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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
Un'introduzione intrigante e brillante alla figura del santo più noto al mondo: San Francesco. Chesterton è, come sempre, arguto.
This was more of a "character study" than a biography. I was hoping for more specific events in St. Francis's life. This book has very little of that and far more analysis of what sort of man St. Francis was and how he related to other strains of religious thought in his time.
Chesterton is the furthest you could get from an unbiased source but as long as you realize that going in it shouldn't take away from the book.
Super interesting though his writing style is not my favorite. He jumps around subjects a lot and employs too many far reaching metaphors for my taste.
Super interesting though his writing style is not my favorite. He jumps around subjects a lot and employs too many far reaching metaphors for my taste.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Take away: I thought it was a biography, but it was more philosophy. Good, but not easy to follow on the go.
Narration: Simon Vance - chez sophisticated.
Normal Speed- Accelerated Speed
New - Second - Third - Committed
Series - Non Series - Non-Fiction - Author
Listening to this book was a chore.
I'm glad I listened to this book.
I didn't want this book to end.
I could not wait to be done with this book.
Average, but better than anything I've written.
Narration: Simon Vance - chez sophisticated.
Normal Speed
New - Second - Third - Committed
Series - Non Series -
Listening to this book was a chore.
I'm glad I listened to this book.
I didn't want this book to end.
I could not wait to be done with this book.
Average, but better than anything I've written.
Kind of racist at times and very much enthralled by/impressed with the “medieval” ages, particularly the 13th century, to what I think is an excessive, vaguely unhealthy degree. (Tbh I don’t think there’s such a thing as a “clean” or “healthy” sin or that, should there have been such a thing, medieval people would have been the ones to commit it. His poetical oversimplification of medieval people for the sole purpose of lifting them up on some kind of moral pedestal is strange, and I doubt its factuality.)
It was barely even ABOUT Francis, tbh, it was more like a “look how much better literally everything was in the thirteenth century after The Pagans died out and before vegetarians and pacifists ruined civilization” thing, which I was not at all expecting, especially from Chesterton. I think the thing is I just disagreed with either Chesterton’s claims or his tone 90% of the time that he wasn’t talking about Francis, which happened more than I wanted.
What he actually wrote about Francis was great, though.
It was barely even ABOUT Francis, tbh, it was more like a “look how much better literally everything was in the thirteenth century after The Pagans died out and before vegetarians and pacifists ruined civilization” thing, which I was not at all expecting, especially from Chesterton. I think the thing is I just disagreed with either Chesterton’s claims or his tone 90% of the time that he wasn’t talking about Francis, which happened more than I wanted.
What he actually wrote about Francis was great, though.
This biography of St. Francis from 1924 was what I picked up having wanted to read a biography of St. Francis for something like 15 years and never getting around to it.
The writing at first struck me as a bit, well, portentous, and had drawn back to show the major currents of that time--feudal states warring, etc. and the great Italian artists that came from them. And also the family of St. Francis.
There's something of a marriage between the Socratic and poetic in Chesterton's style, so that everything he wanted to say about St. Francis had a long wind-up; it is not this, and it is not that, but the reverse could be said to be true, etc. However, the author always side-steps Latinate prosaic explanation. Everything is an analogy or metaphor that's actually amazingly fresh. And I think that goes with his constant point that St. Francis left behind his disappointment in himself to see everything as if it were new.
You could read works from closer to the time of St. Francis and get more verbatim St. Francis material; you could definitely find a more Scripture oriented chronicle of his life and times and more detail about St. Clare. But the Chesterton goes for the indelible shining and galvanizing influence of the sun and nature on this saint, not that he saw God in nature, but saw, through God, the way God hooks everything together, so to speak.
I didn't learn how to get animals to hang out on my shoulder, but I definitely found some amazing passages, litcrit style, a pedestrian reference to Palestine, some hilarious references to Socialist Christians in the friars sense, def some banging quotes about atheists (This guy is Oscar Wilde witty)...and one very unfortunate and racist misunderstanding of what a tar baby and Brer Rabbit is. The times.
The writing at first struck me as a bit, well, portentous, and had drawn back to show the major currents of that time--feudal states warring, etc. and the great Italian artists that came from them. And also the family of St. Francis.
There's something of a marriage between the Socratic and poetic in Chesterton's style, so that everything he wanted to say about St. Francis had a long wind-up; it is not this, and it is not that, but the reverse could be said to be true, etc. However, the author always side-steps Latinate prosaic explanation. Everything is an analogy or metaphor that's actually amazingly fresh. And I think that goes with his constant point that St. Francis left behind his disappointment in himself to see everything as if it were new.
You could read works from closer to the time of St. Francis and get more verbatim St. Francis material; you could definitely find a more Scripture oriented chronicle of his life and times and more detail about St. Clare. But the Chesterton goes for the indelible shining and galvanizing influence of the sun and nature on this saint, not that he saw God in nature, but saw, through God, the way God hooks everything together, so to speak.
I didn't learn how to get animals to hang out on my shoulder, but I definitely found some amazing passages, litcrit style, a pedestrian reference to Palestine, some hilarious references to Socialist Christians in the friars sense, def some banging quotes about atheists (This guy is Oscar Wilde witty)...and one very unfortunate and racist misunderstanding of what a tar baby and Brer Rabbit is. The times.
I was hoping for more storytelling and less philosophizing, but I guess Chesterton succeeded because now I want to read a more thorough biography of St. Francis.
A short book that could have been shorter. I learned a little bit about St. Francis, I guess. Had to wade through a lot of Chesterton rambling about the way we should approach the story of Francis and all that's wrong with the way our contemporary minds think about miracles, the church, the medieval world, The Crusades, etc.
The rambling isn't entirely useless or uninteresting, but I can't say it all added up to a better understanding of who Francis was.
The rambling isn't entirely useless or uninteresting, but I can't say it all added up to a better understanding of who Francis was.
I picked up and read this book (or rather, downloaded and listened to it on audio) out of a desire to know more about the life of St. Francis - a true 'character' of history that was spoken of at length in Thomas Cahill's [b:Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe|27199|Mysteries of the Middle Ages The Rise of Feminism, Science and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe|Thomas Cahill|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1385095236l/27199._SX50_.jpg|27846]. I wasn't disappointed by Chesterton's book, but I was surprised by it. It was not a biography in the usual or traditional sense; it didn't start at the beginning and work it's way, date by date or fact by fact, to St. Francis' end. Rather, it acted as a kind of psychological and moral biography of a saint; discussing some of the key points of his life, the 'logic' of St. Francis, as well as how he was treated and viewed by his contemporaries. Chesterton also spent time reflecting on and acting as a rebuttal (in a way) to recent histories (as of 1923, at least) written about the saint; what historians have chosen to include or exclude in their respective works, how they wrote about St. Francis, and what they chose to believe as truth and what they chose to believe as falsehood (read: the stigmata and his various miracles). In essence, this book was a historiography and a biography at the same time. I am sure Chesterton would have something to say about this, but I think it worth saying that, in addition to those mentioned above, he almost penned a kind of rational hagiography of 'the little poor man.' He wrote, I think, for a secular and lay audience, but his Catholic interests and fervor come through time-and-time again. This, while at times slightly overbearing, does, if anything, add a certain flavor to the book. It's hard not to see this life of St. Francis as both a life of the saint and as a work of spiritual (read: Catholic) philosophy by Chesterton himself. Even if one walks away from the book not necessarily knowing more of the 'hard-boiled' facts of the life of St. Francis they will inevitably leave this work knowing more about the human being that was Francesco Bernardone. Chesterton was a marvelous writer and there hasn't been anyone who has written quite like him since June 14, 1936.
informative
reflective
medium-paced