Q&A …

… Remembering Maurice Baring, literary convert and beloved friend of Chesterton.

Baring’s work is difficult for the modern reader because Baring was himself much more civilized and much more widely read than the modern reader. This is why I feel in awe in his presence when I read his books. Since Baring is much better read than I, and since he was a polyglot, conversant in several languages and cognizant of many others, ancient and modern, I feel in his presence what Chesterton felt in the presence of the Dominican, Father Vincent McNabb, that he walks on a crystal floor above my head.