I had read that The Diary of a Country Priest: A Novel by George Bernanos was a classic of Catholic literature and I just finished reading it. I had thought this would be a nice pious book of the life of a country priest ministering to the pious country folk around him. I could hardly have been more wrong. Instead it is the story of an idealistic young priest and his life ministering in post-enlightenment France with characters so real you can easily imagine the flesh and bones counterparts of them today. Wow, this is truly Catholic literature and the last sentence of the novel nearly knocked me over.
Catholic literature
previous post
7 comments
You mean �Tout est gr�ce� ? I read the book when I was 18, and it deeply impressed me. Looking at the whole renouveau catholique, and comparable authors in GB (Graham Greene, Bruce Marshall, Evelyn Waugh) and Germany (Enrica von Handel-Mazzetti, Elisabeth Langg�sser, Gertrud von Le Fort, Werner Bergengruen, Edzard Schaper, Reinhold Schneider) one once again wonders where Catholic culture has gone…
The French film (made in the 50’s I think) is also a classic and very faithful to the book. The last line is directly from St Therese of Lisieux.
I assume you’re tearing into Bernanos’ “The Star of Satan”..also good.
Have you read Francois Mauriac? He’s good, too. I’d call him a sort of French Catholic Faulkner, the way he is so rooted in a place
In his memoirs, Pope Benedict mentions that this work had a great influence on him as a young priest.
I’ve just stumbled onto this Catholic literature treasure trove, please continue.
I thought that this quote was from the last pages of the book, but the author is listed as “anonymous”…
“For those who believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not believe, no explanation is possible.”
Does anyone know the source? Thanks!
Comments are closed.