![]() ![]() While I occasionally sensed a certain degree of immaturity in Merton’s first publication, particularly in his convert’s zeal, his passing conceit and in some sweeping declarations that he makes, it’s also this initial work that shows him to be an exceptionally good and engaging writer. Some of Merton’s sharp-tongued humour, his occasional flippancy, the manner in which he derides modern culture and society, and the often ornamental narration does more than simply remind me of Waugh - much of this feels like nearly a mirror image of the novelist’s views and style. Like Waugh, Merton was a convert to Roman Catholicism. We know that as a young man, Merton read and enjoyed Waugh’s novels. ![]() One of Merton’s contemporaries was British novelist Evelyn Waugh. ![]() The late Trappist monk Thomas Merton’s autobiographical work The Seven Storey Mountain reads like a coming-of-age story, a theological reflection and sometimes like a novel sprinkled with wry humour, wit and tragedy. This edition: Word on Fire Classics Series, 2017, 506 pgs. Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain (originally published in 1948 by Harcourt Brace, New York City). ![]()
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