The Path to Rome republished...

 

This edition is entirely re-typeset, includes Belloc's 77 original illustrations, and a new foreword by Belloc biographer Joseph Pearce. 

I vowed a vow there to go to Rome on Pilgrimage
and see all Europe which the Christian Faith has saved;
and I said, “I will walk all the way and take advantage
of no wheeled thing...and be present at High Mass in
St. Peter’s on the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul.

This story of adventurous pilgrimage rambles through the fields of France, the mountains of Switzerland, and the plains of Italy. Belloc’s own favorite among his books, The Path to Rome recounts a pilgrimage on foot from the author’s birthplace in France to the Eternal City. Along the way he must find shelter, food, and directions. Stopping every few pages for a swig of local wine, his thoughts wander as much as his feet, covering topics as wide ranging as:

Devices for Ending Books
On Justice in Armies
Thoughts on French Folk-Lore
The Value of Bakers
The Tradition of Mankind and Ordinary Living

He also ponders the nature of the soul, declares his theory of blessings, and, when caught in loneliness or despair, cheers himself with stories such as that of the Great Barrel, the story of the Old Sailor, the story of the Devil and the Learned Man, and the story of Mr. Hard (to name a few).

In a travelogue devoid of chapters, Belloc carries his reader along at a breakneck pace, stopping only to rest and argue with his imaginary reader, the “Lector.” In these altercations with the Lector, Belloc finds he must defend himself, criticize himself, and make fun of himself for the sake of his sanity and the health of the world. Long a classic and Belloc’s best-known work, this is a newly typeset edition, complete with all of Belloc’s original illustrations.

The Cruise of the Nona - new edition...

 

The latest edition can be purchased here:

In The Cruise of the ‘Nona,’ Hilaire Belloc sets off “to sail the English seas again, and to pursue from thought to thought and from memory to memory such things as have occupied one human soul.” On one level a breezy record of an adventurous journey; underneath the surface, a wise and insightful study of modern life, particularly in its transition from the Victorian to the early modern period. Belloc’s prose glitters and crashes like ocean breakers.

Belloc sees sailing as an analogy to life: full of “great visions” and “intolerable tediums,” “alive with discovery, emotion, adventure, peril, and repose.” For Belloc, the sea “presents, upon the greatest scale we mortals can bear, those not mortal powers which brought us into being. It is not only the symbol or the mirror, but especially is it the messenger of the Divine.”

Belloc leads his reader over the changing seas, treating of many questions, including:

• How did the Vikings land in what are today impassable harbors?
• When and why did the British Parliament become so corrupt?
• What is the difference between prose and rhetoric?
• Can you trust learned scholars?
• Are sea monsters real?
• Will Alice in Wonderland remain a popular book?
• Why are oceans so different from one another?
• Is human “equality” a Catholic doctrine?

Mulling over half a century of memories and experiences, the seaman-philosopher shares a hundred and one reflections, flights of fancy, and tongue-in-cheek observations on England and Europe, Catholicism, atheism, sailing techniques, and common-sense. From his memories of the outbreak of the first World War to denunciations of rationalism, this cruise can transport the reader from his armchair to the lashing spray and biting wit of this monumental figure of English literature.

“Everything Belloc touched turns to magic for me. This book, however, is the closest the great man ever came to autobiography.” —Roger Buck

“Belloc thought that the cruising of a boat is akin to the adventure of a human soul… undertaken with purpose yet subject to innumerable diversions; aided by unforeseen blessings and opportunities yet troubled by terrible anxieties. Abroad on the sea provides the full model and symbol of human life, and thus the suitable setting for the chance thoughts of one human being.” —Karl Schmude

“The yacht seems to stop at intervals to make meditations on all sorts of subjects—capitalism, the Great War, Catholicism, and the rest—the various points of the author’s many-sided philosophy. Then it gives, as it were a twist of the tiller and returns to its jibs and booms.” —A. E. Clery

Classic children’s poems have been given a trigger warning by a publisher because they may be “harmful” to modern readers, The Telegraph can reveal...

Classic children’s poems have been given a trigger warning by a publisher because they may be “harmful” to modern readers, The Telegraph can reveal.

Prolific author Hilaire Belloc's popular comic verse, including 1907’s Cautionary Tales For Children, has been republished by Pan Macmillan with a new cautionary note.

A trigger warning printed in the collection of humorous children’s poems warns that the rhymes may be “hurtful or indeed harmful” to modern-day readers.

The disclaimer alerts readers to potentially troubling “phrases and terminology” in the collection which includes animal-themed verse and parody poems such as Jim: Who ran away from his Nurse, and was eaten by a Lion.

The warning about harmful language “prevalent at the time” when historic works were written follows a new trend in publishing which has seen cautionary notes printed in reissued works by Ian Fleming, Agatha Christie and Roald Dahl.

Illustrations from the Hilaire Belloc children's poem The Llama CREDIT: BASIL T BLACKWOOD


Printed in the opening pages of the Belloc collection put out by Pan Macmillan, the publisher warns that the text has not been edited and is therefore “true to the original in every way and is reflective of the language and period in which it was originally written”.

It adds: “Readers should be aware that there may be hurtful or indeed harmful phrases and terminology that were prevalent at the time this book was written and in the context of the historical setting of this book.”

The publisher adds in the lengthy disclaimer that “Macmillan believes changing the text to reflect today’s world would undermine the authenticity of the original, so has decided to leave the text in its entirety”.

However, the publishing house states that retaining the original language of the author does not constitute an endorsement of the “characterisation, content or language” in Belloc’s poems.

Illustrations from the poem The Crocodile CREDIT: BASIL T BLACKWOOD


Belloc was born in 1870 to a French father but raised in Sussex. He later served as Liberal MP in Salford.

A friend of G K Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw, he was an Anglo-French and Catholic outsider, whose work spanned travel writing, histories, religious essays, political tracts, and poetry.

He is also known for illustrated collections of comic poems, including Cautionary Tales For Children, spanning rhymes about characters suffering absurd consequences for mild infractions.

Other volumes include The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts and More Beasts (For Worse Children), which are filled with amusing poems about animals.

These three collections have been combined into one volume by Pan Macmillan and covered by the trigger warning about “harmful” language.

Cautionary Tales includes a zoo keeper being called “fat”, while the 1896 collection Book of Beasts makes reference to “the Kurd” and “little Turk”, and More Beasts makes a rhyme of “the woeful superstitions of the East”.
‘Generalised anxiety’

Chris Hare, the vice chairman of the Hilaire Belloc society and author of the work Hilaire Belloc: Politics of Living, has criticised the use of warnings.

He told The Telegraph: “It’s what we see today, a huge sense of caution and a generalised anxiety about saying the wrong thing.

“We live in an age where people are permanently anxious about causing offence.

“Since the Second World War, we have lived in quite a coddled society. It’s no longer the school of hard knocks, but the school of comfy living.

“Belloc himself saw this coming, a time when old ideas of morality have faded and nobody has any idea what might be right or wrong, so they worry about what might cause offence.

“I think he wouldn’t be surprised by this, although he would likely be saddened if it was because of his children’s poetry.”

Pan Macmillan has been approached for comment.

Craig Simpson - Daily Telegraph 6 April 2024 • 2:24pm