CHESTERTON, GILBERT KEITH. Superstition of divorce. *$1.50 (6c) Lane 173
20–5411
The book is a collection of five articles first printed in the New Witness, apropos of a press controversy on divorce, with an added conclusion. Throughout the characteristically epigrammatic and brilliantly sketchy discourses the biological implications of marriage stand out as the incontrovertible facts and the “common sense” that has “age after age sought refuge in the high sanity of a sacrament.” The much ado about divorce, the writer concludes, is due to the fact that men expect the impossible from life and do not realize their natural limitations. Contents: The superstition of divorce; The story of the family; The story of the vow; The tragedies of marriage; The vista of divorce; Conclusion.
“Though Mr Chesterton hardly adds anything new to the controversy, his book is an interesting study in style.”
+ Ath p192 F 6 ’20 120w
“Mr Chesterton’s position is not very easy to grasp because he has, to an unusual degree, indulged his propensity to break his argument in order to comment on anything that occurs to him, and we are not yet clear on some fundamental points. So far as we can see, Mr Chesterton does not deal with the real case for divorce, and his book leaves the question exactly where it was before.” J. W. N. S.
− Ath p235 F 20 ’20 1600w Booklist 16:296 Je ’20
“One can agree perfectly with Mr Chesterton in his plea for greater care in marriage partnerships and in hoping that the sanctity of the family may be preserved. But his arguments seem often rather strained, especially when coupled with his zeal in pumping up the wildest and most extravagant and often frivolous fireworks of style.” N. H. D.
− + Boston Transcript p6 Je 16 ’20 850w Dial 70:233 F ’21 60w