Books with author Robert Hught Benson

Come Rack, Come Rope is a gripping historical novel which takes place during Queen Elizabeth I’s persecution of English Catholics. Based on the real sufferings of a real Catholic family in particular, and Catholics across the country, Robert Hugh Benson’s classic novel is one of tragedy and loss, but also heroism and human and divine love. The novel follows Robin and Margaret, a young couple in love who forgo their affection when Margaret realizes Robin is called to the priesthood. Both play a critical role in caring physically and spiritually for their fellow Catholics during this time of terror. Discover their heroism, love, and sacrifice, and be inspired to live it out in our own frightful times in Come Rack, Come Rope.

A mysterious priest who cannot remember his own name, nor even anything of the past, must make his way as a Monsignor in a world undergoing a dramatic transformation in preparation for the return of Christ. The world itself becomes an image of the priest's soul. “THE DAWN OF ALL”, the second of Benson’s two science fiction satires, is a "counter- blast " to the terrifying LORD OF THE WORLD. Contradicting the notion that this novel presents a blueprint for an ideal society, "Benson wrote often and emphatically that he did not for a moment expect the pictured solution to realise itself, and that he even hoped it would not. Neither Science, nor the State, nor Religion would ever, he was convinced, find themselves in such mutual relations as he had invented." (C. C. Martindale, S.J.) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition. (Amazon)

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Come Rack, Come Rope is a gripping historical novel which takes place during Queen Elizabeth I’s persecution of English Catholics. Based on the real sufferings of a real Catholic family in particular, and Catholics across the country, Robert Hugh Benson’s classic novel is one of tragedy and loss, but also heroism and human and divine love. The novel follows Robin and Margaret, a young couple in love who forgo their affection when Margaret realizes Robin is called to the priesthood. Both play a critical role in caring physically and spiritually for their fellow Catholics during this time of terror. Discover their heroism, love, and sacrifice, and be inspired to live it out in our own frightful times in Come Rack, Come Rope.

Excerpt: "In a former book, called "Lord of the World," I attempted to sketch the kind of developments a hundred years hence which, I thought, might reasonably be expected if the present lines of what is called "modern thought" were only prolonged far enough; and I was informed repeatedly that the effect of the book was exceedingly depressing and discouraging to optimistic Christians. In the present book I am attempting -- also in parable form -- not in the least to withdraw anything that I said in the former, but to follow up the other lines instead, and to sketch -- again in parable -- the kind of developments, about sixty years hence which, I think, may reasonably be expected should the opposite process begin, and ancient thought (which has stood the test of centuries, and is, in a very remarkable manner, being "rediscovered" by persons even more modern than modernists) be prolonged instead. We are told occasionally by moralists that we live in very critical times, by which they mean that they are not sure whether their own side will win or not. In that sense no times can ever be critical to Catholics, since Catholics are never in any kind of doubt as to whether or no their side will win. But from another point of view every period is a critical period, since every period has within itself the conflict of two irreconcilable forces. It has been for the sake of tracing out the kind of effects that, it seemed to me, each side would experience in turn, should the other, at any rate for a while, become dominant, that I have written these two books."

Perhaps the best known of Msgr. Benson's works, this novel has been reprinted many times since its publication in 1912. The drama and the characters therein have their basis in the real life account of a Catholic family-and of the sufferings of Catholics in general under- Elizabeth I of England. In this story of deep tragedy and terror Msgr. Benson portrays the conflict between natural, tender human passion and divine love, and its heroic resolution worked out in the hearts of the two principal characters, along with the development of the doctrine of vocation. Descriptions of profound insight into the physical and spiritual suffering of one persecuted and tortured for the faith. Beautiful book, cream paper, sewn signatures, cloth hardcover.

Excerpt from Come Rack! Come RopeVery nearly the whole of this book is sober historical fact; and by far the greater number of the personages named in it once lived and acted in the manner in which I have presented them. My hero and my heroine are fictitious; so also are the parents of my heroine, the father of my hero, one lawyer, one woman, two servants, a farmer and his wife, the landlord of an inn, and a few other entirely negligible characters. But the family of the FitzHerberts passed precisely through the fortunes which I have described; they had their confessors and their one traitor, (as I have said). Mr. Anthony Babington plotted, and fell, in the manner that is related; Mary languished in Chartley under Sir Amyas Paulet; was assisted by Mr. Bourgoign; was betrayed by her secretary and Mr. Gifford, and died at Fotheringay; Mr. Garlick and Mr. Ludlam and Mr. Simpson received their vocations, passed through their adventures; were captured at Padley, and died in Derby. Father Campion (from whose speech after torture the title of the book is taken) suffered on the rack and was executed at Tyburn. Mr. Topcliffe tormented the Catholics that fell into his hands; plotted with Mr. Thomas FitzHerbert, and bargained for Padley (which he subsequently lost again) on the terms here drawn out.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

How is this book unique? Illustrations includedOriginal & Unabridged EditionOne of the best books to readClassic historical fiction booksExtremely well formattedLord of the World is a 1907 novel by Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson that centers upon the reign of the Anti-Christ and the End of the World. It has been called prophetic by Dale Ahlquist, Joseph Pearce, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.According to his biographer, Fr. Cyril Martindale, Mgr. Benson's depiction of the future was in many ways an inversion of the science fiction novels of H. G. Wells. In particular, Benson was sickened by Wells' belief that Atheism, Marxism, World Government, and Eugenics would lead to an earthly utopia. Due to his depiction of a Wellsian future as a global police state, Benson's novel has been called one of the first modern works of dystopian fiction. Writing during the pontificate of Pope Pius X and prior to the First World War, Monsignor Benson accurately predicted interstate highways and passenger air travel using an advanced form of Zeppelin called the "volor". However, he also presumed the survival of the British Empire and predominant travel by rail. Like many other Catholics of the era in which he wrote, Monsignor Benson shares the political and economic views of G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc.

[Read by Simon Vance] Civilization rushes headlong toward not only its own destruction but that of the very world in this remarkably prescient novel, one of the first works of modern dystopian fiction. Secular humanism has triumphed. Everything the late Victorians and Edwardians believed would bring human happiness has been achieved: technology has made it so no one need work for a living, the social sciences ensure a smooth-running social order, and in the name of tolerance, religious beliefs have been uprooted and eliminated except for a single holdout: a largely discredited and rapidly shrinking Catholic Church. Yet people are unhappy. What has been created is a sterile world of crass materialism, a world without spiritual dimension, a world where people daily choose legalized euthanasia over the emptiness of existence. Out of this culture of despair, there arises a charismatic leader: Julian Felsenburgh. Soon the masses are in Felsenburgh's thrall and he becomes leader of the world. But in their eagerness for change, have the citizens of the world embraced the Antichrist and hastened the end of days? Father Percy Franklin remains a bastion of stability, even as the Catholic Church disintegrates around him. Finally outlawed and driven underground, it is only this small and shrinking Church that stands against the ''Lord of the World.''

She was a small, delicate-looking old lady, very true to type indeed, with the silvery hair of the devout widow crowned with an exquisite lace cap, in a filmy black dress, with a complexion of precious china, kind shortsighted blue eyes, and white blue-veined hands busy now upon needlework. She bore about with her always an atmosphere of piety, humble, tender, and sincere, but as persistent as the gentle sandalwood aroma which breathed from her dress. Her theory of the universe, as the girl who watched her now was beginning to find out, was impregnable and unapproachable. Events which conflicted with it were either not events, or they were so exceptional as to be negligible. If she were hard pressed she emitted a pathetic peevishness that rendered further argument impossible.

In or about the year 2000, humanity has reached "that incredibly lofty goal to which its intrinsic efforts can carry it" — but rejected everything but crass materialism. Technology has advanced to the point where no one need work for a living, while the social sciences have achieved a smoothly-running if almost unbearably sterile social order. Formal religious beliefs except for Catholicism have been uprooted and eliminated as coherent systems, and the Catholic Church has been completely discredited in the eyes of the world, finally being outlawed. The result is everything the late Victorians and Edwardians believed would bring human happiness — and which brings nothing but the advent of new superstitions, despair, and the end of the world … maybe.

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