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Usually ships in 1 business days | | Only 4 left in stock, order soon! | | | | | | Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was an influential English writer of the early 20th century. His prolific and diverse output included journalism, philosophy, poetry, biography, Christian apologetics, fantasy, and detective fiction. Chesterton has been called the "prince of paradox. " He wrote in an off-hand, whimsical prose studded with startling formulations. He is one of the few Christian thinkers who are equally admired and quoted by both liberal and conservative Christians, and indeed by many non-Christians. And in his own words he cast aspersions on the labels saying, "The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected. " Chesterton wrote many books among which are: All Things Considered (1908), Alarms and Discursions (1910), The Ballad of the White Horse (1911), The Appetite of Tyranny (1915), The Everlasting Man (1925), The Secret of Father Brown (1927) and The Scandal of Father Brown (1935). | | | |
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| | Product Details | | Author: | G. K. Chesterton | | Hardcover: | 231 pages | | Publisher: | Ignatius Press | | Publication Date: | 2001-09 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 0898708907 | | Product Width: | 5.5 inches | | Product Height: | 8.5 inches | | Package Length: | 8.56 inches | | Package Width: | 5.61 inches | | Package Height: | 0.87 inches | | Package Weight: | 1.1 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 15 reviews |
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The Ballad of the White Horse Feb 28, 2010
This story is epic! G.K. Chesterton is a good author, and many of his works have deeply impressed me. This story not least of all. If you are a Christian, this book will encourage you, and by that I mean it will give you courage. The story isn't new. It's the classic tale of a dreadful battle, with unbeatable odds . The end hardly matters, of course, and the journey is brilliantly narrated by Chesterton.
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 Faux Pas on Cover Oct 17, 2008
I'm not sure what the publishers were thinking when they chose a picture of a white horse and a cowboy as the cover illustration for this great poem about the ninth-century Anglo-Saxon king, Alfred the Great. It sets the wrong mood for the story.
Alfred the Great for Home School and Christian Schools Aug 01, 2008
I purchased this 1950 edition of *The Ballad of the White Horse* used and recommend it for home schooling families and Christian schools because it contains a 39-page teaching guide, three articles ("Living Values in the Ballad," "Historical Background of the Ballad," and "The White Horse in Reality and Symbol") as well as a biographical sketch of G. K. Chesterton. As a Roman Catholic, Chesterton approached his topic from the Catholic perspective, but the basic theme of the ballad should resonate with all Christians. Though Chesterton died before World War II and the cultural wasteland that followed in Europe and the United States, he correctly anticipated in this ballad the triumph of Freudianism, nihilism, atheism, evolution, fascism, communism, neo-paganism and theories of racial superiority that dominated twentieth-century Europe and have not yet run their course. If you think a young reader might respond better to a copy with new binding, let me report that I had this book on my coffee table while I was reading it, and more than one visiting student picked it up and thumbed through it, which tells me that serious young readers are not put off by the somewhat outdated drawing on the cover. Perhaps it was even the drawing that drew them to the book. The language and theme of the book shine in any edition, but as far as I can determine, only this edition has the ancillary material.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
One of the greatest books I have ever read Aug 21, 2007
Out of the thousand or so books I have read in my life, if I were to put the Bible aside (since the Bible speaks with a special authority to believers and cannot really be compared to other books), I have read no more than five or six books that I would call truly great. That means there are only five or six books I would rate at five stars. This is one. Yes, it is that good.
I have never read any author who could make the English language sing the way Chesterton does in this poem -- for over a hundred pages. In contrast to contemporary "poets" whose "poems" consist of a bunch of strange words scattered apparently at random on a page, whose meaning, if there is one, is far beyond obscurity, Chesterton had apparently unlimited ability to create rhyme and alliteration, and then he bound it all tightly in the sing-song ballad style that carries it all swiftly along. The words of this poem are glorious to hear, and really, this book should be read aloud, so that one might hear the music of the words.
And few have ever been able to match the way Chesterton paints pictures with words. I will quote one passage, and hope it is not to long, to illustrate this. The scene here is Alfred's army making one final charge against the Danish camp:
Then bursting all and blasting
Came Christendom like death,
Kicked of such catapults of will,
The staves shiver, the barrels spill,
The waggons waver and crash and kill
The waggoners beneath.
Barriers go backward, banners rend,
Great shields groan like a gong,
Horses like horns of nightmare
Neigh horribly and long.
Horses ramp and rock and boil
And break their golden reins,
And slide on carnage clamorously,
Down where the bitter blood doth lie,
Where Ogier went on foot to die
In the old way of the Danes.
It would be hard to imagine anyone anyone describing such a violent scene in so few words any better than Chesterton does in that passage. And this passage is but one of dozens of glorious word-pictures that Chesterton's poetry paints in this book.
Beyond its magnificent use of the English language, this book also contains much philosophical insight -- insight that, although first published in 1911, is directly and clearly applicable today. Chesterton expresses very clearly the way that Christianity has formed the heart of Western culture over the ages, and the way that Christian faith -- which seems all about self-denial and thus sadness -- leads to unconquerable joy.
The book, of course, is not perfect; no work of literature can be. There are places where it gets a bit too preachy for my taste. But the book's flaws are few and minor, while its good points are many and glorious.
How good is this book? I have read it at least 50 times in my life, and I still enjoy reading it. In my opinion it is one of the truly greatest works written in the English language. It is one of the few books I have read that truly deserves five stars.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Popular Fiction Writer Anne Perry recommends this ballad. Apr 22, 2007
Anne Perry, the enormously popular writer of historical fiction, just recommended this ballad by G. K. Chesterton as one of five must read tales of historical fiction. (See the Wall Street Journal's online Opinion Page for April 21, 2007 in an article entitled "Past Tense.") Here's part of what she said:
"This is the story of the English King Alfred's desperate stand against invading Danes in 878. England is conquered, and Alfred is a fugitive when he sees a vision of the Virgin Mary that bids him call together the remnants of his people for a final battle. "The Ballad of the White Horse" is an epic poem of courage, passion and unsurpassable beauty."
If you'd like to read other tales and poems by Chesterton, you might want to get "The Ballad of the White Horse" as part of a collection of his poetry that I edited for not much more money. It's called G. K. Chesterton's Early Poetry and has "The Ballad of the White Horse," along with two other books of Chesterton poetry under one cover. That means you'll also get his best humorous poetry, "Greybeards at Play." No less a writer than George Orwell ranked Chesterton as one of the three best writers of funny poetry in twentieth century England. The poems are a riot of the ridiculous and are accompanied with equally funny sketches he did.
And although Anne Perry and I have the same last name, as far as I know we're not related. Her's is a pen name. Mine is a real name. I guess I'm not creative enough to invent a name for myself.
G. K. Chesterton's Early Poetry: Greybeards At Play, The Wild Knight And Other Poems, The Ballad Of The White Horse
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