An Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic Order [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Nancy Klein Maguire (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 22, 2006

In 1960, five young men arrived at the imposing gates of Parkminster, the largest center of the most rigorous and ascetic monastic order in the Western world: the Carthusians. This is the story of their five-year journey into a society virtually unchanged in its behavior and lifestyle since its foundation in 1084. An Infinity of Little Hours is a uniquely intimate portrait of the customs and practices of a monastic order almost entirely unknown until now. It is also a drama of the men's struggle as they avoid the 1960s—the decade of hedonism, music, fashion, and amorality—and enter an entirely different era and a spiritual world of their own making. After five years each must face a choice: to make "solemn profession" and never leave Parkminster; or to turn his back on his life's ambition to find God in solitude. A remarkable investigative work, the book combines first-hand testimony with unique source material to describe the Carthusian life. And in the final chapter, which recounts a reunion forty years after the events described elsewhere in the book, Nancy Klein Maguire reveals which of the five succeeded in their quest, and which did not.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Carthusians are contemplative monastics who live in community but spend most of their days alone in their private dwellings. With a lifestyle similar to that of their 11th-century French founder, they wear hair shirts, practice self-flagellation and eat just one meal a day from mid-September to Easter (though some monasteries reluctantly have begun allowing such luxuries as electricity, hot water and flush toilets). Maguire, a Renaissance scholar married to an ex-Carthusian, examines this living museum of a bygone age by following the lives of five young men who entered St. Hugh's Charterhouse in England between July 1960 and March 1961. As they work, pray and live in solitude, they discover not only God but also themselves. They do not, however, learn much about the rapid changes taking place beyond their walls, and the men who leave the monastery in 1965 find themselves in a strange new world. Through painstaking research including countless phone conversations, 5,000 pages of e-mails and a reunion of the five men in France, Maguire creates a personal, sympathetic and amazingly detailed description of an ancient order and its contemporary adherents, traveling "toward inner space within the confines of their solitary cells." (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Nancy Klein Maguire is the author of numerous publications on the relationship of theatre and politics in the seventeenth century. She frequently reviews books, most recently for the Los Angeles Times Book Review. She has been a Scholar-in- Residence at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, since 1983.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 258 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs (February 22, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586483277
• ASIN: B000MKYKD6
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #901,817 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nancy Klein Maguire is the author of numerous publications on the relationship of theatre and politics in the seventeenth century. She frequently reviews books, most recently for the Los Angeles Times Book Review. She has been a Scholar-in-Residence at the Folger Library in Washington D.C. since 1983.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Carthusian Experience, March 6, 2006

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M. A. Ramos (Florida USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: An Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic Order (Hardcover)

In this book we follow five men as they enter the Parkminster, England's only Carthusian Charterhouse, in 1960. We are given a rare glimpse inside Saint Hugh's and the life of the Carthusian monks. The author has done a fantastic job at being allowed to look inside and share what she learned with us.

We follow these five men as they apply to become a member at Parkminsiter and what it takes to become a Solemn Professed Carthusian. They share their thoughts and feelings as they progress in their vocation. And their hopes and fears are laid out for us to see. What it takes to stay and the strength required leaving.

I felt I was living those years with these men as they sought God. How hard and rewarding the solitary lifestyle in a community of hermits really is. And how few are truly called to this life. I felt that nothing was hidden from the reader. We are given an honest and clear view of the life. And we even get a summary forty years later from both those who succeeded in the life and those who left.

I got the book today and read it in 4 hours. I could not put it down. If you ever thought this was the life for you, this is a must read.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Read An Infinity of Little Hours, March 10, 2006

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MS "Vermont Matt" (Thetford, VT United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: An Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic Order (Hardcover)

Recently a book was published that tracks the life of a former Carthusian from his youth to his departure from the order (the Sounds of Silence). That book offered an interesting view of the order from the inside. However, in contrast to "An Infinity of Little Hours" it lacks what one could term editorial pruning shears. Perhaps it also helps that the current book was written by an outsider, albeit based on the testimony of monks (and former monks).

The Infinity of Little Hours is written with a lot of love and sympathy and reveals a tremendous amount about the Order, an anomaly and a timeless phenomenon in the world of today... It is a must read for all who have an interst in the order, either in terms of a potential vocation or from a more general historical/spiritual perspective.

Without the sentimentality that marks some of the older books on the subject, this portrayal shows the human nature of the men who pursue God, without rancor or malice. One is left with an enormous amount of respect for those who live the life but a realization that this institution, like any other is ultimately a 'human organism'--dedicated to God. Is it fortuitous that it comes out at the same time as the German film "Die Grosse Stille" or the interview given by the Prior of the Grande Chartreuse on Dutch television? Taken together, perhaps these media events document a turning point in the life of this venerable order.

38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Now there's a real vocation..., April 15, 2006

By 

Dr Cathy Goodwin (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: An Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic Order (Hardcover)

Nancy Maguire has created a gem as she brings to life the world of the Carthusian monastery in the mid-1960s. As she emphasizes, she felt a need to recreate this world because Vatican II would change the monastic life forever, losing a collective thousand-year-old memory of religious life.

Readers who liked View from a Monastery, In This House of Brede, the Karen Armstrong books and of course Seven Storey Mountain, will probably be drawn to this book too. But Maguire's book brings both unique rewards and unique challenges. She chronicles the day-to-day life of the monks (presumably based on interviews and note) with almost clinical detachment. We get description rather than narrative -- lots of fascinating detail, but hard to follow to place in context. I would have liked to see some sort of unifying theme.

On the positive side, readers get to draw their own conclusions. I can't help noting that the most successful entrants were those who avoided fanaticism, who allowed themselves some leeway. One professed monk kept a clock in his cell and made a roaring fire every day.

Those who have read other books on monasticism will not be surprised to learn of the small pin pricks of daily life -- the tensions among the monks, the unceasing cold, the lack of sleep -- as well as the spiritual dryness and overwhelming "distractions" that drove some monks away altogether.

But I was surprised to learn that a monk's solitary "cell" actually appears to be a two-story cottage with a garden. In terms of space, the monks live more comfortably than many secular people who are forced to share housing -- certainly better off than residents of nursing homes and prisons.

The book is so rich in detail that I found myself wanting to re-read more than once. At the same time, I wish Maguire had helped her readers track the monks she profiled. I had to keep turning back to remember who was "Dom Ignatius" and who was "Dom Malachi." Rumer Godden handled the names magnificently in her best-selling novel, In This House of Brede, so we got a three-dimensional view of each person. Here the author begins with their secular names, then completely switches over and at the end, reverts back to secular names of the ex-monks.

Perhaps the best part of the book comes at the end, when Maguire meets her subjects face to face and we learn their fate. Interestingly, nearly all the ex-monks had nightmares, and nearly all felt like failures. Leaving an enclosed society -- whether it's boot camp or a monastery -- leaves lasting scars, and I wish Maguire had explored the point, perhaps by interviewing a psychologist or sociologist.

This book makes an interesting counterpoint to Patrick Allitt's book, Catholic Converts. Allitt writes of the mid-twentieth century era when conversion to the Catholic church became very attractive to many intellectuals, notably Thomas Merton, whose book drew many novices to the Trappists as well as the Carthusians discussed here.

Despite these flaws, this book deserves attention and praise. We learn about an element of Western society that was previously shrouded in mystery, a lifestyle that holds fascination. But we also learn about men who sought an ideal and the fallout from dropping out along the way.