A. C. Benson (1862–1925)

If you enjoy the stories of E.F. Benson, well, you'll probably hate this book as much as I did. The three brothers did nominally all write spook stories but only one did it well. A certain liveliness of image is almost always ruined here by an overtly Christian moralizing. People donate ill gotten buried treasures to build churches, that sort of thing. A mysterious white figure carries off the now smiling ghost, it having faced its misdeeds made on this mortal coil, finally, from the other show more side. I'm sure this sort of dreck was wildly popular among the better classes up until the mid-twentieth century. A sort of acceptable spiritualism.

It's all lost on us now even making so called contemporary inspirational fiction seem sophisticated by comparison. show less

A selection of Benson's essays on various things, which honestly haven't held up all that well. An interesting tidbit or turn of phrase here and there, but mostly I wasn't particularly engaged.

4053 Hugh Memoirs of a Brother, by Arthur Christopher Benson (read 3 Aug 2005) This is a 1915 book by the older brother of Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson, (who died 19 Oct 1914), in the form of a memoir. It is well written and totally admiratory of the brother, even though the author's admiration did not extend to his brother's religious views--both the author and Hugh being sons of an Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury who died in 1896. Easy and enjoyable reading.

Observations recorded while the author was trying to live a simple life.