AN EYE-OPENING BOOK FROM A BRILLIANT, BELOVED CATHOLIC WRITER! Essays of a Catholic is a book as provocative now as it was when it first appeared in 1931. Hilaire Belloc’s observations about our civilization’s demise are all the more urgent today, because they are proving to be prophetic. We are troubled witnesses to many of the evils he predicted as we watch the working out of the destructive trends and forces that he warned would lead to disaster. What key insight led to Belloc’s keen discernment of the times? He recognized that the Catholic Church has inspired and formed our great Western civilization. As the influence of that mighty institution wanes, then—as society slowly abandons what it has learned from her—the night¬ descends on our way of life as we have known it. In its stead emerges a new paganism, and with it, a new barbarism. In these essays, Belloc sharpens our awareness of the calamitous effects of this waning influence of the Catholic Church in society. There is hope for the future of our civilization—but only if we as a people embrace once more the liberating truth of the Catholic faith. The great Hilaire Belloc was one of the foremost Catholic historians of the past two centuries. His astute analysis of our cultural and social ills culminates in an urgent prophetic call for Western civilization to return to its Catholic roots.

Reflecting on Montaigne, Virginia Woolf remarked, "The most common actions-a walk, a talk, solitude in one's own orchard-can be enhanced and lit up by the association of the mind." In Quotidiana, Patrick Madden illuminates these common actions and seemingly commonplace moments, making connections that revise and reconfigure the overlooked and underappreciated.

This classic volume contains a collection of essays written by Hilaire Belloc. Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (1870–1953) was an Anglo-French historian and author, considered to be one of the most productive English writers of the early twentieth century. The essays cover a range of topics, and were originally published in other works, including “The Path to Rome” (1903) and “The Eye-Witness” (1908). Contents include: “The Fog”, “Ronsard”, “The Apprentice”, “Valmy”, “Barbary”, “The Second of November, 1902”, and “London River”. This collection is highly recommended for fans of Belloc’s work, and is not to be missed by the discerning collector. Many classic books such as this are becoming increasingly rare and expensive. We are republishing this book now in an affordable, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.

A delightful series of excursions into the unique landscape and mindscape of the traveler afoot, these 12 essays include contributions by Dickens, Beerbohm, Hazlitt, Belloc, Thoreau, and other distinguished authors.