Product Description

Confused about what it means to be a man in our time? The Compleat Gentleman offers a bracing answer and a thrilling challenge: to recover the oldest and best ideal of manhood -- the gentleman.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #135353 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Review
"I cannot imagine a better gift for a young gentleman on the verge of graduation." -- C.B Behrens

"I cannot imagine a better gift for a young gentleman on the verge of graduation." -- C.B Behrens

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

"What can the word 'gentleman' have to do with twenty-first century America? A lot...Miner writes with wit and charm." --Wall Street Journal

"An attempt to recover the ideal of gentlemanliness and reintroduce it to the modern era." - David Frum

"Here is a welcome reminder that men can be gentlemen without turning into ladies or louts." --Michelle Malkin

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

"What can the word 'gentleman' have to do with twenty-first century America? A lot...Miner writes with wit and charm." --Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher
I can't imagine a better gift for a young graduate...

It's not about manners; it's about manhood...

I want my sons -- all of them -- to read this book...

Miner may be writing about ancient ideas, but I felt he was writing about the man I have always tried to be...

Are any of these guys on eHarmony?

In words like these, countless readers have expressed their own reactions to Brad Miner's The Compleat Gentleman.

Neither prude nor prig nor fop, the gentleman is the true knight and the true lover, a classic combination of strength and selflessness, contemplation, correct action and, yes...cool.

He is the aristocrat not of wealth or birth, but of virtue.

Other men, as well as women, instinctively admire him. But they may not realize why they are drawn to him, for he never calls attention to his own virtues or strengths.

He will take a stand to defend the true and the good and the beautiful. But he knows that taking a stand is very different from making a show. Making a show is not cool.

Miner is too wise in the ways of young men to think they will respond to a lecture or another guidebook on which fork to use or how to keep your bowtie from spinning. (Of course, the gentleman's bowtie does not spin -- cool presumes competent!)

Instead he tells us a story, a story of an ideal and the men throughout history who have tried -- always imperfectly -- to live up to it.

Miner traces the concept of manliness from the jousting fields of the twelfth century to the decks of Titanic. The three masculine archetypes that emerge -- the warrior, the lover and the monk or scholar -- combine in the character of the "compleat gentleman": the warrior for truth and beauty; the lover whose passion exemplifies his respect for women; the man of disciplined mind who knows he must be able to discern truth if he is to defend it.

And finally, Miner shows us that the true gentleman always practices these virtues with the discretion, decorum and nonchalance that the Renaissance called sprezzatura and we call cool.

About the Author
BRAD MINER is senior editor of The Catholic Thing, a former literary editor of National Review and the founding editor-in-chief of the American Compass Book Club. He lives in Westchester County, New York.

Customer Reviews

Learning the code of being a gentleman is far more than just being polite...
Brad Miner goes beyond the popular and common definition of "gentleman" in our society and digs out the true background and meaning in his book The Compleat Gentleman: The Modern Man's Guide to Chivalry. I somewhat knew that the term "gentleman" used to be more of a title than an attribute, but I didn't realize all that was meant by the term as it evolved over the years. Miner's book gives you plenty to think about, while at the same time learning a whole new vocabulary based on his writing style...

Contents:
Massed Against the World; The Knight - A Short History of Men on Horseback; The Gentleman - A Singular Sanity; The Warrior - How to Die with Your Boots On; The Lover - Romance and Folly; The Monk - The Ear of Your Heart; Chivalry in a Democratic Age; The Art of Sprezzatura; Acknowledgments; Bibliography; Index

I think what struck me most about this book and the subject are the parallels to another code from Japan... bushido. Rather than being a "polite" person and thus being termed a gentleman (as is common in our current society), Miner goes back to the days of the knights and the code they lived by. Being a gentleman was a quest to attain a level of manhood that rose above the common people. A gentleman was someone who understood that there were things worth dying for (honor being one of them), and he was prepared to do so. He was to be of high moral character, which negated the person who was "born into" the title based on his birth or genealogy. "Courtly love" was the form of romance best typified by the gentleman, It was a mix of fantasy and reality, elevating the image of a woman to one much higher than society normally placed on her. A gentleman is also a lover of truth and learning. Miner uses the image of a monk to portray that aspect of the gentleman's character. It also implies a form of silence as well as being "in" the world but not necessarily being "of" the world. He brings these images and practices forward to our times in the Democratic Age chapter, to help the reader figure out how best to apply these learnings and characteristics to a modern society that doesn't place as much value on being a gentleman as they did in the Middle Ages.

For me, I took the most interest in the final chapter on sprezzatura. It's defined as having discretion and decorum, non-chalance and gracefulness. We'd probably define it as being "cool". It's being able to do difficult things without making it look hard... having a high level of self-control... being able to keep secrets and practice restraint. This is an image that resonates with me, and I'll likely be reading this chapter over quite a few times. I also kept thinking that perhaps being a gentleman was the European equivalent of the samurai code of Japan. Learning, martial spirit, arts and gracefulness... It's not an exact one-to-one correlation, but there are some striking similarities.

The Compleat Gentleman is definitely an interesting read that is highly researched by Miner. His writing style is rather lofty, and you *will* need a dictionary to look up some of the words he uses. I don't know that I quite follow all of his parallels and draw the same conclusions (I found the Lover chapter rather difficult to track on), but the overall effect is still present... following the code of being a gentleman is an art sadly lost on far too many men today.

A compleat explanation of chivalry
Brad Miner is a treat. A friend of William F. Buckley's and an editor of his "National Review," Miner has a sesquipedalion vocabulary that could keep up with Buckley's.

If you enjoy learning, read it with a dictionary in hand.

What one might think would be a dry subject (the history of chivalry) is certainly not such, and it gives a keen insight as to the origins of certain terms and traditions, such as "winning one's spurs," and exactly why Friday the 13th is considered unlucky.

"The Compleat Gentleman," draws a direct line from the knights of old to their modern equavilents - soldiers - and then explains why the qualities of leadership, civility, and standing on principle, still obtain today.

He also sheds great light on Aurthurian legend, and the legacy of the man who was later promoted as Arthur. That alone is a worthy insight.

Miner explains how civility alone is NOT chivalry, and why. This is a book for those who want to understand the underpinnings of ordered liberty.

When I interviewed Miner about his book, he was forthright and candid about it, and displayed an incredible depth of knowledge on his subject matter.

[...]

A rollicking journey in time
I loved the first edition of this book; the new edition is even better. You'll want to have a dictionary at hand--Miner loves words--but the book is like the best history course you ever took in college: alternately funny and inspiring and endlessly interesting. I wish every young man would read the book.