"L'Abb Constantin" is a comedy in three acts, taking place against the background of the Franco-Prussian War. The Abb is curate of a small church supported by the income of a nearby estate. The estate has passed into the hands of an American owner, whom the Abb presumes will be Protestant and uninclined to support his church.

Aaron Trow, because of his murder of a man during a strike in England, is shipped off to a prison in Bermuda. He escapes and breaks into the house of a pastor and his daughter on a night when the daughter is alone. He demands food, drink and money. She gives him the first two but protests she hasn't a penny to give him. He gets physical and they have a knock-down, drag-out brawl until the girl's fiance comes to the rescue. Trow escapes and a posse is sent out after him, a chase that ends in a cliff cave over the crashing sea. By the time it is all over, everyone who has been a part of this drama has been changed for the rest of their lives.

A beautifully illustrated guided meditation through the mysteries of the Rosary

A massive collection of Catholic novenas and not only such standards as novenas to St. Anthony and to the Infant of Prague. It also includes little known novenas such as novenas to Saint George, Our Lady of America, to Maria Bambina, to Our Lady of Pompeii, to Saint Hilda, to Saint Roque, and over 200 others. This massive collection should be on every serious Catholic's bookshelf.

The emptiness and hypocrisy of bourgeois society and the power of money were depicted with irony and sarcasm in short stories and novellas written by Merimee in the 1830's and 1840's, including The Double Misunderstanding,"Arsene Guillot,"and "The Abbe Aubain."In the short stories "The Venus of Ille,""Colomba,"and "Carmen" (1845) the author focuses on the clash between bourgeois morality and primitive but more just moral norms."

Aaron Sisson, is a union official in the coal mines of the English Midlands, trapped in a stale marriage. He is also an amateur, but talented, flautist. At the start of the story he walks out on his wife and two children and decides on impulse to visit Italy. His dream is to become recognised as a professional musician. During his travels he encounters and befriends Rawdon Lilly, a Lawrence-like writer who nurses Aaron back to health when he is taken ill in post-war London. Having recovered his health, Aaron arrives in Florence. Here he moves in intellectual and artistic circles, argues about politics, leadership and submission, and has an affair with an aristocratic lady. The novel ends with an anarchist or fascist explosion that destroys Aaron's instrument. Many incidents in the novel have direct parallels with events in Lawrence's own life.

A massive collection of Catholic novenas and not only such standards as novenas to St. Anthony and to the Infant of Prague. It also includes little known novenas such as novenas to Saint George, Our Lady of America, to Maria Bambina, to Our Lady of Pompeii, to Saint Hilda, to Saint Roque, and over 200 others. This massive collection should be on every serious Catholic's bookshelf.

"All Things Considered" features more than thirty columns that G. K. Chesterton wrote for the London Daily News in the years before World War I. Covering a variety of themes, each is written with the same high quality that readers have come to expect of Chesterton. In an essay on canvassing, Chesterton ponders some unusual double standards. In another, he writes about daily annoyances. Another covers literature. But regardless of the topic, each of the essays in "All Things Considered" is the usual Chesterton masterpiece, tempting the reader to track down even more of the 4,000 newspaper columns penned by Chesterton during his career. G. K. Chesterton is well known as a novelist, essayist, storyteller, poet, philosopher, theologian, historian, artist, and critic. He's less well-known as a journalist these days, yet all evidence indicates that he viewed his work for the various newspapers as his primary raison-de-etre. Therefore anyone interested in exploring the works of this colossal genius should include a sampling of his newspaper columns, as featured in "All Things Considered," along with all of his other brilliant books.

Apologia Pro Vita Sua (Latin: A defense of his life) is the classic defense by John Henry Newman of his religious opinions, published in 1864 in response to what he saw as an unwarranted attack on him, the Catholic priesthood, and Roman Catholic doctrine by Charles Kingsley. The work quickly became a bestseller and has remained in print to this day. The work was tremendously influential in turning public opinion for Newman, and in establishing him as one of the foremost exponents of Catholicism in England. After a brief and unsatisfactory correspondence with Kingsley, Newman began work on the Apologia. A revised version, with many passages re-written and some parts omitted, was published in 1865. ------------------------------------------------ St. Dismas Catholic Classic editions are all new translations, filled with numerous vivid illustrations and are offered at very reasonable prices in order to make these books readily available to the faithful.

The Faith of Our Fathers: A Plain Exposition and Vindication of the Church Founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ is a book published in 1876 by archbishop James Gibbons, which became a best-selling conversion manual in the United States and by 1980 was in its 111th printing. In his 1917 preface to the 83rd edition, the Cardinal noted that "since the first edition appeared, in 1876 up to the present time, fourteen hundred thousand copies have been published and the circulation of the book is constantly increasing." The work has been translated into nearly all the languages of Europe. Well-known agnostic, literary critic and fellow Baltimorean H. L. Mencken wrote, in his survey of religion Treatise on the Gods, that "the best exposition of Catholic doctrine is probably The Faith of our Fathers', by the late Cardinal Gibbons." -------------------------------------------------- St. Dismas Catholic Classic editions are all new translations, filled with numerous vivid illustrations and are offered at very reasonable prices in order to make these books readily available to the faithful.

The teachings of Brother Lawrence (born Nicholas Herman), a 17th-century Carmelite monk, compiled by Father Joseph de Beaufort. The compilation includes letters, as well as records of his conversations kept by Brother Lawrence's interlocutors. The basic theme of the book is the development of an awareness of the presence of God. ------------------------------------------------------------ St. Dismas Catholic Classic editions are all new translations, filled with numerous vivid illustrations and are offered at very reasonable prices in order to make these books readily available to the faithful.

True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin is one of the greatest and most celebrated books ever written about Our Lady. Praised by popes, mystics and theologians, this profound and powerful book presents Mary as the essential and infallible key to the heart of Jesus. Nowhere will you find a deeper and more life-changing book on that quintessentially Catholic doctrine: the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the life of the Christian and the life of the Church. Unpublished during the saint s life time, it has enjoyed the endorsement of the many outstanding popes the Church has been blessed with since its discovery in 1842. John Paul II, in particular, was its tireless champion, crediting True Devotion with a turning-point in his spiritual life, adopting his motto, Totus tuus, from St. Louis. The key to De Montfort s Marian spirituality is that he considered Our Lady to be the infallible and chosen gate to the heart of Christ To Jesus through Mary: it is Christ Himself Who is at the center of True Devotion.

The adventures of two men, one an atheist, the other a Catholic, who want to fight a duel over God and the Virgin Mary. The world thinks them both mad, of course, because they seem to be serious... ------------------------------------- St. Dismas Catholic Classic editions are all new translations, filled with numerous vivid illustrations and are offered at very reasonable prices in order to make these books readily available to the faithful.

Aaron the Jew is, among other things, an anti-conversion novel, but it's of a startling sort. The plot hinges on a baby switch. (No, that's not why it's startling.) To avoid financial disaster, Aaron Cohen, an Orthodox Jew, agrees to raise a Christian child born out of wedlock. (The mother had been forced to give the baby up as part of a deal with a would-be husband. It's a sign of the Victorian times that the novel is not only sympathetic to the mother, but eventually lets her prosper.) But Aaron's own child, born at nearly the same time, dies suddenly, and fearing that the shock could kill his wife, Aaron passes off the baby girl as their own. (Mrs. Cohen is blind, which enables the switch.) Flash forward many years. The girl in question, Ruth, has been raised as a Jew...but refuses to embrace the faith.

G. K. Chesterton, the "Prince of Paradox," is at his witty best in this collection of twenty essays and articles from the turn of the twentieth century. Focusing on "heretics" - those who pride themselves on their superiority to conservative views - Chesterton appraises prominent figures who fall into that category from the literary and art worlds. Luminaries such as Rudyard Kipling, George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, and James McNeill Whistler come under the author's scrutiny, where they meet with equal measures of his characteristic wisdom and good humor. In addition to incisive assessments of well-known individuals ("Mr. Rudyard Kipling and Making the World Small" and "Mr. H. G. Wells and the Giants"), these essays contain observations on the wider world. "On Sandals and Simplicity," "Science and the Savages," "On Certain Modern Writers and the Institution of the Family," "On Smart Novelists and the Smart Set," and "Slum Novelists and the Slums" reflect the main themes of Chesterton's life's work. Heretics roused the ire of some critics for censuring contemporary philosophies without providing alternatives; the author responded a few years later with a companion volume, Orthodoxy (also available from St. Dismas Catholic Classics). Sardonic, jolly, and generous, both books are vintage Chesterton. --------------------------------------------------- St. Dismas Catholic Classic editions are all new translations, filled with numerous vivid illustrations and are offered at very reasonable prices in order to make these books readily available to the faithful.

The Imitation of Christ (Latin: De Imitatione Christi) by Thomas a Kempis is a Christian devotional book. It was first composed in Latin ca.1418-1427. It is a handbook for spiritual life arising from the Devotio Moderna movement, where Kempis was a member. The Imitation is perhaps the most widely read devotional work next to the Bible, and is regarded as a devotional and religious classic. Apart from the Bible, no book has been translated into more languages than the Imitation of Christ. The text is divided into four books, which provide detailed spiritual instructions: "Helpful Counsels of the Spiritual Life," "Directives for the Interior Life," "On Interior Consolation" and "On the Blessed Sacrament." The approach taken in the Imitation is characterized by its emphasis on the interior life and withdrawal from the world, as opposed to an active imitation of Christ by other friars. The book places a high level of emphasis on the devotion to the Eucharist as key element of spiritual life. ------------------------------------------------------------ St. Dismas Catholic Classic editions are all new translations, filled with numerous vivid illustrations and are offered at very reasonable prices in order to make these books readily available to the faithful.

Orthodoxy (1908) is a book by G. K. Chesterton that has become a classic of Christian apologetics. Chesterton considered this book a companion to his other work, Heretics. In the book's preface Chesterton states the purpose is to "attempt an explanation, not of whether the Christian faith can be believed, but of how he personally has come to believe it." In it, Chesterton presents an original view of Christian religion. He sees it as the answer to natural human needs, the "answer to a riddle" in his own words, and not simply as an arbitrary truth received from somewhere outside the boundaries of human experience. The book was written when Chesterton was an Anglican. He converted to Catholicism 14 years later. The title, Orthodoxy, is meant to avoid such sectarian questions. ------------------------------------------------------------ St. Dismas Catholic Classic editions are all new translations, filled with numerous vivid illustrations and are offered at very reasonable prices in order to make these books readily available to the faithful.