Hilaire Belloc

Hilaire Belloc (1910)

Hilaire Joseph Pierre Belloc (born July 27, 1870 in La Celle-Saint-Cloud near Paris , † July 16, 1953 in Guildford , Surrey ) was a British writer of French origin.

Life

Belloc was the son of British feminist Elizabeth Rayner Parkes and French lawyer Louis Belloc. Because of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870/71, his parents moved with him to Great Britain. He studied at Balliol College of Oxford University and at Gray's Inn in London . In 1906 to 1910 he served as Liberal MP Member of Parliament . During this time he also started working as a journalist. Since he found politics to be hypocritical, he withdrew from political life. He also criticized day-to-day political affairs in his works.

Belloc's wife Elodie died in 1910 and he lost two sons in the war (1918 and 1941 respectively). Hilaire Joseph Pierre Belloc died a few days before his 83rd birthday in July 1953 in Guildford, Surrey.

Worldview

Together with Gilbert Keith Chesterton , Belloc was a representative of Catholicism and distributism and thus a staunch opponent of George Bernard Shaw and Herbert George Wells . His aversion to capitalism , behind which he believed Jewish bankers and profiteers who allegedly exerted too much influence on economics and politics, led him to stand on the side of its opponents in the Dreyfus Trial and to find anti-Semitic characterizations in some of his works are (e.g. in Emmanuel Burden and Election , in which a Jewish financier rises into the very highest political circles and can influence the prime minister). In his work The Jews (1922) he advocated giving Jews a homeland in order to reduce this supposed influence and to prevent the spread of Bolshevism .

plant

Belloc's literary output comprises well over 100 titles; including novels, short stories, essays, poems and non-fiction books such as biographies.

Works (selection)

Letters

• Robert Speaight (Ed.): Letters from Hilaire Belloc. Hollis & Carter, London 1958.

Essays

• The Cruise of the Nona ("The Cruise of the Nona", 1925). Transferred by Sigismund von Radecki. Walter, Olten and Freiburg i. Br. 1953.
• Conversation with an angel (“A conversation with an angel”, 1928). Herold Verlag, Vienna 1954.
• Conversation with a cat and other essays (“A conversation with a cat”, 1931). Scientia Verlag, Zurich 1940.
• A change in the cabinet. 2nd Edition. Methuen, London 1915.
• The Jews ("The Jews. An essay", 1922). Kösel & Pustet, Munich 1927.
• Pongo and the bull. Constable Press, London 1910.
• The slave state ("The servile state", 1912). DVA, Stuttgart 1925.

Books for children and young readers

• Small-Child-Preservation Institution. 15 edifying stories to warn of the dire consequences of youthful exuberance (Cautionary Tales for Children, 1907). Sanssouci Verlag, Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-7254-1139-5 (translated and retouched by Hans Magnus Enzensberger ); New edition: LSD (Steidl Verlag), Göttingen 2019, ISBN 978-3-95829-433-2 .
• Mathilda, who lied so terribly ... ("Matilda, who told such dreadful lies and was burned to death"). Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-257-00743-4 (translated by Harry Rowohlt and illustrated by Posy Simmonds ).

Poetry

• Complete verse Duckworth Press, London 1981, ISBN 0-7156-0533-X .
• Sonnets and verse. Duckworth Press, London 1978, ISBN 0-7156-0345-0 .

Novels

• Emmanuel Burden. Merchant of Thames St. in the City of London, exporter of hardware. Scribners, New York 1979, ISBN 0-404-1464-2 (reprint of New York 1904 edition).
• Mr. Clutterbuck's election. A novel. Nelson Books, London 1908 (Nelson Library).
• Unwilling millionaire. Roman ("Mr. Petre", 1925). Knaur, Berlin 1927.

Non-fiction

• The French Revolution ("The French Revolution"). Goldmann, Munich 1963.
• Advice on wine, food and other things (“Advice”). Edition Kupferberg, Mainz 1969.
• The path to Rome ("The path to Rome"). Herder, Freiburg / B. 1964 (Herder Library; 184).
• Napoleon. The Albatross, Hamburg 1933 (The Albatross Modern Continental Library; 69).
• Oliver Cromwell. A man of his time ("Cromwell"). Benziger Verlag, Einsiedeln 1936.
• Marie Antoinette ("Marie-Antoinette"), Diana-Verlag, Stuttgart 1952.
• The restoration of property ("An essay on the restoration of property"). Walter publisher, Olten 1948.
• Richelieu. The Albatross, Hamburg 1932 (The Albatross Modern Continental Library; 30).
• James II. Books for Libraries Press, Freeport NY 1971, ISBN 0-8369-5922-1 (reprint of London 1927 edition).
• The historic Thames. A portrait of England's greatest river . Tauris Press, London 2008, ISBN 978-1-84511-712-2 .
• Danton. A biography. Stacey Books, London 1928 (reprint of the London 1899 edition).
• Robespierre. A study. Knickerbocker Press, London 1928.

Work edition

• Works. Tauchnitz Verlag, Leipzig 1929/31 (4 volumes, in English).

literature

• Sigismund von Radecki: Hilaire Belloc . In: Knowledge and Life (Zurich). Neue Schweizerische Rundschau, 24, 1931, pp. 167–171.
• Andrew P. Coogan: Hilaire Belloc and the First World War. The military, economic, political and ideological aspects of war. Dissertation, St. John's University, Collegeville, Minn. 1983.
• Jay P. Corrin: GK Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc. The battle against modernity. University Press, Athens OH 1981, ISBN 0-8214-0604-3 .
• Ilse Koschmieder: Hilaire Belloc as essayist and narrator. Dissertation, University of Freiburg / B. 1956.
• Michael H. Markel: Hilaire Belloc. Twayne, Boston MA 1982, ISBN 0-8057-6833-5 (Twayne's English Authors Series; 347).
• Thomas McKay: Belloc, Hilaire . In: Handbuch des Antisemitismus , Volume 2/1, 2009, p. 66 f.
• Joseph Pearce: Old Thunder. A life of Hilaire Belloc. Harper Collins, London 2002, ISBN 0-00-274095-8 .
• Robert Speaight: The life of Hilaire Belloc. Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, New York 1957.
• Andrew N. Wilson: Hilaire Belloc. A biography. Gibson Square Books, London 2003, ISBN 1-903933-32-3 .
• Wilhelm Wölwer: Hilaire Belloc and his advocacy for Catholicism in England. Hanstein Verlag, Bonn 1937 (also dissertation, University of Berlin 1937).
• Belloc, Hilaire . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 30 : Abbe - English history . London 1922 (English).

Web links

Commons : Hilaire Belloc  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Hilaire Belloc in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Hilaire Belloc  in the German Digital Library
• Hilaire Belloc in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)