Cardinal Galsworthy

by Edward R.F. Sheehan

Book Overview

1997 1st Ed Viking 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670855413
• ISBN13: 9780670855414
• Release Date: October 1997
• Publisher: Viking Books
• Length: 493 Pages
• Weight: 1.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A Catholic Viewpoint Rendered with Literary Realism

This sleeper of a novel is a major contibution to modern Catholic fiction in English. The author, having already made his reputation in other literary endeavors, was able to enter the fictional marketplace and surmount barriers, presenting a book both authentically Catholic in outlook and fully realistic. Unfortunately such realms rarely if ever meet. There is really no "plot"; the book is a character study, and a rich and sometimes searing one. Galsworthy rises from indifferent youth to a commanding church figure, grandly human and with certain well-defined but understandable flaws. Some recent church history is telescoped in the background -- Vatican 2, a "Slavic pope" ala John Paul 2, the growth of the church in turbulent modern Africa. The ending is not really satisfactory but there was probably no way to end it: the Catholic viewpoint to some degree differs from conventional tragedy and is always, as Dante titled his massive work, a "Commedia." Persons not able to appreciate the baroque may not enjoy the book. The story line twists and turns through souls, not events. Souls are magnificent if ultimately mysterious creations, so those insights delivered by the writer seem to appear out of nowhere as the Cardinal encounters and bounces off of other characters. Then as time moves on you are back in murkiness until the next meaningful encounter. As in life, not all things are resolved. But throughout, the prose is flawless, beautiful, perfectly pitched. I have recommended this book to friends both believing and unbelieving, and all have reported finding it rewarding as a reading experience.

A rare novel of its type: rich and historically wise.

In creating Augustine Cardinal Galsworthy, Edward R.F. Sheehan has made a rare contribution to the growing universe of novels imagining the next conclave, that rare gathering of the Sacred College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church to elect a pope. "Cardinal Galsworthy" is panoramic in scope, rich and faithful in historical detail, at times beautifully written and has as its protagonist an uncommon character who is not a mere stick figure for some real-life character the author hopes will be elected to the Petrine throne. This is not yet another "Martini-for-pope" novel. It is not a philippic against the Roman Church and its current pope. It is something entirely different. The eponymous Augustine Galsworthy is born an Englishman, but has a pronounced affinity for things French. His father, William, is an English Baronet -- a baronet being a hereditary knight, who ranks above all non-hereditary Knights of the Realm, except those illustrious but few Knight Companions of the Order of the Garter. We know this because Galsworthy, in his towering vanity and love for the theatre of life, cares very dearly about this and painstakingly explains all the minute but significant hereditaments of his English recusant family and of Roman Church through whose ranks he rises. Sir William has one great ambition for his son - that someday he may add a "red hat" the family tree. But Augustine Galsworthy is not the poised child of the almost-aristocratic that one might expect. He trips, he falls, he runs into walls - and, worse yet, he stutters. So, Augustine spends most of his childhood and adolescence in a Benedictine monastery in France. There, a young monk befriends young Augustine and introduces him to the treasury of the Roman Church. One of his formative influences is, appropriately enough, the great French Romantic Chateaubriand and his "The Genius of Christianity." Galsworthy begins his preternaturally successful ecclesiastical career in spiritual and moral turmoil. Does he truly believe in God? Does he want to be a priest? Can be resist the temptations that easily beset him? His struggles are set against a rich backdrop of history. We move from the end of the reign of the "Stern Pope" through the reigns of the "Sunny Pope" and the "Sad Pope," with their struggles with the Second Vatican Council, and, finally, through the reign of the "Slav Pope." The author steadfastly refuses to call these men by their real-life names, admirably reluctant to impute, even in a work of fiction, words to men who did not utter them. Still, he never strays from their personalities. (There is no "September Pope.") Galsworthy is the close collaborator of the Sunny Pope, who raises him to archbishop at age thirty-four, thereby gratifying the protagonist's vanity. Galsworthy is an early supporter of the Sunny Pope's call of the Second Vatican Council and encourages the pope to cut through curial resistance to it. B

A truly superb Catholic novel.

I could not put this book down. Cardinal Galsworthy is a complex, sinful (as we all are) yet pious and faithful Catholic. This is a character you will never forget.

The best in Catholic fiction!

My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed this superbly-written tale of one man's journey of faith. Sheehan's insights into the worldy and other-wordly dimensions of the Church are outstanding. So beautifully written, you won't want to put it down.

Destined to be a classic!

The previous review already says it all. Ditto, Ditto, Ditto! But let me add, if you like this book, be sure to read "Innocent Darkness" by the same author, not a sequel but a companion to "Cardinal Galsworthy" in that it focuses on one of the characters from this novel. Buy 'em, read 'em, love 'em!