The Master of the World

A dystopian novel in which Benson, at the beginning of the 20th century, imagines an alternative world and time, inventing a “future” in which the decision is made to do without God. In a London covered in rubber and numbed by the absence of noise, where the myth of progress is gaining the upper hand and people delude themselves into thinking they no longer need God, man is the measure of everything, leading to the absurdity that man himself is identified with God and can decide over life and death. In this world, Catholics struggle to survive, first amid indifference and then persecution. The undisputed opposing protagonists are Father Percy Franklin, the future last Pope, and Julian Felsenburgh, the figure of the Antichrist.
This is a novel written more than a century ago, yet capable of reading the signs of our times, as Pope Francis has also had occasion to emphasize.

• Robert Hugh Benson’s novel, loved by Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, reissued in a new translation.
• A fascinating and compelling dystopian novel that succeeds in capturing the direction the world is currently taking.
• Large format ensuring excellent readability.