Anthony Esolen Knihy

The Hundredfold is a tapestry of hymns, monologues, and short lyrics knit together as one book-length poem in praise of Christ in all his startling humanity. Drawing from the riches of the English poetic tradition—meter, rhyme, music—the poet considers the mysterious man from Nazareth and the world he came to set on fire with splendor. Having made a career translating the Italian masters Dante and Tasso, Anthony Esolen now puts on the dusty mantle of such English craftsmen as Donne, Milton, and Hopkins in his first book of original contemplative poetry. The Hundredfold contains dramatic monologues set in first-century Greece and Palestine; lyrical meditations on creation, longing, failure, modern emptiness, and unshakeable hope; and twenty-one brand-new hymns, set to such traditional melodies as “Picardy” and “Old One-Hundred-Twenty-Fourth”. The book includes an introduction with diamond-sharp insights into English poetic form—at a time when form is so often misunderstood, if not dismissed. It provides an invaluable resource for students, teachers, and poets themselves, as well as those who simply read poetry for pleasure.

The exploration of the Prologue to the Gospel of John reveals its profound theological depth, as Anthony Esolen examines the interplay between the Apostle John's observations of Jesus and the broader Scriptural context. Esolen uniquely interprets the Hebrew/Aramaic roots of John's Greek, enhancing the text's poetic resonance. His extensive background in Christian poetry and Scripture allows him to illuminate the passage's significance, positioning John as a disciple who channels the essence of Christ's teachings into a transformative poetic expression.

Unreal City: a zany cartoon megalopolis where towers are built of cotton candy, facts scatter like pixie dust, and the truth is whatever you feel it to be. And it's no fantasy. It's where we live. We dwell in Unreal City. We believe in un-being. With saber-like wit, poet and professor Anthony Esolen leads readers on a tour through the ruins of their own Western world--through king-size bookstores, manicured college campuses, strobe-lit choir lofts, mechanized farms, divorce courts, drag-queen libraries, and beyond. This hilarious guide to a culture gone mad with sex and self-care minces no words and spares no egos. We the people of Unreal City are no better, and certainly no smarter, than our fathers. But fear not. Sex and the Unreal City insists there's no need to settle down in the ninth circle of unreality. Esolen lights a torch and heads up the well-trod path back to our cleaner, kinder, truer homeland: earth. Along the way, the author sings the songs of masters somehow long forgotten--Shakespeare, Dante, Milton, the evangelists--and asks us to chant along. Readers of essayists like George Weigel, George Rutler, Malcom Muggeridge, and Walker Percy will enjoy this rollicking, intelligent book.

Focusing on the virtues of masculine strength, the book presents a compelling argument for the essential role of men in civilization. Esolen highlights various forms of strength, from physical labor that shaped infrastructure to the guiding authority of fathers in upholding law and justice. Through historical and cultural examples, he underscores how these masculine qualities have been foundational in building and sustaining society.

The Beauty of the Word: A Running Commentary on the Roman Missal by Anthony Esolen (2012).