Newmans' Unquiet Grave - The Reluctant Saint
"An Excellent biography ... a graceful and scholarly account of Newman's life."
Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church, Oxford University in The Literary Review, 1 June, 2010
"I doubt if there will ever be a better book on Newman"
Alasadair MacIntyre, author After Virtue
A new biography of John Henry Newman by John Cornwell
John Henry Newman was the most eminent English-speaking Christian thinker and writer of the past two hundred years. James Joyce hailed him the 'greatest' prose stylist of the Victorian age.
A problematic campaign to canonise Newman started fifty years ago. After many delays John Paul II declared him a 'Venerable'. Then Pope Benedict XVI, a keen student of Newman's works, pressed for his beatification. But was Newman a 'Saint'? In Newman's Unquiet Grave John Cornwell (author of A Thief in the Night and Hitler's Pope) tells the story of the chequered attempts to establish Newman's sanctity against the background of major developments within Catholicism. His life was marked by personal feuds, self-absorption, accusations of professional and artistic narcissism, hypochondria, and same-sex friendships that at times bordered on the apparent homo-erotic.
John Cornwell investigates the process of Newman's elevation to sainthood to present a highly original and controversial new portrait of the great man's life and genius for a new generation of religious and non-religious readers alike.
Publisher: Continuum
Publication date: (UK) 30 May, 2010
ISBN-10: 1441150846 - ISBN-13: 978-1441150844
Reviews
"Newman's Unquiet Grave is a substantial achievement...John Cornwell has taken on the task of writing a biography of Newman to make his life intelligible to the largely secular public which in a few weeks will watch on television the ceremony of his beatification. He has followed a via media between the hagiography of Meriol Trevor and the mockery of Lytton Strachey, and he has produced a Life which is readable, sympathetic and judicious... Altogether, he has succeeded in building up a vivid picture of Newman's personality."
Anthony Kenny in The Times Literary Supplement, July 28, 2010
"A work of rare insight and careful balance of judgement...give[s] the reader a richer interpretation of Newman's extraordinary genius."
Edward Norman in Standpoint, May 2010
"There are three qualities which mark this book out for special commendation. First, Cornwell sees Newman was first and foremost a writer ... Secondly, Cornwell is a practised journalist, and loves gossip and a good story ... Thirdly Cornwell, a thoughtful intellectual of our own day, explains the significance of Newman for today's church."
A.N. Wilson in The Spectator, 5 June 2010
"richly informative..and splendidly readable"
Terry Eagleton in London Review of Books, 5 August, 2010
"Newman's true qualities will shine through, this compelling biography concludes, and the world will be , on balance, better for it."
Peter Standford in The Sunday Times,30 May, 2010
"Newman's Unquiet Grave by John Cornwell is a highly readable attempt to convey why Newman was, and remains, a fascinating figure."
Charles Moore in The Daily Telegraph, 19 July, 2010
"Cornwell writes about Newman and his time with verve and lucidity ... Cornwell usefully highlights that Newman ... was part of the Roman tradition that saw the imagination as the means to understanding the sublime."
Catherine Pepinster in The New Statesman, 14 May, 2010
"[An] Excellent biography ... [A] graceful and scholarly account of Newman's life."
Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church, Oxford University in The Literary Review, 1 June, 2010
"This is a wonderfully realized study of a complex man, required reading for every student of English history and its rich Christian tradition."
Publishers Weekly, Starred Reviews, 12 July, 2010
"a timely biography by John Cornwell. He admires Newman, but seeks to save him from hagiography and to remind us that he was a great and independent Christian thinker - one of the first, for instance, to accept the idea of evolution - and a master of English prose."
David Lodge in The Guardian, 17 July, 2010
"John Cornwell's biography makes a case for [Newman's] continued relevance outside the religious sphere."
The Financial Times, 19 July, 2010
"One particular strength of this book is the way Cornwell has quarried material from Newman's writings."
The Tablet, 26 June, 2010
"Newman's lively self-awareness makes his letters fascinating as biography."
The Oldie, August 2010
"This timely and instructive work offers a concise and accessible account."
Western Daily Press, 26 June 2010
'Newman might have squirmed at the somlemn canonisation to which he is now powerlessly subjected'
The Daily Telegraph 10 July 2010
'This present work has ruffled feathers among conservative Catholics, but it's an achievement ... [it] avoids hagiography and is squarely aimed at agnostics as well as admirers'
The Evening Standard 15th July 2010
"After a number of substantial Newman biographies in the last century, Cornwell, an award-winning journalist and author, and an objective historian of the modern Catholic Church, offers a concise and more accessible account of the saintly but controversial scholar who was once dubbed 'the most dangerous man in England' by the Vatican."
Mysterious Planet website
"A concise and accessible account of the saintly but controversial scholar who was once dubbed the most dangerous man in England by the Vatican."
suite101.com
'John Cornwell presents Newman as an independent, original genius who would have emphasised the role of conscience over authority to seek religious truth wherever it might lead.'
East Riding News, July 2010
Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church, Oxford University in The Literary Review, 1 June, 2010
"I doubt if there will ever be a better book on Newman"
Alasadair MacIntyre, author After Virtue
A new biography of John Henry Newman by John Cornwell
John Henry Newman was the most eminent English-speaking Christian thinker and writer of the past two hundred years. James Joyce hailed him the 'greatest' prose stylist of the Victorian age.
A problematic campaign to canonise Newman started fifty years ago. After many delays John Paul II declared him a 'Venerable'. Then Pope Benedict XVI, a keen student of Newman's works, pressed for his beatification. But was Newman a 'Saint'? In Newman's Unquiet Grave John Cornwell (author of A Thief in the Night and Hitler's Pope) tells the story of the chequered attempts to establish Newman's sanctity against the background of major developments within Catholicism. His life was marked by personal feuds, self-absorption, accusations of professional and artistic narcissism, hypochondria, and same-sex friendships that at times bordered on the apparent homo-erotic.
John Cornwell investigates the process of Newman's elevation to sainthood to present a highly original and controversial new portrait of the great man's life and genius for a new generation of religious and non-religious readers alike.
Publisher: Continuum
Publication date: (UK) 30 May, 2010
ISBN-10: 1441150846 - ISBN-13: 978-1441150844
Reviews
"Newman's Unquiet Grave is a substantial achievement...John Cornwell has taken on the task of writing a biography of Newman to make his life intelligible to the largely secular public which in a few weeks will watch on television the ceremony of his beatification. He has followed a via media between the hagiography of Meriol Trevor and the mockery of Lytton Strachey, and he has produced a Life which is readable, sympathetic and judicious... Altogether, he has succeeded in building up a vivid picture of Newman's personality."
Anthony Kenny in The Times Literary Supplement, July 28, 2010
"A work of rare insight and careful balance of judgement...give[s] the reader a richer interpretation of Newman's extraordinary genius."
Edward Norman in Standpoint, May 2010
"There are three qualities which mark this book out for special commendation. First, Cornwell sees Newman was first and foremost a writer ... Secondly, Cornwell is a practised journalist, and loves gossip and a good story ... Thirdly Cornwell, a thoughtful intellectual of our own day, explains the significance of Newman for today's church."
A.N. Wilson in The Spectator, 5 June 2010
"richly informative..and splendidly readable"
Terry Eagleton in London Review of Books, 5 August, 2010
"Newman's true qualities will shine through, this compelling biography concludes, and the world will be , on balance, better for it."
Peter Standford in The Sunday Times,30 May, 2010
"Newman's Unquiet Grave by John Cornwell is a highly readable attempt to convey why Newman was, and remains, a fascinating figure."
Charles Moore in The Daily Telegraph, 19 July, 2010
"Cornwell writes about Newman and his time with verve and lucidity ... Cornwell usefully highlights that Newman ... was part of the Roman tradition that saw the imagination as the means to understanding the sublime."
Catherine Pepinster in The New Statesman, 14 May, 2010
"[An] Excellent biography ... [A] graceful and scholarly account of Newman's life."
Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church, Oxford University in The Literary Review, 1 June, 2010
"This is a wonderfully realized study of a complex man, required reading for every student of English history and its rich Christian tradition."
Publishers Weekly, Starred Reviews, 12 July, 2010
"a timely biography by John Cornwell. He admires Newman, but seeks to save him from hagiography and to remind us that he was a great and independent Christian thinker - one of the first, for instance, to accept the idea of evolution - and a master of English prose."
David Lodge in The Guardian, 17 July, 2010
"John Cornwell's biography makes a case for [Newman's] continued relevance outside the religious sphere."
The Financial Times, 19 July, 2010
"One particular strength of this book is the way Cornwell has quarried material from Newman's writings."
The Tablet, 26 June, 2010
"Newman's lively self-awareness makes his letters fascinating as biography."
The Oldie, August 2010
"This timely and instructive work offers a concise and accessible account."
Western Daily Press, 26 June 2010
'Newman might have squirmed at the somlemn canonisation to which he is now powerlessly subjected'
The Daily Telegraph 10 July 2010
'This present work has ruffled feathers among conservative Catholics, but it's an achievement ... [it] avoids hagiography and is squarely aimed at agnostics as well as admirers'
The Evening Standard 15th July 2010
"After a number of substantial Newman biographies in the last century, Cornwell, an award-winning journalist and author, and an objective historian of the modern Catholic Church, offers a concise and more accessible account of the saintly but controversial scholar who was once dubbed 'the most dangerous man in England' by the Vatican."
Mysterious Planet website
"A concise and accessible account of the saintly but controversial scholar who was once dubbed the most dangerous man in England by the Vatican."
suite101.com
'John Cornwell presents Newman as an independent, original genius who would have emphasised the role of conscience over authority to seek religious truth wherever it might lead.'
East Riding News, July 2010
Newman's Unquiet Grave - the Reluctant Saint. Biography of John Henry Newman by John Cornwell
