Lord of the World/ Robert Hugh Benson

Introduction by Ralph McInerny

In this profound and prescient novel, Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson presents an imaginative foretelling of the end of the world. All stories, Aristotle said, have a beginning, a middle, and an end, but most ends are relative, the terminus of a chain of acts. But what about the end that terminates all human action, the end of time, the Second Coming? Since this novel appeared in 1906, many others have been devoted to nuclear disaster, destructive comets, and other hair-raising possibilities. What sets Benson's story apart and makes it as readable today as when it was written is the Catholic and biblical context that provides the ultimate meaning.

Robert Hugh Benson (1871-1914) was the son of the Archbishop of Canterbury, whose conversion to Catholicism caused a stir. He became a great apologist for the faith, in spiritual works as well as in works of the imagination. Lord of the World is a tremendous "read," but it is also deep spiritual food for thought.

"Mr. Benson sees the world, four or five generations hence [this review written in 1906], free at last from all minor quarrels, and ranged against itself in two camps, Humanitarianism for those who believe in no divinity but that of man, Catholicism for those who believe in no divinity but that of God."
- London Times

"Interesting it must be to all to whom the deepest convictions of a man's heart are of moment. And in the artistic balance and taste of Fr. Benson's literary power every reader will find delight."
- New York Times