Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy by Rumer Godden

Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy by Rumer Godden

Like a Roaring Lion (first published in 1854 as The Spirit-Rapper: An Autobiography) is an intellectual tour de force and a spiritual odyssey through the religious kaleidoscope of nineteenth-century America. Orestes Brownson witnessed firsthand the obsession of his age with spiritualism and the occult, and in Like a Roaring Lion he undertakes the daunting task of illustrating its temptations and dangers. Today, no less than in the 1850s, does the spirit of the age and the lord of this world still whisper that we humans can be as gods. In his nonfiction works, Brownson explored the philosophical underpinnings of that characteristic position of modernity; in Like a Roaring Lion, he uses a fictional account drawn from actual persons and events to bring to life the spiritual forces still striving to bend and break our world.

Rumer Godden (1907-98) was born in England, started writing fiction as an adult while living in India, and continued to write successfully after returning to England. In This House of Brede (Loyola Classics), Black Narcissus, The River, and other books are among her works.