John Inglesant Volume II

An epic within the heart

The best service I can do to recommend Shorthouse’s great religious novel is to refer you to a book-length study entitled ‘J Henry Shorthouse, and the Religion of John Inglesant’, which interrelates Shorthouse’s childhood in the Society of Friends and his Anglo-Catholic principles with the analytical psychology of C G Jung and the ‘enspiritualized’ literary vision of T S Eliot. Thirty years after first reading “John Inglesant” my love of the philosophical and religious romance continues to draw me yearly to England for soul-full pilgrimages to Little Gidding where I first read Shorthouse’s passionate defence of the Church of England. “John Inglesant” is a great novel waiting to inspire future readers by being transformed into a magnificent movie and to guide seekers to the beautiful haunt of ancient peace that still is, God be thanked, Little Gidding. (Dr C W Spurgeon, professor emeritus of British literture, Marymount California University)