Old Books and New Ideas

I've added a new label representing a theme I'm fond of, "Old Books." It seems that at almost any given time I've got at least one in the stack by the fireplace that I'm working my way through. Sometimes I buy new editions of old books, but the real prize is always the old edition, as close to the 1st Edition as possible.

My most recent finds in the second category happened at a local library book sale a couple of weeks ago. Big room full of old books, grocery bag full: $5.00. What a deal. So I loaded up an over-sized 1880's 3-volume set of Washington Irving (haven't read anything in them yet, just enjoy looking at them with their beautiful embossing and engraved illustrations), and among a half-dozen others, a copy of E. Stanley Jones The Christ of the Indian Road c. 1925. That one is fascinating in the Theological category and will merit a later post.

A lot of the old books around me right now are, predictably, Chesterton books. Now an official member of the American Chesterton Society, I find my self prepping for the monthly discussion group with whatever piece of his work is on the agenda.

Today's first old book is one of them, and one that led me straight to the second, a truly old classic by Henry James—picked up at some long-forgotten garage or book sale and languishing on my shelf until recently.

1. Tremendous Trifles by G.K. Chesterton 1909

GKC inquirers, start here! This excellent collection (download here) of short articles from the London Illustrated News captures the essence of Chesterton. On the idea of Seeing, particularly the smaller things of the world :

...the object of my school is to show how many extraordinary things even a lazy and ordinary man may see if he can spur himself to the single activity of seeing.

Everything is in an attitude of mind; and at this moment I am in a comfortable attitude. I will sit still and let the marvels and the adventures settle on me like flies. There are plenty of them, I assure you. The world will never starve for want of wonders; but only for want of wonder.

The 39 essays that follow are funny, poignant and off the wall.

One not to miss: The Twelve Men—on how some things are just too important to leave to the experts.

Another: The Red Angel, in wonderful support of reading fairy tales and scary stories to kids. His one exception? My next old book...

2. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James 1898

James was a contemporary of GKC and brother of the "father of pragmatism," philosopher William James, a quirky fellow in his own right. Chesterton summarized Henry's effort:

It describes two innocent children gradually growing at once omniscient and half-witted under the influence of the foul ghosts of a groom and a governess. As I say, I doubt whether Mr. Henry James ought to have published it (no, it is not indecent, do not buy it; it is a spiritual matter)...

So, of course I had to read it. It's terrible. Not all old books are good books. My complaint is not about ghostliness, or preternatural terror, but that the author lead me on only to abandon me at the end. The reader feels the evil atmosphere but is left wondering: Were the horrors real or only in the mind of the narrator? Was the evil in the perceiving or that which was perceived? That may have been James' intent, and perhaps even his genius, I don't know. Like so much modern story-telling and unlike good fairy tales and good stories of terror, it ends without resolution or moral point of view. That's the reason, I suppose, for Chesterton's warning that it was a "spiritual matter."

On the plus side, my old-old copy is mint condition from the Everyman Library with dust jacket still intact!

Next old book: The Christ of the Indian Road by E. Stanley Jones, and old book with ideas that will appeal to some modern Christians and appall others. It did a little of both to me.