Problems of Human Happiness

There passes before us a drama of modern life and pleasure, of glorious youth and love, of tragedy and triumph, of human nature at its worst and best in the challenging personalities of Julian Verrers and the Masterful Monk. Originally published in 1929, The Masterful Monk by English author Owen Francis Dudley was the third of a series of six volumes dealing with problems of human happiness. The first book, Will Men be like Gods?, was an answer to the slanderers of Religion; the second, The Shadow on the Earth, to the slanderers of God. In The Masterful Monk, Dudley endeavours "to meet the modern attack upon Man and his moral nature launched by those who would degrade him to the level of an animal."

FATHER ANSELM THORNTON, the Masterful Monk, reappears, to enter the lives of Captain Louis Vivien, of the French Intelligence Service, and Verna Wray, the girl of the tale. The theme is the growing revolt against God and the moral law which is now spreading openly or in subtle forms throughout the world. An unusual love story is interwoven, the setting of which lies mainly in England, with incidental work in Leningrad, Paris, Lourdes and Hollywood. The tale works up to a love-climax, and to a startling ending, consequent upon the detective work of Captain Louis Vivien and certain acts of the Masterful Monk. It will be noticed that the author has adopted a cinema technique-interspersing "interims" with "shots" superimposed in quick succession. The method is effective for showing the monster of revolt in the background, behind the happenings of the tale.