Resumen
Resumen de El señor del mundo
Para quién es
For readers who love early science fiction, questions of faith and politics, and novels of ideas that argue openly about belief, power and world unity.
De qué trata este libro
Lord of the World is a novel by Robert Hugh Benson, published in 1907. Benson was an English priest, the son of an Archbishop of Canterbury, who had become a Roman Catholic a few years earlier. He wrote this book as a warning. He imagined a future in which religion has faded in public life, nations have drawn together, and a calm, humane creed of this world has taken the place of faith.
The book is often placed among the first modern dystopias, yet its author cares less about machines than about belief. It asks what happens when a society offers peace, comfort and unity, and asks in return only that people give up the idea of God. Along the way you meet a priest, a politician and a charismatic leader whose fame spreads across the world. You will hear what the book sets up, what it argues, and how it is built. First, the world it describes.
En este resumen
- 1A world that has set religion asideFree
- 2A priest in a shrinking church
- 3A politician and his wife at the heart of the new order
- 4A man of peace rises to world fame
- 5What the novel argues about faith and power
- 6How the story is told and how to read it
Idea clave 1 de 6
A world that has set religion aside
The story is set in a future Europe and a wider world that have changed deeply from Benson's own. The great powers have regrouped, and the old quarrels of nations have lost much of their force. In the West, a spirit of humanitarian progress governs public life. Its followers care about comfort, order and the good of people in this life, and they speak of the old religions as relics of fear.
In this world, Christianity has not vanished, but it has shrunk. The Catholic Church is a small body, watched with suspicion or with pity by the educated. Benson shows its members as a minority who hold to old teachings while the culture around them moves on. This sets up the central contrast of the novel, two ways of understanding what human beings are for.
Benson does not present the new order as simply cruel. Many of its people are kind, sincere and proud of what they have built. They believe they have freed the world from war and superstition. That is part of the book's force, since the danger it warns of comes dressed as goodness.
The novel lets us see this world through several lives rather than through one lecture. Ordinary scenes of talk, work and politics carry the argument. When you listen, notice how often the characters assume that the matter of God is settled and closed.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Percy Franklin
- Percy Franklin is a patient English Catholic priest whose faith stands against the humanitarian beliefs of Oliver and Mabel Brand.
- Julian Felsenburgh
- Julian Felsenburgh is an American politician whose promise of peace attracts people committed to the Brands' humanitarian creed.
- Oliver Brand
- Oliver Brand is an English member of Parliament and Mabel's husband, confident in the new humanitarian order.
- Mabel Brand
- Mabel Brand is Oliver's wife, sharing his humanitarian beliefs and showing how the new creed shapes private life.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 101,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 6 h 45 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 10 other languages
Questions about El señor del mundo
What is Lord of the World about?
It is a novel about a future world that has turned away from religion toward humanitarian peace and unity. A Catholic priest, a politician and a rising world leader stand at the centre of its clash between faith and secular power.
Who is Julian Felsenburgh in Lord of the World?
He is an American politician who rises to great fame as a man of peace. Many in the novel trust him to unite the world, and the title points toward his growing influence.
When was Lord of the World written?
Robert Hugh Benson published it in 1907. It is a work of fiction set in an imagined future, and it was written as a warning from a Catholic priest about where a world without religion might lead.
Is Lord of the World hard to read?
No. The story moves between a priest, a politician and his wife, so you follow real people through ordinary scenes of talk and work. Benson also states his ideas openly, which keeps every turn of the plot clear.
Is Lord of the World worth reading today?
Many readers find it worth reading for its early picture of a gentle, controlling world order and its questions about belief and power. It is written from a Catholic view, which shapes its argument.