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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/112760.The_Everlasting_Man?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Everlasting Man" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1171661955m/112760.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/112760.The_Everlasting_Man?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Everlasting Man</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/27973.G_K_Chesterton">G.K. Chesterton</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/9133909?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 5 of 5 stars "There comes an hour in the afternoon when the child is tired of 'pretending'; when he is weary of being a robber or a Red Indian. It is then that he torments the cat. There comes a time in the routine of an ordered civilisation when the man is tired of playing at mythology and pretending that a tree is a maiden or that the moon made love to a man. The effect of this staleness is the same everywhere; it is seen in all drug-taking and dram-drinking and every form of the tendency to increase the dose. Men seek stranger sins or more startling obscenities as stimulants to their jaded sense[...]they try to stab their nerves to life, as it were with the knives of the priests of Baal. They are walking in their sleep and try to wake themselves up with nightmares."
 
 --Chesterton on the decline of the Roman Empire
 
 The Everlasting Man is G.K. Chesterton's response to H.G. Wells's The Outline of History: a history of man's spirituality to rival Wells's somewhat stuffy scientific account. Chesterton will not give your brain pause for a single moment; he writes in leaps and bounds, dropping gems of wit, insight, and humor from page to page. His common sense is like a good punch in the stomach after tedious volumes of empty speculation; he writes a compelling history of the human condition precisely because he refuses to pretend that the ancients were gross caricatures simply because they could not leave written documentation to the contrary. He writes about humanity as if humans always were human. By leveling the field, as it were, he is able to apply the trends of human thought and spirituality across time and cultures; it is not comforting to find that Americans are comperable to the decadent Romans in their decline, but such is the case. A generalized view of the world can also be comforting, though; humanity always has reached for the ideal, the beautiful, and the good. Even in dark and disturbing customs such as human sacrifice and cannibalism, we find not a numbness to horror, but a heightened sensitivity to good; they are not commited through indifference, but for the very reason that they are terrible. Chesterton's paradoxes are like a clean, quick cut to the heart of truth. Like a bandage being ripped from the eyes, they startle and even sting, but the sight is well worth the ordeal. 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/97215?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Amber's review
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"There comes an hour in the afternoon when the child is tired of 'pretending'; when he is weary of being a robber or a Red Indian. It is then that he torments the cat. There comes a time in the routine of an ordered civilisation when the man is tired of playing at mythology and pretending that a tree is a maiden or that the moon made love to a man. The effect of this staleness is the same everywhere; it is seen in all drug-taking and dram-drinking and every form of the tendency to increase the dose. Men seek stranger sins or more startling obscenities as stimulants to their jaded sense[...]they try to stab their nerves to life, as it were with the knives of the priests of Baal. They are walking in their sleep and try to wake themselves up with nightmares."

--Chesterton on the decline of the Roman Empire

The Everlasting Man is G.K. Chesterton's response to H.G. Wells's The Outline of History: a history of man's spirituality to rival Wells's somewhat st...more "There comes an hour in the afternoon when the child is tired of 'pretending'; when he is weary of being a robber or a Red Indian. It is then that he torments the cat. There comes a time in the routine of an ordered civilisation when the man is tired of playing at mythology and pretending that a tree is a maiden or that the moon made love to a man. The effect of this staleness is the same everywhere; it is seen in all drug-taking and dram-drinking and every form of the tendency to increase the dose. Men seek stranger sins or more startling obscenities as stimulants to their jaded sense[...]they try to stab their nerves to life, as it were with the knives of the priests of Baal. They are walking in their sleep and try to wake themselves up with nightmares."

--Chesterton on the decline of the Roman Empire

The Everlasting Man is G.K. Chesterton's response to H.G. Wells's The Outline of History: a history of man's spirituality to rival Wells's somewhat stuffy scientific account. Chesterton will not give your brain pause for a single moment; he writes in leaps and bounds, dropping gems of wit, insight, and humor from page to page. His common sense is like a good punch in the stomach after tedious volumes of empty speculation; he writes a compelling history of the human condition precisely because he refuses to pretend that the ancients were gross caricatures simply because they could not leave written documentation to the contrary. He writes about humanity as if humans always were human. By leveling the field, as it were, he is able to apply the trends of human thought and spirituality across time and cultures; it is not comforting to find that Americans are comperable to the decadent Romans in their decline, but such is the case. A generalized view of the world can also be comforting, though; humanity always has reached for the ideal, the beautiful, and the good. Even in dark and disturbing customs such as human sacrifice and cannibalism, we find not a numbness to horror, but a heightened sensitivity to good; they are not commited through indifference, but for the very reason that they are terrible. Chesterton's paradoxes are like a clean, quick cut to the heart of truth. Like a bandage being ripped from the eyes, they startle and even sting, but the sight is well worth the ordeal. ...less

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