- Browse
- Bestsellers
-
Books
-
Popular
Sports
Fiction
Health
Creative
Home & Garden
- Agriculture & Veterinary
- Antiques
- Architecture & Interiors
- Cookery
- Crafts
- D.I.Y.
- Gardening
- Wine & Beverages
Leisure
Irish
- Irish Fiction
- Irish History
- Irish Interest
- Irish Plays & Poetry
- Learn Irish
- Books As Gaeilge
- Limerick & Clare Books
- Genealogy
Other Categories
Book Awards
- Booker Prize
- CBI Book Awards
- Dublin Literary Award
- Irish Book Awards
- Nero Book Awards
- Pulitzer Prize
- Women's Prize for Fiction
- New Adult Book Prize
Specials
Recommended
Gift Wrap Service
-
- Children's
-
Gifts & Stationery
-
Popular
Gift Ideas
Games & Jigsaws
Childrens
-
- Third Level
- School Supplies
Converts: From Oscar Wilde to Muriel Spark, Why So Many Became Catholic in the 20th Century
€ 16.25
ISBN: 9780300306194
Why did Catholicism attract so many unlikely converts in Britain during the twentieth century?
The twentieth century is understood as an era of growing, inexorable secularism, yet in Britain between the 1890s and the 1960s there was a marked turn to Rome. In the first half of the century, Catholicism became an intellectual and spiritual fashion attracting more than half a million converts, including fascinating artists, writers, and thinkers. What drew these men and women to join the church, and what difference did conversion make to them?
Melanie McDonagh examines the lives of these notable converts from the perspective of their faith. For the Decadent circle of Aubrey Beardsley and Oscar Wilde-who converted on his deathbed-artists such as Gwen John and David Jones, the philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe, and novelists including G. K. Chesterton, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, and Muriel Spark, Catholicism offered stability in increasingly febrile times. McDonagh explores their lives and influences, the reaction to their conversions, and the priests who initiated them into their faith.
368 pages.
Not Yet Published.
Printed on or after 08/09/26. Please note dispatch may take 5-10 days after publication date.
A separate order should be placed for this item. If you order this along with other items, your entire order will be held and despatched when complete.
Date of Publication: 08/09/2026
PaperbackConverts: From Oscar Wilde to Muriel Spark, Why So Many Became Catholic in the 20th Century also appears in these Categories:
