Belloc, Hilaire | The University of Leeds Review (essay date 1970)
The University of Leeds Review (essay date 1970)
SOURCE: "The Cosmic Pessimism of Hilaire Belloc," translated by Philip Thody, in The University of Leeds Review, Vol. 13, No. 1, May, 1970, pp. 73-88.
[In the following essay, the anonymous critic analyzes Belloc's Cautionary Verses from a metaphysical perspective and compares it to other works of English literature.]
The serious foreign reader of Hilaire Belloc's Cautionary Verses cannot fail to be impressed by the immense and tragic discrepancy between the misdeeds described and the punishments inflicted. A small boy called James runs a few steps from his nurse while on an innocent visit to the zoo, and is eaten alive by a lion. A little girl called Matilda indulges in the harmless practical joke of summoning a fire brigade when there is no conflagration to be extinguished, and is later consumed in the flames that devour her aunt's residence. And another little girl,...
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