I’d like to share an e-mail I’ve just received from someone who makes an intriguing comparison between Hilaire Belloc and Graham Greene. Here’s the pertinent part of the e-mail; my response follows:

Reading your biography of Belloc, I found myself admiring Belloc immensely but not liking him much.  There is an affability to Chesterton that made even his enemies melt.  Belloc’s confrontational style is off-putting.  But the Chesterbelloc combination was certainly a force.  I suspect each in his own and different way was used mightily by God.

It was also unsettling to read about the financial straits Belloc seemed constantly to be in.  It was dreadful to read that near the end of his life two newspapers dropped his column and he worried greatly about thefinancial effect on himself and his family.  I can readily see where that stress might tend to  lead to writer’s block.  

I couldn’t help but be struck by the similarity between Belloc and Graham Greene. I’ve recently read Norman Sherry’s multi-volume biography of Greene.  Both were Englishmen with an affection for France, headstrong, domineering and with an incredible ability to communicate profound thought in everyday prose.  Greene particularly could knock you over with a thought.  For example in Brighton Rock, the priest hearing the widow’s confession says: “You cannot conceive, nor can I, of the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God.”  Wow.

Of course Belloc seemed more intentional about living out the commandments. I’ve wondered about the chasm between the spiritual insight reflected in Greene’s work and his adulterous life style – not as far as the temptation – for but for the grace of God so goes me – but rather I find mystifying the almost compulsive womanizing in light of that marvelous spiritual insight.

My response:

I agree that Belloc is a more problematic character than Chesterton but I can’t help liking him nonetheless. This is due in part, no doubt, to his crucial part in my own journey to Christ. I am deeply in his debt. I’m also a great admirer of his poetry – and his books, The Four Men and The Path to Rome, are amongst my all time favourites.

I accept, in part, your comparison of Belloc with Greene but you are right to be baffled by Greene’s compulsive adultery disorder (the acronym is CAD!). One thing I admire about Belloc is that there is no evidence that he cheated on his wife, and his loyalty to her was such that he never sought to remarry after her all too early death. There is more than a world of difference between a man who deserts his wife and children (Greene) and one who remains loyal to his wife even after her death (Belloc).