Hilaire Belloc

5 books

sort era

The Cruise of the Nona non-fiction
Half of it is Belloc actually sailing his little cutter round Wales and the south coast, night watches and the terrifying tide race off Bardsey, and that half is lovely. The other half is him airing every cranky opinion he owns, so bring patience for the digressions.
The Four Men
Four men (Grizzlebeard, a Sailor, a Poet, and Belloc himself, more or less) walk across Sussex swapping songs, arguments, and rounds of ale, and somewhere in all the nonsense it turns quietly sad about time and home. Rambling by design, lovely if you let it amble.
The Mercy of Allah
You’d enjoy it for Belloc’s sly, cranky satire, which dresses arguments about modern politics in the solemn language of an invented Muslim chronicle. It reads more like a string of satirical episodes than a conventional novel, and its period prejudices are very much on display.
The Path to Rome non-fiction
You walk with Belloc from Toul to Rome, through bad roads, blisters, hunger, inns, churches, and gloriously opinionated digressions. He can be exasperatingly Catholic and oddly grand, but the mud, wine, landscape, and stubborn pleasure of putting one foot after another make the journey feel companionable.
The Servile State
You find Belloc’s argument strikingly direct: when property becomes concentrated, wage earners lose real independence, and the state ends up managing their lives through labor and relief. It’s a polemical, Catholic-inflected book with some dated assumptions, but its questions about ownership and freedom still give you plenty to argue with.

tale.fyi

Hilaire Belloc

5 books

sort era

The Cruise of the Nona non-fiction
Half of it is Belloc actually sailing his little cutter round Wales and the south coast, night watches and the terrifying tide race off Bardsey, and that half is lovely. The other half is him airing every cranky opinion he owns, so bring patience for the digressions.
The Four Men
Four men (Grizzlebeard, a Sailor, a Poet, and Belloc himself, more or less) walk across Sussex swapping songs, arguments, and rounds of ale, and somewhere in all the nonsense it turns quietly sad about time and home. Rambling by design, lovely if you let it amble.
The Mercy of Allah
You’d enjoy it for Belloc’s sly, cranky satire, which dresses arguments about modern politics in the solemn language of an invented Muslim chronicle. It reads more like a string of satirical episodes than a conventional novel, and its period prejudices are very much on display.
The Path to Rome non-fiction
You walk with Belloc from Toul to Rome, through bad roads, blisters, hunger, inns, churches, and gloriously opinionated digressions. He can be exasperatingly Catholic and oddly grand, but the mud, wine, landscape, and stubborn pleasure of putting one foot after another make the journey feel companionable.
The Servile State
You find Belloc’s argument strikingly direct: when property becomes concentrated, wage earners lose real independence, and the state ends up managing their lives through labor and relief. It’s a polemical, Catholic-inflected book with some dated assumptions, but its questions about ownership and freedom still give you plenty to argue with.