novel of Baldwin IV and the Crusades
Belinda
Belinda
A Tale of Affection in Youth and Age
by Hilaire Belloc
Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc, 1870-1853, was born in France of a French Catholic father and an English protestant mother. His mother later converted under the influence of Cardinal Manning, a good friend and mentor of Hilaire. His only sister, Marie Lowndes, was a fairly well-known writer like her brother Hilaire.
Belloc's father died young, leaving his widow in dire financial straits with two young children to support. They moved to England, and they settled in Slindon, West Sussex, where Belloc lived for most of his life. In 1906, he married Elodi Hogan, from Napa California. Their brief but ecstatically happy marriage ended with her death in 1914, after she had borne him five children. He never remarried, and he wore mourning for the rest of his life.
This beautiful and precisely chiseled, almost fairy-taleish narrative, subtitled A Tale of Affection in Youth and Age, must certainly have been a poignant reminder that he himself had, by the inscrutable providence of God, been granted that deep measure of affection in his youth that is so idealistically pictured in Belinda, but denied that affection in old age that is equally well-depicted. This brief novel of human love and affection idealized is a delightful and cheerful reminder that indeed, life can have its moments of beauty, if even only as a foretaste of the delights promised to those blessed with the grace of perseverance unto salvation.
Paperback, size 7.5" x 5", 130 pages
A Tale of Affection in Youth and Age
Out of Stock
$26.00
The Masterful Monk
The Masterful Monk
Part III
by Fr Owen Francis Dudley
Although it is a stand-alone work, it has four of the characters from The Shadow on the Earth. Fr. Dudley endeavours to meet the modern attack upon man and his moral nature launched by those who would degrade him to the level of an animal. Julian Verrers in this tale is neither a literary affectation nor an exaggeration. He is a spokesman delivering faithfully the ideas of certain materialistic scientists, philosophers and leaders of thought.
Temptations of materialism were never stronger than they are today, yet here they are embodied in a novel reprinted from the 1945 edition!
Hardcover, size 7.75" x 5.25", 314 pages
Part III
by Fr Owen Francis Dudley
Although it is a stand-alone work, it has four of the characters from The Shadow on the Earth. Fr. Dudley endeavours to meet the modern attack upon man and his moral nature launched by those who would degrade him to the level of an animal. Julian Verrers in this tale is neither a literary affectation nor an exaggeration. He is a spokesman delivering faithfully the ideas of certain materialistic scientists, philosophers and leaders of thought.
Temptations of materialism were never stronger than they are today, yet here they are embodied in a novel reprinted from the 1945 edition!
Hardcover, size 7.75" x 5.25", 314 pages
Part III
Out of Stock
$30.00 Inc Tax
Giving up Stealing for Lent
Giving up Stealing for Lent
by Br. Charles Madden OFM, Conv.
56 years of marriage and 11 children. The Maddens of Baltimore will surprise you, comfort you, make you laugh until you cry, and make you cry until you laugh again! From games of “pitch” to petty thievery, from over-zealous confessions to exacerbating obedience, there is truly never a dull moment!
But these true stories about a real family, as told by the youngest brother, are much more than just a collection of humor. Together, they weave a tapestry about family life—the way it should be lived and enjoyed. The virtues and the vices, the laughter and the frustration, the happiness and the mourning, the prosperity and the poverty: the family is the first school of love.
Paperback, size 8.25" x 5.25", 111 pages
by Br. Charles Madden OFM, Conv.
56 years of marriage and 11 children. The Maddens of Baltimore will surprise you, comfort you, make you laugh until you cry, and make you cry until you laugh again! From games of “pitch” to petty thievery, from over-zealous confessions to exacerbating obedience, there is truly never a dull moment!
But these true stories about a real family, as told by the youngest brother, are much more than just a collection of humor. Together, they weave a tapestry about family life—the way it should be lived and enjoyed. The virtues and the vices, the laughter and the frustration, the happiness and the mourning, the prosperity and the poverty: the family is the first school of love.
Paperback, size 8.25" x 5.25", 111 pages
Murder in the Sacristy
Murder in the Sacristy
by Fr. Daniel A. Lord, S.J.
A murder mystery written by a Catholic priest in the 1950's.
I felt Karl's knee hit mine in sharp hint. So Schwartz was openly bragging that he had found money. Where? This was a crowd of relatively poor men, labourers, artisans, clerks without resources. Schwartz's bragging could mean only one thing, and involuntarily my hand closed over Karl's knee. Schwartz had the missing jewels! Wasn't it clear? We needn't have joined this fool organization to learn the truth. Schwartz had just admitted it openly from the platform! All this was telegraphed between us in the impact of Karl's knee against mine and my answering hand replying wordlessly that I understood, and that the trail was hot.
Paperback, size 9" x 6", 100 pages
by Fr. Daniel A. Lord, S.J.
A murder mystery written by a Catholic priest in the 1950's.
I felt Karl's knee hit mine in sharp hint. So Schwartz was openly bragging that he had found money. Where? This was a crowd of relatively poor men, labourers, artisans, clerks without resources. Schwartz's bragging could mean only one thing, and involuntarily my hand closed over Karl's knee. Schwartz had the missing jewels! Wasn't it clear? We needn't have joined this fool organization to learn the truth. Schwartz had just admitted it openly from the platform! All this was telegraphed between us in the impact of Karl's knee against mine and my answering hand replying wordlessly that I understood, and that the trail was hot.
Paperback, size 9" x 6", 100 pages
Out of Stock
$19.00
Fabiola
Fabiola
or the Church of the Catacombs
by Cardinal Nicholas Patrick Wiseman
This classic novel plunges us into Rome of the fourth century AD. and depicts the clash between the existing pagan civilization and growing Christianity.
Fabiola is a cultured young patrician woman who admires the ideals of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. One day she discovers that her friend Sebastian of Rome, an officer in the Praetorian Guard, is a Christian. So is one of her slaves, and worse still, her beloved cousin Agnes.
As Maximian reignites the persecution of Christians in Rome, all around Fabiola heroes and traitors clash. “Whoever is not with Me is against Me”, “whoever does not gather with Me scatters”, says Our Lord Jesus Christ. This is what is at stake in this drama where the actors show us the best and the worst of what each one can become.
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 562 pages
or the Church of the Catacombs
Out of Stock
$38.00 Inc Tax
Lourdes
Lourdes
by Msgr Robert Hugh Benson
Robert Hugh Benson (1871 - 1914) was the youngest son of the Archbishop of Canterbury. After college Benson was ordained as a priest in the Church of England. While on a trip to the Middle East, Benson began doubting the Church of England and eventually joined the Community of the Resurrection. In 1903 he became a Roman Catholic. In 1904 he was ordained as a priest.
This book is an account of a trip to the healing area known as Lourdes. The author describes his first sight of Lourdes "The first sign of sanctity that we saw, as we came out at the end of a street, was the mass of churches built on the rising ground above the river. Imagine first a great oval of open ground, perhaps two hundred by three hundred yards in area, crowded now with groups as busy as ants, partly embraced by two long white curving arms of masonry rising steadily to their junction; at the point on this side where the ends should meet if they were prolonged, stands a white stone image of Our Lady upon a pedestal, crowned, and half surrounded from beneath by some kind of metallic garland arching upward. At the farther end the two curves of masonry of which I have spoken, rising all the way by steps, meet upon a terrace. This terrace is, so to speak, the centre of gravity of the whole."
Paperback, size 9.5" x 7.5", 60 pages
by Msgr Robert Hugh Benson
Robert Hugh Benson (1871 - 1914) was the youngest son of the Archbishop of Canterbury. After college Benson was ordained as a priest in the Church of England. While on a trip to the Middle East, Benson began doubting the Church of England and eventually joined the Community of the Resurrection. In 1903 he became a Roman Catholic. In 1904 he was ordained as a priest.
This book is an account of a trip to the healing area known as Lourdes. The author describes his first sight of Lourdes "The first sign of sanctity that we saw, as we came out at the end of a street, was the mass of churches built on the rising ground above the river. Imagine first a great oval of open ground, perhaps two hundred by three hundred yards in area, crowded now with groups as busy as ants, partly embraced by two long white curving arms of masonry rising steadily to their junction; at the point on this side where the ends should meet if they were prolonged, stands a white stone image of Our Lady upon a pedestal, crowned, and half surrounded from beneath by some kind of metallic garland arching upward. At the farther end the two curves of masonry of which I have spoken, rising all the way by steps, meet upon a terrace. This terrace is, so to speak, the centre of gravity of the whole."
Paperback, size 9.5" x 7.5", 60 pages
Paradoxes of Catholicism
Paradoxes of Catholicism
by Msgr Robert Hugh Benson
Paperback, size 9.5" x 7.5", 100 pages
by Msgr Robert Hugh Benson
The sermons in this book were delivered in London, New York and in a course at the church of St Silvestro-in-Capite in Rome. Included in this collection are Peace and War, Wealth and Poverty, Sanctity and Sin, Joy and Sorrow, Love of God and Love of Man, faith and Reason, Authority and Liberty, Corporateness and Individualism, Meekness and Violence, The Seven Words and Life and Death.
Paperback, size 9.5" x 7.5", 100 pages
The Queen's Tragedy
The Queen's Tragedy
by Msgr Robert Hugh Benson
Queen Mary I is determined to undo the destruction wrought by her father, King Henry VIII: the despoilment of the Roman Catholic Church in England, the divisions sewn amongst the English people, the desertion from Papal authority for supreme independence. Her reign, Mary avers, will see the right order restored. Only then will peace and unity again be found in England. Peace and unity: beautiful ends so often sought by brutal means, by sword and by scheme, by force and by fire—means which are frustratingly unsuccessful even as her marriage with Philip of Spain proves barren and her kingdom remains divided against itself. Instead of triumph, the reign of Tudor Mary yields tragedy: her own devotion and desire to follow the will of God her sole comforts as death draws near Saint James’s Palace.
Anticipating the historiographical reconsiderations of “Bloody Mary”, Robert Hugh Benson’s The Queen’s Tragedy (like its companion works, By What Authority? and The King’s Achievement) makes for both vivid character study and compelling chronicle—essential ingredients for a proper historical novel.
Paperback, size 9" x 6", 322 pages
by Msgr Robert Hugh Benson
Queen Mary I is determined to undo the destruction wrought by her father, King Henry VIII: the despoilment of the Roman Catholic Church in England, the divisions sewn amongst the English people, the desertion from Papal authority for supreme independence. Her reign, Mary avers, will see the right order restored. Only then will peace and unity again be found in England. Peace and unity: beautiful ends so often sought by brutal means, by sword and by scheme, by force and by fire—means which are frustratingly unsuccessful even as her marriage with Philip of Spain proves barren and her kingdom remains divided against itself. Instead of triumph, the reign of Tudor Mary yields tragedy: her own devotion and desire to follow the will of God her sole comforts as death draws near Saint James’s Palace.
Anticipating the historiographical reconsiderations of “Bloody Mary”, Robert Hugh Benson’s The Queen’s Tragedy (like its companion works, By What Authority? and The King’s Achievement) makes for both vivid character study and compelling chronicle—essential ingredients for a proper historical novel.
Paperback, size 9" x 6", 322 pages
By What Authority?
By What Authority?
by Msgr Robert Hugh Benson
By What Authority? is Robert Hugh Benson's (1871-1914) first published historical novel. In it he portrays the story of the English Reformation in Elizabethan times from the Catholic point of view. This he achieved without the use of the stereotypes that characterized virtually all such productions in his day to the detriment of both sides of the question.
Travel across the English countryside hunting for priests; then find yourself in the Queen's court. During the Protestant Reformation, Catholics suffered terribly - families were divided; people jailed; priests were hunted down and killed; neighbour turned against neighbour. But through it all, the few priests that remained were able to sustain and convert many. The tale told in this book is one of suspense, deceit, loyalty, martyrdom, truth and conversion.
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 560 pages
by Msgr Robert Hugh Benson
By What Authority? is Robert Hugh Benson's (1871-1914) first published historical novel. In it he portrays the story of the English Reformation in Elizabethan times from the Catholic point of view. This he achieved without the use of the stereotypes that characterized virtually all such productions in his day to the detriment of both sides of the question.
Travel across the English countryside hunting for priests; then find yourself in the Queen's court. During the Protestant Reformation, Catholics suffered terribly - families were divided; people jailed; priests were hunted down and killed; neighbour turned against neighbour. But through it all, the few priests that remained were able to sustain and convert many. The tale told in this book is one of suspense, deceit, loyalty, martyrdom, truth and conversion.
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 560 pages
Out of Stock
$38.00 Inc Tax
Bound by the Seal
Bound by the Seal
Based on the True Story of a Priest who Sacrifices all to Maintain the Seal of Confession
by Fr Joseph Spillmann, S.J.
It is the year 1888 in the idyllic southern French village of Sainte Victoire. Its pastor, Father Francis Montmoulin, is loved by his faithful parishioners and even grudgingly respected by the local anti-clericals.
Tragedy suddenly strikes, however, when a charitable old parishioner is brutally murdered under the priest’s own roof, and a large sum of money destined to build a hospital for the poor is stolen from her.
All the circumstantial evidence points to the innocent priest as the murderer and he becomes the prime suspect. However, Father Montmoulin knows through the confessional who the real culprit is. He is faced with a decision: either break the seal of confession or face shame, scandal and certain death at the guillotine.
This is an entirely revised and re-typeset version of “A Victim to the Seal of Confession”. The language has been updated to suit a modern readership.
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 296 pages
Based on the True Story of a Priest who Sacrifices all to Maintain the Seal of Confession
The Necromancers
The Necromancers
by Msgr Robert Hugh Benson
In The Necromancers, Robert Hugh Benson sets out to expose the dangers of "Spiritism," interest in which had reached epidemic proportions by the early twentieth century. C. C. Martindale, S.J. commented that, "It is in The Necromancers, that he brings all his heavy artillery to bear on his professed enemy. Here again the uncanny enters, but rises to the heroic level, and achieves the horrible; and I will confess that I can think of no book which reaches so high a pitch of horror, unaided by alien elements."
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 236 pages
by Msgr Robert Hugh Benson
In The Necromancers, Robert Hugh Benson sets out to expose the dangers of "Spiritism," interest in which had reached epidemic proportions by the early twentieth century. C. C. Martindale, S.J. commented that, "It is in The Necromancers, that he brings all his heavy artillery to bear on his professed enemy. Here again the uncanny enters, but rises to the heroic level, and achieves the horrible; and I will confess that I can think of no book which reaches so high a pitch of horror, unaided by alien elements."
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 236 pages
Dawn of All
Dawn of All
by Msgr Robert Hugh Benson
A novel in which an apostate priest (on his deathbed) slips into a coma and is given the grace to see the world in a different light; a world in which Christ reigns Supreme. Through this revelation, he discovers the abundant errors of Modernism - the very errors that had led him from the Catholic Faith. A stunning blueprint for the Social Kingship of Christ. A must read for our times.
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 268 pages
by Msgr Robert Hugh Benson
A novel in which an apostate priest (on his deathbed) slips into a coma and is given the grace to see the world in a different light; a world in which Christ reigns Supreme. Through this revelation, he discovers the abundant errors of Modernism - the very errors that had led him from the Catholic Faith. A stunning blueprint for the Social Kingship of Christ. A must read for our times.
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 268 pages
Out of Stock
$28.00 Inc Tax
Pagent of Life
Pagent of Life
Problems of Human Happiness
Part IV
by Fr Owen Francis Dudley
In this book, Fr. Dudley endeavors to present an antithesis to that modern cowardice which manifests itself in the vogue for the vague and non-committal; the convenient dilettantism which questions everything, holds nothing, and funks the hard fact of truth. Reprint from 1946 edition.
Hardcover, size 7.75" x 5.25", 343 pages
Problems of Human Happiness
Part IV
by Fr Owen Francis Dudley
In this book, Fr. Dudley endeavors to present an antithesis to that modern cowardice which manifests itself in the vogue for the vague and non-committal; the convenient dilettantism which questions everything, holds nothing, and funks the hard fact of truth. Reprint from 1946 edition.
Hardcover, size 7.75" x 5.25", 343 pages
Problems of Human Happiness - Part IV
The Coming of the Monster
The Coming of the Monster
Problems of Human Happiness
Part V
by Fr Owen Francis Dudley
This book is considered a study of events. Fr. Dudley series portrays the modern revolt against God and the moral law. An unusual mystery that leads you on a "journey of the mind" - and body! - with scenes set in Leningrad, Lourdes, Paris, and Hollywood. Reprint from 1946 edition.
Hardcover, size 7.75" x 5.25", 275 pages
Problems of Human Happiness
Part V
by Fr Owen Francis Dudley
This book is considered a study of events. Fr. Dudley series portrays the modern revolt against God and the moral law. An unusual mystery that leads you on a "journey of the mind" - and body! - with scenes set in Leningrad, Lourdes, Paris, and Hollywood. Reprint from 1946 edition.
Hardcover, size 7.75" x 5.25", 275 pages
Problems of Human Happiness - Part V