"He knew now that neither the wilderness nor the dark weather, devils, nor the infinite void, mattered to him in the least. His love for Deborah made him impregnable to terror, gave him a grasp of truth deeper than reason. He had found the golden arrow, to his own agony and ennobling." At the very beginning of the twentieth century, Deborah Arden is living with her father John, mother Patty and younger brother Joe in their cottage high up on the exposed moorland hilltops of Shropshire. Their farm, High Leasowes, is given over to the sheep her father cares for with great tenderness. Their life is simple and elemental, and their concerns are those of the people of the land. Nature rules their world, and they respond by working alongside its almost unanswerable power, sometimes willingly, sometimes not. John works with fate, gently understanding all around him, be they supposedly bad or good, with the utmost care. Patty's argumentative practicality rankles against his easefulness, but she also works with nature, as busy midwife to all the women around the district. Joe is a straightforward lad, happy with a comfortable home, work in the fields that he knows, and the gorgeous blonde, Lily Huntbatch, from the village of Bitterley close by. Deborah is a lively intelligent young woman, gossiping with her best friend Lily, lovingly tending the animals with her father, helping her mother at home, and wondering about love. Then the family hears news that one of the young miners from the works up near the peaks has taken on the job of preacher at their local church. They all go to hear Stephen Southernwood the following Sunday, and most of the family and the local villagers are quietly inspired. For Deborah though, it is as if a bomb has dropped. Her naive questions about love have been resoundingly answered. Now begins a journey of ecstasy, discovery and pain which will affect the whole Arden family and all around it, a wild journey where not only love is at stake, but life itself. Mary Webb is one of the most misunderstood of twentieth century writers. Dismissed as a rustic, pilloried as a romantic, she has been consistently undervalued. In fact, she writes mostly of the soul, expressing inherent truths in original and tender ways. Having an almost uncanny internal compass for the workings of the human mind, Webb presents people in all their contrariness and metaphysical wonder with strange and bewitching honesty. This honest tendency includes pioneering writing of physical desire and the erotic; on original publication in 1916, The Golden Arrow was regarded as very close to the bone. Mary Webb was born Mary Gladys Meredith in the village of Leighton in Shropshire in 1881. At the age of 20 she developed symptoms of Graves' disease, keeping her in somewhat ill-health for the rest of her life. She married Henry Bertram Law Webb, a teacher, in 1912. Her first novel The Golden Arrow, published in 1916, was followed by five others, as well as essays, poems and stories. Her fifth and most famous novel Precious Bane was awarded the Prix Femina. Mary Webb died still relatively uncelebrated in 1927 at the age of 46. Soon after her death the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, spearheaded a campaign of recognition of her talent, gaining her posthumous bestseller status and cementing her reputation as writer giving a twist of modern genius to the classic tradition of Thomas Hardy and Emily Bronte.

Full Title: "Trial of John Jasper Lay Precentor of Cloisterham Cathedral in the County of Kent, for the Murder of Edwin Drood Engineer"Description: "The Making of the Modern Law: Trials, 1600-1926" collection provides descriptions of the major trials from over 300 years, with official trial documents, unofficially published accounts of the trials, briefs and arguments and more. Readers can delve into sensational trials as well as those precedent-setting trials associated with key constitutional and historical issues and discover, including the Amistad Slavery case, the Dred Scott case and Scopes "monkey" trial."Trials" provides unfiltered narrative into the lives of the trial participants as well as everyday people, providing an unparalleled source for the historical study of sex, gender, class, marriage and divorce.++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++MonographHarvard Law School LibraryLondon: Chapman & Hall, Ltd. 1914

G. K. Chesterton was raised a Unitarian, and did not enter the Catholic Church until he was 48 years old. Five years later he penned 'The Catholic Church and Conversion' in which, with typical brilliance and erudition, he justifies his action and describes the process that led to his conversion.Chesterton describes three stages of conversion: Patronizing the Church; Discovering the Church; and Fleeing from the Church. At this final point, the potential convert realizes with no small degree of trepidation that it is not enough to agree intellectually with Catholic philosophy - one must live it. For Chesterton, the Catholic Church represents age-old moral values; it is "the only thing that saves a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age." Despite its hide-bound and traditionalist image, Chesterton found in Catholicism a home for his exceptional mind: "To become a Catholic is not to leave off thinking, but to learn how to think." This is an absorbing, profound account of one man's spiritual journey that can be read with profit by believer and non-believer alike.

When G K Chesterton wrote this book World War I was still raging and, perhaps in reaction to this great conflict, he eschewed a 'normal' method of presenting history. Instead, 'A Short History of England' takes a broad-brush thematic approach, concentrating on the great historic movements that swept through Britain, and their consequences for later generations. The result is a wonderful, charming account of his native land, full of characteristic pithy comments and his trademark wit (Henry VIII, we are told, "was almost as unlucky in his wives as they were in their husband.") Few will concur with the whole of Chesterton's thesis, but all will be enlightened and entertained, perhaps agreeing with George Bernard Shaw that the author "is at once the most concise and the fullest historian this... country has yet found."

Written in 1935 at the time of the Great Depression, and after his conversion to Catholicism, this is one of G K Chesterton's last works, a collection of essays whose themes would shape the 20th century and which resonate eerily with those of our own era. Chesterton covers a variety of cultural, social, and moral issues including communism and capitalism, the sterility of party politics, the illusory 'left-right' divide (which serves only to maintain plutocratic opulence), the banking conspiracy, destruction of traditional society and the perfidy of Humankind. All this in a series of 'light' essays, replete with Chesterton's trademark wit and irony. This is an extremely timely book - a lucid overview of social, religious, economic, philosophical, and political problems from a period that uncannily mirrors our own time.

The Everlasting Man is a two-part history of civilization, Christ, and Christianity, by G. K. Chesterton. Originally published in 1925, it is to some extent a deliberate rebuttal of H. G. Wells' Outline of History, disputing Wells' portrayals of human life and civilization as a seamless development from animal life and of Jesus Christ as merely another charismatic figure. Whereas Orthodoxy detailed Chesterton's own spiritual journey, in this book he tries to illustrate the spiritual journey of humanity, or at least of Western civilization. Considered to be Chesteron 's finest work, he traces evolution not in terms of biology, but in terms of civilization. Chesteron 's insights will leave the reader to wonder if the assertions of materialist history are true, or if we are overlooking another aspect of civilization, in which humanity has always been evolved. Beginning with primordial life in the cave, Chesterton questions if our ancestors were mere primitives, or if humans were effectively hard wired from the beginning to be a spiritual animal. Chesterton will take the reader on a lightening tour through Ancient Greece, Rome and the Middle East in order to examine Christianity and polytheistic movements which existed side by side. The Everlasting Man is not only of value to the Christian reader, but also adherents of polytheism, as it also provides

G K Chesterton wrote 'Eugenics and Other Evils' over 90 years ago, as a warning against the new 'science' of eugenics. It was a bold act at a time when US president Woodrow Wilson was an avid supporter of 'scientific breeding' and even Winston Churchill believed that "the multiplication of the feeble-minded cannot go on unchecked." Wielding his formidable insight and wit - and with remarkable prescience - Chesterton deconstructs the absurdities of the Eugenicist movement and points to its potential for ill-use, dangers which came to their full, terrible fruition in the Nazi destruction of the mentally ill and the horrors of the Holocaust.Despite its age, this is a surprisingly contemporary book. Modern-day Genetics, which offers tests claiming to reveal 'weaknesses' such as mental instability, susceptibility to illness, or a low IQ, make it plain that eugenic 'solutions' are even more plausible today than when Chesterton first wrote this timely and thought-provoking analysis.

This early biography is both expensive and hard to find in its first edition. Chesterton provides a detailed and meticulous biography of the English farmer and journalist who lived between 1763 and 1835. This book is a fascinating read for any social or political historian. Contents: The Revival of Cobbett; A Self-Made Man; The Tragedy of the Patriot; Revolution and the Bones of Paine; The Amateur Historian; The Rural Rider; Last Days and Death. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Gilbert K Chesterton is probably best known today for his 'Father Brown' novels, but he was one of the Victorian era's most influential authors, with poetry, essays, and over 100 books to his credit. 'Orthodoxy' is Chesterton's defence of traditional Christianity, and charts his own journey from skepticism to acceptance in a series of beautifully written and densely argued chapters. The book is subtitled 'The Romance of Faith', pointing up one of the author's main claims: that the materialist's preoccupation with causation has robbed us of the mystery and enchantment of existence, and that it is myth and fairy tale that provide a more satisfying and fuller explanation of the Cosmos and our place within it.Orthodoxy was written as a companion book to 'Heretics' (also available from Parchment Books), and both works are acknowledged as having made a strong positive impression on such twentieth century writers as J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis.

Famous in our own time as the author of the 'Father Brown' detective stories, Gilbert Keith Chesterton was a highly respected Victorian author, and on his frequent lecture tours met with many 'progressive' and 'free-thinking' philosophies, such as those expounded by H G Wells, Rudyard Kipling and George Bernard Shaw. 'Heretics' is a rebuttal of all such theories, written in Chesterton's inimitable style, a rare mix of humor, wisdom and biting prose. The book is crammed to bursting with profound and paradoxical thoughts: 'only when hope is unreasonable is it useful'; 'worldly ideals are more dangerous than otherworldly ones'; and 'it is only acceptable to be proud about something that is not creditable to oneself'.The publication of 'Heretics' prompted reviewer G. S. Street to declare that he would worry about his own philosophy only after "Mr. Chesterton has given us his." In response, Chesterton penned 'Orthodoxy', his famous defence of Christianity, and the companion volume of this present work.

In some dystopic future, a confirmed atheist and an avid catholic find each other's beliefs so intolerable they agree to fight a duel - a violent combat that their hectoring discussions on everything from politics to theology seems always to defer. Along the way the two passionate protagonists meet a variety of weird and fantastic characters that, for any number of dubious reasons, seek either to aid or hinder the duelists. This is one of G K Chesterton's finest novels, full of wit and insight, and packed to the gunnels with farce and poetry. 'The Ball and the Cross' defies ordinary literary classification, but might best be described as an allegorical Sci-Fi fantasy, with much thoughtful - and thought-provoking - comment on the nature of political and religious conflicts.

'The Everlasting Man' is one of G. K. Chesterton's most respected works, a witty, imaginative and sincere attempt to justify the life of Jesus as a pivotal moment in the history of human spirituality. Dividing the book into two parts, Chesterton looks first at early 'cave men' and the ensuing development of pagan civilization, claiming that such societies effectively separated myth and philosophy. By contrast, in the second part of the book he demonstrates that, following the Crucifixion, these tendencies were successfully combined in the Christian religion. The result is a must-read ideological defence of Christianity, a book described by C. S. Lewis as among the most influential he had ever encountered.