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Callista

John Henry Newman

Book Overview: 

Callista, A Tale of the Third Century, was written by John Henry Newman, who was a scholarly and personable Anglican theologian who became a Catholic priest and cardinal, bringing a good number of Protestant friends along with him into the Roman faith. He wrote Callista as the fruit of a challenge (dare we say “bet”?) with Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman that each man would write a novel about the early church. Wiseman wrote Fabiola and Newman wrote Callista, publishing it in 1855. The title character is a beautiful and talented, but unhappy Greek woman living in pagan Roman North Africa in the third century. She is wooed by a lonely young Christian man, for whom she shows little interest, though she deeply desires to know more about his Christian faith. However, the third century was a dangerous time for Christians, with the onset of persecution under the Emperor Decius. The colorful cast of characters react to the persecution in different ways, but some are put to the ultimate test of whether they will maintain their faith at the price of torture and painful death. Cardinal Newman's writing style is often lively, and occasionally humorous, especially in his conversations. But there is no denying that modern readers may find parts of it quite wordy, particularly in the descriptions of geography (beware Chapter 1!). Most readers are likely to find themselves caring very much about the characters, and cheering for their victories, in addition to learning quite a bit about 3rd century history along the way.

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Book Excerpt: 
. . . “to be [pg 66]sure! yet why shouldn’t he worship a handsome Greek girl as well as any of those mummies and death’s heads and bogies of his, which I should blush to put up here alongside even of Anubis, or a scarabæus?”

“Mother thinks she is not altogether the girl you take her for,” said his nephew.

“No matter, no matter,” answered Jucundus, “no matter at all; she may be a Lais or Phryne for me; the surer to make a man of him.”

“Why,” said Juba, “mother thinks her head is turning in the opposite way. D’you see? Strange, isn’t it?” he added, annoyed himself yet not unwilling to annoy his uncle.

“Hm!” exclaimed Jucundus, making a wry face and looking round at him, as if to say, “What on earth is going to turn up now?”

“To tell the truth,” said Juba, gloomily, “I did once. . . Read More

Community Reviews

I was disappointed by this book and probably would rate it lower but for the lovely, very 19th-century-style flowing descriptions of early Christian-era North Africa. Probably the most obvious problem was the utter lack of genuine character development; characters enter the scene underbaked and neve

A book from yesteryear in style and content. Probably not read much today. I stumbled across it. Seeking out martyrdom isn’t very popular today, and dying for one’s faith isn’t done much anymore.

Probablemente éste sea una de las mejores novelas históricas que retratan la época de los mártires. Personalmente no había leído nada tan bello e interesante desde "Quo Vadis?"

Y lo es ante todo por el curioso estilo del autor y porque fácilmente se puede extrapolar la novela al tiempo en que vivió e

An unusual view of how things were for the early Christians, when they were the ones considered to be the pagans. And yet, the views of the ordinary Roman or Greek are in some respects similar to the non-Christian of today.

In all respects Newman's fiction is Joris-Karl Huysmans's fiction for the poor man. The same themes are dealt with more beautifully, powerfully, and inventively and with less kitschy, delirious, saccharine sentimentality in Huysmans's 'Against the Grain,' 'The Damned' and 'The Cathedral.'

Tako je jedna Grkinja dosla u Afriku ukrasavati poganska svetista, sluziti uzurpacijama Zloga i ojacati davnasnje veze sto covjeka zarobljavaju grijehom; iznenada je pronasla spasenje.

Excellent history, both church & secular.

Terrific and absorbing story from the third century AD. This was a time when Christians were either forced to sacrifice to the Roman gods or face torture/martyrdom. It was also a time when the church grew despite the hardships. Face forward to today when Christians in the West willingly sacrifice to

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