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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joseph Pearce is Writer in Residence and Visiting Fellow at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, NH. He is a renowned biographer whose books include Candles in the Dark: The Authorized Biography of Fr. Ho Lung, Missionaries of the Poor (Saint Benedict Press, 2012); Through Shakespeare's Eyes: Seeing the Catholic Presence in the Plays (Ignatius Press, 2010); and Tolkien: Man and Myth, a Literary Life (HarperCollins, 1998). He is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Higher Education from Thomas More College for the Liberal Arts and the Pollock Award for Christian Biography. He is co-editor of the St. Austin Review, editor-in-Chief of Ignatius Press Critical Editions, and editor-in-Chief of Sapientia Press.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tan Books; Reprint edition (March 31, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1618906569
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1618906564
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.3 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.13 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #748,660 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,823 in Author Biographies
- #3,896 in Religious Leader Biographies
- #6,266 in Catholicism (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 38 ratings

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Jake Frost

Incredible Research, Sound Judgment

Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2018

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I don't know how Joseph Pearce does it. His research is incredible--extremely thorough and wide ranging. He even interviewed Belloc's grandchildren and shares stories from them! And he seems to have ready everything--letters, memoires of tangential figures who knew Belloc, Belloc's own voluminous corpus, everything. Which he does for all his books--check out his work on Tolkien as an example. Or Shakespeare. If he dedicated himself entirely to one of these figures, you could understand how he could achieve it: simply by dint of years of work. But how does he do it so well for so many different writers? But even more impressive than his research is his balance and perceptive judgment. He is sympathetic to Belloc, but still presents the whole person, and puts him in the context of place and time, giving a fair as well as thorough presentation of his life and achievements, including shortcomings as well as triumphs. And it's a fun read! Evocative of time and place and Belloc's adventurous and complex personality. A great book.

6 people found this helpful

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Hunter Baker

No One Can Top Pearce On Belloc

Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2003

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Joseph Pearce has carved out a niche for himself as the primary biographer of Catholic Literary Greats. His volumes on Chesterton, Tolkien, and other literary figures are well worth reading. Although he has written of Hillaire Belloc in many of his other works, "Old Thunder" finally gives Belloc his due. The man who is remembered by many as a writer of children's verse is revealed to us as a powerhouse of journalism, fiction, and poetry. At the same time, we see a man of intense Catholic piety and devotion making his way through struggles with finances and the early loss of his greatly beloved wife.
If you enjoy literary biography, you'll find Pearce is a master. Jump in with "Old Thunder" and make the rounds through all of Pearce's work.

25 people found this helpful

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Malcolm Cameron

"Pearce could write a brilliant biography introducing another appreciative generation to Hilaire Belloc ..."

Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2012

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Old Thunder: A Life of Hilaire Belloc
by Joseph Pearce

"Tarantella", "The Path to Rome", "Drinking Song: On the Excellence of Burgundy Wine", "The Four Men: A Farrago". These, and others, are Hilaire Belloc's works that have stood the test of time from 1902 or so to 2012. "Tarantella" is a dance among "the fleas tease in the High Pyrenees"; "The Path to Rome" was Belloc's favorite; "The Drinking Song" is an enjoyable poem; "The Four Men" is a travelogue around Sussex by Grizzlebeard, The Poet, The Sailor and Myself over five days in 1902 similar to the recent BBC shows "The Trip" and "Three Men in a Boat".

Likewise much of Belloc's "baggage" has not survived the test of time. The "baggage" concerns the Capitalism, Socialism and his own third way of Distributism, his writings on religion and The Jews and to a lesser extent his Catholicism. This was "the agenda" of 1902 not really Belloc as such. Even his "Cautionary Tales for Children" are too morbid for modern children.

So where does this leave a biographer? Would a biography of Isaac Newton emphasize his work on astrology? Or a biography of John Napier emphasize his "A Plaine discovery of the Whole Revelation of St John" not his discovery of logarithms? So should the author of this biography jettison the baggage? Or does this jettison too much of Belloc's diverse life and his 153 books? At the very least it could be relegated to background and footnotes.

Joseph Pearce in "Old Thunder" only gives "Tarantella" three passing references while treating "The Path to Rome" adequately - although a route map and a few photographs would be of value. The book does not recommend other poems and writings that appeal today being the reason that Belloc is remembered. A biography should give space proportional to memorable achievements not equal weight to each day in the subject's life.

The other reviewers see an historical Hilaire Belloc only as a champion of Roman Catholicism. Whereas, reading Belloc one gets a very different impression of the author and his achievements. Such quotes as:

"But Catholic men that live upon wine
Are deep in the water, and frank, and fine;
Wherever I travel I find it so,
Benedicamus Domino"
or
"May all good fellows that here agree
Drink Audit Ale in heaven with me"

show Belloc's academic fun, and light humor. "The Path To Rome" ends amusingly with poem "The End of the Road" although as a travelogue it does not compare with Charles Dickens "Pictures from Italy" traveling from London to Florence in 1844. Belloc has been described as "a teleological being suddenly behaving in an atelological manner" borrowing one of Belloc's many ill-defined words. Perhaps the modern Catholic Church needs to be Bellocified.

The title "Old Thunder" is an accurate two-word description of Belloc but it does not come out enough in the book. This is a pity as Belloc is well worth the effort, and is available free on the Internet. Pearce could write a brilliant biography introducing another appreciative generation to Hilaire Belloc but he does not do it here.

Malcolm Cameron
28 September 2012

6 people found this helpful

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Steve Benedict

A good read about an interesting Catholic

Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2014

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This is probably the most readable and accessible biography of Belloc in print. It's a very interesting account of one of the most vivid writers of the English Catholic revival of the first half of the 20th Century which Adam Schwartz called "The Third Spring."

3 people found this helpful

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Tito

Written by a Catholic about a Catholic

Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2017

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Enjoyed learning about H. Belloc. Pearce does give Belloc the benefit of the doubt in some places, but no historian is bullet-proof in that regard.

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Trey Trainor

Consistent commitement to the Catholic Church lead to great literarture

Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2016

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Joseph Pearce does an amazing job telling the story of a great literary figure who made the world a better place by his consistent commitment to Catholic teaching that influenced so many other great writers. This is a must read for those who think we must somehow hide our Catholic faith when we enter the public square.

3 people found this helpful

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michael c michaud

An important man

Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2019

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Excellent book

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PETER

Perfect

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 13, 2020

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No comment just very good

Hanniel

Bombastische Demut: Biografie über einen britischen Literaten mit französischem Faible

Reviewed in Germany on February 18, 2019

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Feuer gefangen

Wann verpasse ich einer Biografie das Etikett „exzellent“? Wenn sie
- sorgfältig mit Feinheiten ausgearbeitet ist
- die Zitate passend so eingesetzt sind, dass ich das Lesen gerne deswegen verlangsame
- wenn das Buch in sich selbst ein Lesegenuss ist

Diese drei Kriterien treffen in besonderem Mass auf die Biografien von Joseph Pearce (* 1961) zu. Der Mann hat eine bewegte Lebensgeschichte hinter sich. Mit 15 Jahren trat er der britischen „National Front“ bei. Er kam zweimal ins Gefängnis. 1989 erlebte er eine Bekehrung vom Agnostizismus zum Theismus. Wesentlichen Anteil daran hatte seine Lektüre von Gilbert K. Chesterton (1874-1936). Seither ist er überzeugter Katholik.

Die 2002 erschienene Biografie zu Hilarie Belloc (1870-1953) ist nach derjenigen zu G. K. Chesterton und Alexander Solzhenitzyn die dritte, die ich las. Ich wurde trotz hoher Erwartungen nicht enttäuscht.

Wer war Hilaire Belloc?

Ich greife zweite Zitate aus dem Buch heraus. Er war „einer der besten und begabtesten Essayisten des 20. Jahrhunderts“ (2716, Kindle-Position). Die beste Zusammenfassung seiner Fähigkeiten kommt aus dem Mund eines Freundes. Er war Meister der englischen Prosa, ein brillanter Gesprächspartner, ein beachtenswerter Poet, ein formidabler Führer öffentlicher Debatten, ein Historiker, der die anti-katholische Opposition zur Weissglut treiben konnte, ein Satiriker, ein Weltenbummler, ein Polemiker, ein Bürger Europas, Prophet des „Sklavenstaates“ (3848ff).

Lehrreich: Leiderfahrungen

Schon das Geburtsjahr Bellocs stand unter dem Stern des „Donners“. Pearce wählte den Donner nicht nur als Titel für die Biografie, sondern auch als Motto für dessen Leben. Der Vater war kurz vor der Geburt seines ersten Sohnes nach Frankreich in seine Vaterstadt gezogen. Wenige Wochen nach Hilaires Geburt erreichten die Geschosse der deutschen Artillerie die Häuserzeilen der Familie Belloc. Die Familie musste fliehen.
Grosses Leid zieht sich wie ein roter Faden durch das Leben Bellocs. Mit zwei Jahren verlor er seinen Vater. Seine Frau Elodie starb 1914 nach 18 Jahren glücklicher Ehe an Krebs. Er trug lebenslang schwarze Kleidung und heiratete nachher nicht wieder. Im ersten Weltkrieg starb der älteste Sohn Louis als Pilot einer Fliegerstaffel; sein jüngster Sohn Peter kam im zweiten Weltkrieg ums Leben. 1918 war schon der enge Freund Cecil, der Bruder Gilbert Chestertons, in einem Lazarett in Frankreich gefallen. Schliesslich überlebte er seine engsten Freunde Gilbert Chesterton (gest. 1936) und Maurice Baring (gest. 1945) um Jahre.
Nicht zu unterschlagen sind die 12 letzten Lebensjahre Bellocs. Er erholte sich nicht mehr von einem Hirnschlag im Jahr 1941. Die weiteren Jahre waren von stetigem kognitiven „Verfall“ geprägt. Es ist dem Biografen hoch anzurechnen, dass er ehrlich aus Briefen von Freunden und Bewunderern berichtet, die seine schlechte Verfassung schonend und klar darstellten. Ein verwirrter, magerer alter Mann mit verkleckerten Kleidern und verwirrtem Geist, das war Belloc im letzten Teil seines Lebens.

Kontroverse Standpunkte

1. Belloc gilt als Vordenker des dritten Weges neben Sozialismus und Kapitalismus, Distributionsimus genannt. Defintion: „(I)deal of freedom that was rooted in the economic and political independence of the individual possessor and producer of wealth.“ (1312)
2. Gegen Sozialismus: „Socialism offered what purported to be an obvious and simple remedy, the abolition of private property in land and in the means of production and its replacement by centralized State control.“ (2740)
3. Gegen Kapitalismus: „The problem resided in private property being collected into the hands of too few people.“ (2748)
4. Gegen totale Kontrolle des Bürgers, wie sie sich in der Abstinenzbewegung äusserte: „His attitude to the teetotalitarian puritanism of the Temperance movement and to the embryonic feminism of the suffragettes was linked to a deep-rooted belief that both “fads” were inspired by the patronizing, or in the latter case the matronizing, assumption that working-class prejudice and ignorance could be steamrollered by “enlightened” views.“ (2792)
5. Gegen Männerarbeit für Frauen: „The role of motherhood in underpinning the healthy fabric of society would, he said, be undermined if women were to take on masculine functions.“ (2818)
6. Für den zentralen Stellenwert der Familie: „(P)olitical and economic power should begin with the family and that the usurpation of such power by big business or central government should be rectified by its devolution from larger to smaller institutions.“ (4033)
7. Für eine Neubewertung der Reformation in Grossbritannien: „The “community” of Old England had been undermined by the emergence of a powerful plutocracy in the wake of the Protestant Reformation.“ (1316)
8. Stoizistische Republik Seite an Seite mit einer demütigen Kriche: „(If you have) stoicism of the Republic and the humility of the Church (for they can co-exist) then you will have the perfect state.” (1725)
9. Kleine Ortschaften und Staaten kämpfen gegen die Übermacht von grösseren Gebilden: „…perennial struggle of small communities and small nations to survive and express themselves in the face of the encroachment of the centralizing tendency of monolithic Power.“ (1996)
10. Religion vor Politik. „My religion is of course of greater moment to me by far than my politics, or than any other interest could.“ (2070)
11. Kein Europa ohne Glauben: „I desire you to remember that we are Europe; we are a great people. The faith is not an accident among us, nor an imposition, nor a garment; it is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh: it is a philosophy made by and making ourselves. We have adorned, explained, enlarged it; we have given it visible form. This is the service we Europeans have done to God. In return He has made us Christians.“ (2409)
12. Die Metapher für den schädlichen Einfluss des Modernismus: „the solid “Tree” of Tradition (versus) the vague “Cloud” of Modernism“ (2577)
13. Zum Teil unglückliche Äusserungen über die Juden, jedoch kein Antisemit. „He liked or disliked a Jew as he liked or disliked any other man.“ (4091)
14. Die Prognose für das Nachkriegseuropa: „the active negation of all that western culture has stood for.“ (4410)
15. Die fatalen Auswirkungen der Fortschrittsgläubigkeit: „Belloc had foreseen that a credulously optimistic faith in scientific “progress” could lead to “sheer darkness” and “strange things in the dark,” whereas Wells could only see a bright future and a brave new world of enlightened scientific thinking.“ (4559)

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Andrew Scott

Timely Old Thunder

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 20, 2012

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This is an excellent biography of a fascinating figure. Full of absorbing detail, not just about the obvious relationships (eg Chesterton) but also the improbable ones: such as the time Henry James came to tea...

It makes me want to go and buy and read more Belloc, which I undoubtedly will, as he comes across as such a larger-than-life character; and not one that is easy to categorise.

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Old Thunder: A Life of Hilaire Belloc Paperback – March 31, 2015

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