 First edition title page | |
| Author | Joseph Henry Shorthouse |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Macmillan Publishers |
Publication date | 1881 |
John Inglesant is a celebrated historical novel by Joseph Henry Shorthouse, published in 1881, and set mainly in the middle years of the 17th century. [1]
The eponymous hero is an Anglican, despite being educated partly by Jesuits, and remains so, largely on the advice of his Jesuit mentor, despite strong temptations to convert to Roman Catholicism. Even so, he finds himself involved in intrigues between the Roman Catholic Church and the High Church party of the Church of England, and becomes a courtier of Charles I. He also spends some time at the Little Gidding community in Huntingdonshire, where he falls in love (the girl soon dies). He fights on the Royalist side in the English Civil War, is wounded at the battle of Edgehill, and fights at Naseby. As a result of his role in negotiations on the King's behalf in Ireland, he is tried and condemned for treason; he only narrowly escapes execution. Soon afterwards his brother is murdered, and he pursues his brother's murderer to Italy, where among much else (including marriage) he observes a Papal Conclave as it elects a new Pope in Rome.
Despite all the above, this is a book of ideas, not action, and religious ideas at that. Almost every page of brisk activity or intrigue is followed by at least two more of debate on such topics as Arminianism, Quietism, the Papacy, and the like. Even by the standards of its time, it is a wordy book, and at the opposite extreme from the preferred all-action mode of the 21st century. It nonetheless has what might be described as a cult following.
Its subtitle ('John Inglesant: a romance') may be misleading to modern readers; it implies free invention, not love interest, and the book has little or nothing in common with the romance novel of the present day.
Holly Ordway notes that Tolkien remained interested in Shorthouse's "strange, long-forgotten" novel, and suggests that John Inglesant's "moral conflict and competing loyalties" and its "providentially freeing climax consequent upon the exercise of pity" are reflected in "perhaps the key theme" of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings . [2]
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel by the English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book The Hobbit, but eventually developed into a much larger work. Written in stages between 1937 and 1949, The Lord of the Rings is one of the best-selling books ever written, with over 150 million copies sold.
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Nicholas Ferrar was an English scholar, courtier and businessman, who was ordained a deacon in the Church of England. He lost much of his fortune in the Virginia Company and retreated with his extended family in 1626 to the manor of Little Gidding, Huntingdonshire, for his remaining years, in an informal spiritual community following High Anglican practice. His friend the poet and Anglican priest George Herbert (1593–1633), on his deathbed, sent Ferrar the manuscript of The Temple, telling him to publish the poetry if it might "turn to the advantage of any dejected poor soul." "If not, let him burn it; for I and it are less than the least of God's mercies." Ferrar published the verses in 1633; they remain in print.
Malachi Brendan Martin, also known under the pseudonym of Michael Serafian, was an Irish-born American Traditionalist Catholic priest, biblical archaeologist, exorcist, palaeographer, professor, and writer on the Catholic Church.
Joseph Henry Shorthouse was an English novelist. His first novel, John Inglesant, was particularly admired as a "philosophical romance". It discusses a religious intrigue in the English 17th century.
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The Last Ringbearer is a 1999 fantasy fan-fiction book by the Russian paleontologist Kirill Yeskov. It is an alternative account of, and an informal sequel to, the events of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. It has been translated into English by Yisroel Markov, but the translation has not been printed for fear of copyright action by the Tolkien Estate.
St Bartholomew's Church, Edgbaston, also known as Edgbaston Old Church, is a parish church in the Church of England in Edgbaston, Birmingham.
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Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth is a 2003 biography by John Garth of the philologist and fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien's early life, focusing on his formative military experiences during the First World War.
J. R. R. Tolkien was attracted to medieval literature, and made use of it in his writings, both in his poetry, which contained numerous pastiches of medieval verse, and in his Middle-earth novels where he embodied a wide range of medieval concepts.
Master of Middle-earth: The Fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, alternatively subtitled The Achievement of J.R.R. Tolkien, is a 1972 book of literary criticism of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings, written by Paul H. Kocher, and one of the few to be published in Tolkien's lifetime. It focuses especially on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and also covers some of his minor works such as "Leaf by Niggle" and "Smith of Wootton Major".
J. R. R. Tolkien derived the characters, stories, places, and languages of Middle-earth from many sources, including numerous modern works of fiction. These include adventure stories from Tolkien's childhood, such as books by John Buchan and H. Rider Haggard, especially the 1887 She: A History of Adventure. Tolkien stated that he used the fight with werewolves in Samuel Rutherford Crockett's 1899 historical fantasy The Black Douglas for his battle with wargs.
Holly Ordway is a professor of English at Houston Christian University. She is known also as a Tolkien scholar. She won a 2022 Mythopoeic Award for her book Tolkien's Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Wood, James, ed. (1907). "John Inglesant". The Nuttall Encyclopædia . London and New York: Frederick Warne.