8. Along the Way

[John]

8. I knew I was forgetting something when I pulled together these discussion questions. Use this thread for comments as you read or that don't fit anywhere else.

[Kerstin]

Chesterton has a very distinct way of writing, and a long way of getting to the subject matter. In the first two chapters in particular I noticed how much he wrote for a contemporary audience. Some of the particular historical events he mentions which are now a century or more in the past were lost to me. At least one gets the gist of what he is trying to convey.

[Manuel]

After reading 60% of the book (6 out of 10 chapters) I have the following comment:

Chesterton's biographies (I've read several) are written in a very personal style, different from that of other biographers. I liked most his biography of St. Thomas Aquinas, which we read here in the club, and also those of Robert Browning, George Bernard Shaw, and his autobiography. I liked a little less his biography of Robert Louis Stevenson, perhaps because it was the first I read, and I had not yet caught up with his style.

[John]

Manuel wrote: "After reading 60% of the book (6 out of 10 chapters) I have the following comment:

Chesterton's biographies (I've read several) are written in a very personal style, different from that of other b..."

I have only read the two that we've read and I liked his biography of St. Thomas better than this.

[Mariangel]

John wrote: "I have only read the two that we've read and I liked his biography of St. Thomas better than this."

He wrote St. Thomas years later after St. Francis, so that may be one reason.

Also, St. Francis was much more closer to his heart since he was young, so he may have been trying to capture and explain what he felt about him. This is hard to do, although I am getting that feeling of spring and the world of chivalric love as I read - this is my second reading, and I am liking the book more than the first time.