Customer Reviews

Wisdom and Innocence: A Life of G. K. Chesterton

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I'm not a big fan of biographies, but Pearce does a fine job here. Part of it obviously is due to the wonderful man he is dealing with, a splendidly witty writer who perfected the paradox and dared to insert common sense into politics. The material on the younger Chesterton isn't too interesting, but Pearce succesfully explains Chesterton's views, reviews all his major writings, covers his personal life well and gives fair space to Chesterton's critics as well as his friends (though the two were often one and the same, such as Shaw and Wells, as the book points out). A very good introduction into the life of Chesterton and recommended for anyone interested in him or anyone who doesn't know anything of this great man.

For the first time in all the years I have learnt from G.K. Chesterton, I have found a biographer able to explain the Marconi scandal... Cecil, G.K.'s brother, was attacking insider trading before it became a fashion to do so. Joseph Pearce allows us to understand and value G.K. fidelity towards his brother's memory and social insights. Hat's off to the biographer.

This is an audacious book. Consider for a moment - you are an author writing a biography of an author, who had in turn already written an autobiography. And the author you are writing about is GK Chesteron. After all GKC said about himself, what more is there to say?

Fortunately, a lot. While this work is a biography, it comes close to being a deserved panegyric as well. Pearce is clearly taken with his subject, and the result is one that mimic's Chesterton's own habit of "conveying the truth, if not the facts."

That being said, Wisdom & Innocence is a hefty book, covering Chesterton's life in strangely selected detail. It serves as a nice "jumping off point" to Chesterton's other works, although I share some frustration with other reviewers that some detail is lacking (my personal gripe is that the intellectual battle between Chesterton, Wells and Shaw is overshadowed by descriptions of their genial personal relationship).

After all of Chesterton's nominal biographies of great literary figures, one can easily forgive Pearce for applying the same "impressionist" techniques to Chesterton himself. I, for one, think GK would be pleased.

Joseph Pearce is a very able writer, who has extensively reviewed the relevant literature written by or referred to G K Chesterton. His book provides a very useful introduction to GK, with many valuable insights related to his conversion into Catholicism. But it is precisely here where I find the book to be somewhat lacking. Being a Catholic and an avid GK reader myself, I believe that, nonetheless, a number of other relevant issues should have been addressed. Though GK's wife pivotal role is discussed, not much is said about their life together. GK's needs were taxing. He worked night and day and led a half-bohemian life. How did his wife cope with all this? Most important: Pearce mainly (sometimes just) tells us how GK was seen by other people. Letters from GK's friends and relatives are quoted at length and constitute a substatial part of the book. The problem here is twofold. On the one hand written documents cannot be always taken as the truth (e.g. when Shaw praises a certain book by GK is he being sincere, or is he just being polite?). On the other, by relying only on "extrinsic evidence," Pearce offers us only a view of the public GK, but not of the private GK. How did GK cope with the fact that he and his wife could not have children? How did that affect his writing and his character? What was his daily routine? None of these questions are answered.
This love for third-party quotations on Chesterton, has funny results. For instance Pearce quotes several letters by GK's admirers on the great success of GK's drama "Magic." However, Pearce fails to discuss the content of the play.
Finally, there is no analysis of GK's views on substantive points. I have always found it puzzling, that so brilliant an Englishman as GK may admire Napoleon so much. Why was this? Why did Chesterton like so much the French Revolution? Pearce is not interested in addressing these topics. However, he pays a valuable poetic tribute to the man, his beliefs and his wife.

There is a bumper sticker that reads: God, please save me from your followers. Just as the disciples of the Deity often present the most considerable obstacle to knowing Him, a like argument can may be made for the earnest devotees of Gilbert Kieth Chesterton. This is most unfortunate, since we merely aim to be grateful to one who has offered us spiritual strength, and may have even led us to God. To his fans, Chesterton is a brilliant writer whose (almost) every line demonstrates his profundity. We discover that he had an epigram for everything: one which conveys an essential truth in a way that is always witty and seldom inconsiderate. We laugh at his jokes and groan at his puns, and we are always edified. As Pearce's writing attests, if we try to write, we betray the master's influence, what with our semi-colons, alliteration, and attempted paradoxes.

But it would be a mistake to allow poor imitation to ruin one of "the giants of twentieth-century literature". The most obvious place to begin a study of such a giant is with the man's own books; I would recommend The Everlasting Man. But another splendid place to start is Joseph Pearce's well-written and thoroughly researched biography, Wisdom and Innocence: A Life of GK Chesterton. Pearce maintains a good balance between telling the tale of Chesterton and providing selections from his writings--poetry, essays, books, novels--which are integral to understanding the man, and which greatly increase one's admiration of him. As might be expected from Pearce, who has since penned a number of similar works on Catholic literary figures, focus is placed on Chesterton's relationships with members of the literary world. Much is made, for instance, of his friendships with Hilaire Belloc and Fr. Ronald Knox, but also of those with George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells, with whom he frequently disagreed. We also learn about the ways in which C.S. Lewis, Evelyn Waugh, Dorothy Sayers, and George Orwell--among others--were influenced by him.

The charity with which Chesterton conducted himself, even while arguing, is not only the primary reason he was capable of maintaining friendships with so many different personalities, it is a major attraction of his writings today. He also gives the Faith an intellectual respectability of which his fellow Catholics ought to be aware, but which its opponents rarely fathom. To Shaw, for instance, Chesterton was not simply a delightful companion; he was also a worthy opponent.

Pearce readily demonstrates Chestertonian charity towards his subject, to the point where we might suspect that he is overly reluctant to criticize him. He nonetheless pronounces against a book if he believes it was written poorly, or against a point if he believes it was wrongly made. For instance, when speaking of The Resurrection of Rome "The prose wanders off in all directions, following endless theological or historical tangents"; and Four Faultless Felons was "completely forgettable and not worthy of the author." After letting Shaw and Chesterton argue it out over the pacifism of the former, Pearce concedes that: "With the wisdom of hindsight it is difficult to side with Chesterton against Shaw on the issue of the First World War."

One is left to conclude that Chesterton is criticized so infrequently because he rarely deserves more than his self-deprecating wit already provided. Often, he deserved much less. We find ourselves siding with Etienne Gilson: "Chesterton was one of the deepest thinkers who ever existed; he was deep because he was right; and he could not help being right; but he could not either help being modest and charitable."

It is difficult to say which offers the greater appeal: his depth of thought or his charity towards others. Thankfully, we need not choose: Chesterton's large frame left ample room for both. In a world that has forgotten both how to think and how to love, Pearce offers welcome insight into a man who could do much to help us remember.