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Top Ten Catholic Fiction Books


dUSt

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  • 2 weeks later...

Huh, this is a tough one. I guess I don't read much Catholic fiction. :ohno:

[quote name='dUSt' post='1548256' date='May 29 2008, 12:59 PM']No Gene Wolfe or Tolkien yet?

I love Gene Wolfe.[/quote]

I love Gene Wolfe too, but I don't know what I'd nominate! [b]The Book of the New Sun[/b] is... well, the best fiction of any kind, ever, IMO, and it is indeed [i]very[/i] Catholic. But I'm not sure how many Catholics would appreciate an extremely complex five book series about an apprentice torturer...

Oh, what the heck. I'll suggest it.

I don't suppose Katherine Kurtz's Dernyi books would count. :ninja:

(My reaction to first hearing Latin prayers was, "oh, neat, just like Deryni magic!")

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh. (beautiful description of what Abp. Fulton Sheen described, if I understood him right, as "black grace.")

Helena - Evelyn Waugh.

The Power and the Glory - Graham Greene. (This book very powerfully made me realise the greatness of the Eucharist.)

Lord of the World - Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson. (I shall remember this book because it helped me understand better the importance of the Mass and Mental Prayer.)

The Family That Overtook Christ - M. Raymond, O.C.S.O. (Beautiful novelisation of St. Bernard and his family.)

Quo Vadis - Henryk Sienkiewicz (When I first read Lloyd C. Douglas' The Robe, I thought no one could be as good as he at writing a narrative set in that period, but Henryk Sienkiewicz is definitely as good, perhaps even better than Douglas. )

The Father Brown Stories - G.K. Chesterton (the list would be incomplete without this!)

Manalive - G.K.C.

The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkien (and of course, the LOTR, too.)

I'm afraid that's all the Catholic fiction I've read so far.

Edited by Innocent
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Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

I would recommend: Fr Elijah: An Apocalypse by Michael D. O'Brien (it is my favorite) , and the other Children of the Last Days books. The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Silmarillion, and Book of Lost Tales.

Also, C.S. Lewis wasn't Catholic but the Narnia books are solid and so is The Screwtape Letters.

Edited by Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
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  • 4 weeks later...
Guest EcceQuamBonum

The [i]Divine Comedy[/i]. Bar none.

[i]The Collected Short Stories of Flannery O'Connor[/i]. There is a deeper and more incisive understanding of grace here than in most modern theology.

[i]Brideshead Revisited[/i]. Glorious, glorious, glorious. Waugh was a master wit. The final scene always gets me. (Just don't see that blasted movie!)

[i]The Power and the Glory[/i] by Graham Greene. Greene also has a short story called "The Last Word" that is worth a read.

Though not a book, [i]per se[/i], I'm going to make a stretch and offer T.S. Eliot's later poetry as a suggestion. "Ash Wednesday" in particular, though the [i]Four Quartets[/i] are wonderful:

"And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."
-Little Gidding

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Lewis's Space Trilogy was quite good. It's been a while since I've read that trilogy, so I forget how in line with Church teaching it is, but hey. The Screwtape Letters are excellent as well. Ah, vintage Pharisee!

Christian Frank's John Paul 2 High series is well-written and realistic.

Arms of Love and Surrender, while overly didactic and often unrealistic, make a good template for how courtship should go in my opinion.

LotR is cool as well. The Catholic symbolism went over my head for the most part when I read the books, but people tell me it's there, so...

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I have fallen in love with Kristen Heitzmann's novels. She is a Catholic author. Most of what I have read (Freefall, The Diamond of the Rockies series) have strong women plots. They are Catholic in content. Meaning the woman's faith plays a key role in who she is and how the novel plays out.

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the lords sheep

[quote name='prose' post='1646463' date='Sep 3 2008, 11:26 PM']The Great Divorce, CS Lewis.

One of the best books I have ever read about purgatory.[/quote]

I second the comment about that this is a great book.

However, I don't think that it is exactly about purgatory. It's about damned souls; they are in hell; when they go to heaven, the first place only becomes purgatory for those who choose heaven. Otherwise, it remains hell for those who return to it....

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[quote name='dee_0824' post='1722627' date='Dec 8 2008, 06:03 PM']I have fallen in love with Kristen Heitzmann's novels. She is a Catholic author. Most of what I have read (Freefall, The Diamond of the Rockies series) have strong women plots. They are Catholic in content. Meaning the woman's faith plays a key role in who she is and how the novel plays out.[/quote]

those sound good....I have [i]the great divorce[/i], been meaning to read it. I want to read something cheery at Christmas though.

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