::READERS REVIEWS::

I LOVE G.K. BUT THIS IS HIM AT HIS WORST - Virtually unreadable, verbose, strangely unmoving, dotted with wit and insight (how could it not be if Chesterton wrote it, the whole has a bloated quality. St. Francis never comes into focus as a human being and a saint. Chesterton himself is in every way blocking the view of his subject.

The True Spirit of the Man - For quite a long time, even though I should have known better, I've avoided getting to know St. Francis of Assisi, being somewhat repulsed by the saccharine hippie that he is so often made out to be. Happy and carefree to some extent Francis was, but how one reconciles this image with the suffering of the Stigmata, and the fasting and mortification of Mt. Alverno, leaves a lot to be worked out.

But thankfully now in Chesterton, I have encountered St. Francis as he was and is, in all his beautiful paradoxes. I have encountered a man who was what I have always wanted to be: "a poet who lived his life as a poem," a man who felt the Sun his brother, and the Moon his sister, not because of the sweetness and mere prettiness of nature, but because together we owe all our existence and purpose to the grace of God our creator. And so the apparent madness of Francis's almost brutal asceticism, Chesterton explains, is not the senseless behavior of a lunatic, but can only be understood as the complete self-giving of one desperately in love.

It must be said that, as in all great writing, Chesterton's book gives as much insight into Chesterton himself as he does his subject--so alongside the Saint we encounter another man of ranging mind, delicious wit, and perhaps above all, wholehearted sincerity. And in both men we find one worthy of admiration--imitation, even. But in this case, as in only the most transcendent of writing, the way to attain such high company is also illuminated: lively faith and complete trust in God. To imitate the best of Chesterton, as to imitate St. Francis himself, is to imitate Christ and so make a poem of our own lives--to take up the wild and almost desperate call to share in the creative work of a loving God.

This book is not a complete history of Francis's life, nor was it intended to be. But in St. Francis of Assisi, G. K. Chesterton truly captures the spirit of the man, while expressing his own poetic character. Both are refreshing, both are an inspiration. And both, we can pray, might lead us to appreciate God's grace more dearly.

Glad to get to know Chesterton - A friend of mine who is a devotee of Chesterton suggested reading this biography of St. Francis as a good way to acquaint myself with his writings. She is correct. This small book is packed full of interesting thoughts about the times and circumstances in which St. Francis lived and how he helped shape the late Middle Ages with his, for the time, novel and often shocking approach to Christian living. Chesterton's insights into the person of St. Francis are excellent. I highly recommend this to anyone who wishes to become comfortable with this fine author's writings.

The life of a saint and too much else! - This short volume by Chesterton on the life of St. Francis of Assisi did not satisfy me either as a biography, as a glimpse into his time period or as a devotional read. Chesterton's circuitous style of writing while passable in longer works gets annoying here particularly at moments when he goes off on long tangents. These tangents add something to the narrative, but by the time you arrive at their end you've already forgotten where you began from. The big chunks on the life of St. Francis are well done, quite honest and quite approachable, but the fact that they're interspersed with so much wandering text makes this a difficult book to read. There are better books on the life of St. Francis out there. For instance, although I've never read the English translation, the best Life of St. Francis that I have thus far read is El Hermano de Asís by Ignacio Larrañaga.

Saint Francis of Assisi: A life to follow - Chesterton surprise us again with this formidable short essay about the life of Saint Francis of Assisi. This is not the typical hagiography, but an inside look to the vivid facts that made us understand the true meaning of charity, fraternity and solidarity through love.

Metaphysics blown across from Asia - Approaching this little book about a pillar of Catholicism with a sceptical interest in the historical aspects of the man St.F., one gets properly looked down upon by recent convert GKC. Orwell called Chesterton, his contemporary, a 'Catholic nationalist', i.e. not an English nationalist who was also Catholic. 'Chesterton was a writer of considerable talent who chose to suppress both his sensibilities and his intellectual honesty in the cause of Roman Catholic propaganda.' That seems to be about it, sorry Jim Egolf, here for once I disagree with your assessment of 'a gentleman who writes about a gentleman'.
GKC wrote this in the 20s of the 20th, shortly after converting. The book is neither 'scientific' history, nor does it make an attempt at telling me what I would like to know about St.F. In that sense it is a disappointment.
In other regards, it is worth reading. Like for his style, even if it gets annoying once in a while. He did love his pirouettes and his mannerisms. Watch this one, in the opening para:
'A sketch of St.F. ... may be written in one of three ways. ... the third way, which is adopted here, is in some respects the most difficult of all. At least, it would be the most difficult if the other two were not impossible.'
Well, we all need our little vanities.
Worse are the arrogant asides against members of other 'nations' than his newly found Catholic tribe.
Paraphrases:
The worst moment for an atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank.
In mediaevel times, nobody would have tolerated a Schopenhauer scorning life or a Nietzsche living only for scorn.
A heresy had developed around a prophet named Mahomet.
Mad metaphysics blown across out of Asia.
Or a rough summary of his theory about the spread of Christianity: it was needed because the ancient people, the pagans, were subverted by sexual perversity, specifically homosexuality in the case of the Greeks. (He did not even spell this out, but resorted to allusions, because the subject might be too offensive, I assume...)
Enough, I think.

Much More than Merely a Biography - This book is written and crafted by a genius. What came in the mail was much more than merely a biography, this is a work of precision cultural criticism and wit which can be both pointed and beautiful at the same time.

I love how Chesterton picks out his contemporaries or past thinkers and then tells us why they are wrong for thinking x. There is so much truth in this book-- I could go on and on about how relevant this work is to us in the 21st Century. When talking about Ancient Rome: "Thus the effect of treating sex as only one innocent natural thing was that every other innocent natural thing became soaked and sodden with sex" (21).

What makes Chesterton so good, though, is that he is not parading merely his own opinion throughout the book-- he is speaking with the fullness of truth backing him up. The reader will experience what happens when Jn 8:32 is applied to literature: "the truth will set you free" and you will then be free to take down that which is not true-- and do it with style.

Interesting and unique look at the life of St Francis - A fascinating and unique look at St Francis by one of the greats; rather than simply detailing St Francis' life in biography form, Chesterton takes events from St Francis' life that show his uniqueness, and then weaves theology and Franciscan practice around them. Thu the life and beliefs of this great Saint are explained in ways an "ordinary" biography could not. A wonderful book.