The Compleat Gentleman: The Modern Man's Guide to Chivalry

by Brad Miner

Overview

“Here is a welcome reminder that men can be gentlemen without turning into ladies—or louts.”—Michelle Malkin

"Miner writes with wit and charm."—Wall Street Journal

The Gentleman: An Endangered Species?

The catalog of masculine sins grows by the day—mansplaining, manspreading, toxic masculinity—reflecting our confusion over what it means to be a man. Is a man’s only choice between the brutish, rutting #MeToo lout and the gelded imitation woman, endlessly sensitive and fun to go shopping with?

No. Brad Miner invites you to discover the oldest and best model of manhood— the gentleman. In this tour de force of popular history and gentlemanly persuasion, Miner lays out the thousand-year history of this forgotten ideal and makes a compelling case for its modern revival.

Three masculine archetypes emerge here—the warrior, the lover, and the monk—forming the character of “the compleat gentleman.” He cultivates a martial spirit in defense of the true and the beautiful. He treats the opposite sex with passionate respect. And he values learning in pursuit of the truth.

Miner’s gentleman stands out for the combination of discretion, decorum, and nonchalance that the Renaissance called sprezzatura. He belongs to an aristocracy of virtue, not of wealth or birth, following a lofty code of manly conduct, which, far from threatening democracy, is necessary for its survival.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684511761
Publisher:	Skyhorse Publishing
Publication date:	05/11/2021
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	1,099,199
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

BRAD MINER is the senior editor of The Catholic Thing, the daily blog of the Faith & Reason Institute. Former literary editor of National Review and the author of six books, he lives with his wife, Sydny, in Westchester County, New York.

Editorial Reviews

Here is a welcome reminder that men can be gentlemen without turning into ladies—or louts.”—MICHELLE MALKIN

“Miner writes with wit and charm.”—WALL STREET JOURNAL

“A romp through history. . . . Recommended.”—LIBRARY JOURNAL

Graceful and learned.”—NEW YORK POST

“Miner argues that bravery, respect for women, and devotion to the truth are needed more than ever."—NEWSDAY

“Erudite and witty prose. . . . Miner’s theories are consistently entertaining. . . .”—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

“If actual men are incapable of living up to the ideal of the gentleman, only when men generally attempt to do so, Miner provocatively implies, can humane culture be fully realized.”—BOOKLIST

From the Publisher

According to Miner, an executive editor at Bookspan, former literary editor of National Review and author of The Concise Conservative Encyclopedia, a true gentleman is a master of the art of sprezzatura. The term, as used by the Renaissance writer Castiglione, refers to a way of life characterized by discretion and decorum, nonchalance and gracefulness-or, as Miner defines it, the cool exemplified by the men in first class on the Titanic who went bravely to their deaths in evening clothes. Underneath this unflappable quality, which says is not determined by birth or class, resides a man who is at once a warrior (a readiness to face battle for a just cause), lover (he lets a woman be what she wants to be) and monk (a man possessing true knowledge). In erudite and witty prose, Miner explores these three facets of his concept of the gentleman through an engaging survey of knighthood, warfare and courtship, "compleat" with the title's archaic spelling. Beyond a liberal sprinkling of quotes from the likes of G.K. Chesterton and Edmund Burke, the author provides a learned romp through the worlds of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Cathars (a medieval heretical sect) and Benedictine monasticism. Miner's theories are consistently entertaining, and seem pitched toward a defense of his conservative view of contemporary politics, including his endorsement (in the book) of the Iraq war. In fact, Miner believes that a pacifist can be a gentleman only if he is also a saint, and, in gentlemanlike fashion, he acknowledges his guilt about his C.O. status during the Vietnam War. BOMC alternate. (Mar.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

A writer and executive editor of Bookspan's Conservative Book Club, Miner (ed., The Concise Conservative Encyclopedia) takes readers on a romp through history as he examines the ideal of the gentleman, from the rise of the chivalric icon to present-day heroes exemplified by those who lost their lives helping others in the 9/11 tragedies. Be prepared for a bumpy but entertaining ride; Miner's writing style is associative and idiomatic, intertwined with anecdotes and storytelling and filled with parenthetical asides, opinions, and social commentary. He analyzes models of manhood from the last 1000 years-the knight, the gentleman, the warrior, the lover, and the monk-and claims that aspects of each remain pertinent to the modern chevalier. In the end, it is sprezzatura, that deceptively nonchalant self-control and elegant restraint, that characterizes the chivalric man. Unlike other recent volumes touching on the conduct of men, such as Leo Braudy's From Chivalry to Terrorism or Walter Newell's The Code of Man, Miner's book, despite his fabulous vocabulary, is more colloquial and humorous and less focused on prescriptions. Recommended for academic or large public libraries.-Lori Carabello, Ephrata P.L., PA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal