Pageant of Life

Book excerpt: The task I have undertaken in these pages is that of disclosing an absorbingly lovable, difficult and pathetic character; and of a mystery underlying that character. A mystery not often held in a human soul. My task is difficult because Cyril Rodney is difficult. I have never known a personality quite so baffling; so hidden by reserve and yet so strangely attractive and compelling; so human and yet so alone... “...easily his best achievement. Literary skill of a very high order is here further elevated by his loyal and exalted service.... This is a great book, a noble book, because it puts before every one of us most arrestingly the challenge of Our Master.”—Catholic Times