Robert Hugh Benson's Lord of the World is a view of the early twenty-first century from the vantage of 1907, but it is remarkably prescient.
On the other hand, many listeners are enjoying it for the thrills along the way. John Wilson, a First Week Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club, was struck by this line from last night's episode:
"Feel it!" cried the man, with shining eyes. "Why, I would die for him!"
To which John responds:
Prediction: you will.
Now, now, John: no plot spoilers.
In tonight's episode Percy Franklin has arrived in Rome, whose character is not as other western cities:
It was an extraordinary city, said antiquarians—the one living example of the old days. Here were to be seen the ancient inconveniences, the insanitary horrors, the incarnation of a world given over to dreaming. The old Church pomp was back, too; the cardinals drove again in gilt coaches; the Pope rode on his white mule; the Blessed Sacrament went through the ill-smelling streets with the sound of bells and the light of lanterns...
Yet Percy, even in the glimpses he had had in the streets, as he drove from the volor station outside the People's Gate, of the old peasant dresses, the blue and red-fringed wine carts, the cabbage-strewn gutters, the wet clothes flapping on strings, the mules and horses—strange though these were, he had found them a refreshment. It had seemed to remind him that man was human, and not divine as the rest of the world proclaimed—human, and therefore careless and individualistic; human, and therefore occupied with interests other than those of speed, cleanliness, and precision.
If you're a member of The Mark Steyn Club you can hear my reading of Part Fourteen of our serialisation of Lord of the World simply by clicking here and logging-in. All previous episodes can be found here - so you can choose whether to follow along each night twenty minutes before you lower your lamp, or save them up for a weekend binge-listen.
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