Has anyone read The Lord of The World by Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson and if so what are your thoughts about it? I have the book and began to read it but put it down. I have read other fiction by Benson. He was a prolific writer and his writing style is Victorian. The book is a dystopian early science fiction novel written prior to World War I about the Antichrist and the last days in which Catholics dwindle to a small threatened remnant. Benson is a British writer who converted to Catholicism and before his passing became a monsignor. Evidently the novel was quite popular in its day but has become somewhat forgotten over time. I do intend to finish it.
I have a hardbound copy (reprint) I bought new, but like you, I have not read the book.
I read this 8 years ago after Pope Francis praised it. In the story, Julian Felsenburgh, the Antichrist, beomes president of the world in the 1980s, and a small minority of Catholics hold onto their faith. Protestantism is already dead, and all the other faiths cave in and acknowledge him as their god. This is probably the weakest part of the book. The best part is the cultural changes in England that accommodate his rise. I would say it’s worth reading once.
1 Like