The Silent Isle [Hardcover]

A. C. Benson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2004

Arthur Christopher Benson (1862-1925) was a British essayist, poet and author. He was one of six children of Edward White Benson, a late nineteenth-century Archbishop of Canterbury. The Benson family were exceptionally literate and accomplished, but their history was somewhat tragic. A son and daughter died young, and another daughter, as well as Benson himself, suffered badly from a mental condition that was probably manic-depressive psychosis. Despite his illness, Benson was a distinguished academic and a most prolific author. He was associated with Eton College, and was Master of Magdalene College of Cambridge University. His poems and volumes of essays, such as From a College Window (1906), were famous in his day, and he left one of the longest diaries ever written, some four million words.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 276 pages
• Publisher: Wildside Press (August 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080958753X
• ISBN-13: 978-0809587537
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Customer Reviews

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good brain food, June 6, 2010

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This review is from: The Silent Isle (Kindle Edition)

Here's a book that will make you think a lot. Each chapter is basically an essay on a single topic- society, friendship, literature, morality, love, art and many more things. Sometimes he'll tell something that happened to him, or something that someone said to him, and then write a chapter on his thoughts of that event. He writes simply enough so anyone can understand what he's trying to say, but at the same time it's obvious that he's very intelligent and has been around a lot. The only thing I didn't like is his occasional mention of the religion he subscribes to and the god he believes in. I'd think that someone like him would be able to get along without that stuff.

It's a very long book, so plan to spend lots of time with it if you read the whole thing. I read the first half straight through but then changed to reading just 1 or 2 chapters a day, and I think it works best to read it that way. The whole book is simply one person's thoughts on various subjects, so there's no way to tell that it was written almost a century ago. Everything in it applies to today just as well as the author's own time.