Bruce Marshall
(1899 – 1987)

Bruce Marshall is a dark, smiling man, fundamentally serious, four-square in appearance, definite in manner. He has a great fund of pity for humble, toiling people whose virtues are seldom proclaimed, a vigorous and delightfully malicious humor, and a savage dislike of bullies, stuffed shirts, humbugs and toadies. One of the best-liked novels in its decade, his "Father Malachy's Miracle" rattled the windows in many a Scottish presbytery, won him a wide following in America, and later became a Broadway success. In other books he has had his fun with boys' schools, incompetent bishops, provincial Englishmen, Big Business and advertising.

Unmistakably of Scottish descent, a convert to Catholicism, educated at Edinburgh Academy and Glenalmond, a classical student at St. Andrew's, he was swept into World War I, was wounded and taken prisoner six nights before the Armistice, and subsequently lost a leg. After his discharge he qualified as a chartered accountant and practiced this profession in Paris from 1926 to two days before the Germans entered the city in June, 1940. A short period later he rejoined the British army again.

About this book

This is the story of Father Smith, priest in a Scottish city - of his friends, the exiled French nuns, of the Bishop, of Monsignor O'Duffy who wages simple, violent war against simple sins, of Father Bonnyboat, the liturgical scholar, of all the people who come into the gentle orbit of Father Smith - from Lady Ippecacuanha, that tweedy convert, to the slut Annie who drives her husband to murder.

Three decades are covered, and the children the young priest baptized at the beginning of the book are off to success and failure, to marriages and to war, before the end.

Few stories have been written with greater gaiety and tenderness. No matter what one's faith (or lack of it), there is music, wisdom, comfort, laughter in Father Smith's affectionate sojourn in this world of the flesh.

About this edition

"The World, the Flesh, and Father Smith" (also known under the title "All Glorious Within") is a 1944 novel by Scottish writer Bruce Marshall. The book was a June 1945 Book of the Month Club selection, produced by the Houghton Mifflin Company in Boston, and was also produced as an Armed Services Edition.

It is believed that the 1944 Copyright © by Sheila Ferrar and the 1945 Copyright © by Bruce Marshall have not been renewed. The novel has been out of print since 1945. The text is thus believed to be in the public domain and is reproduced here for the benefit of the public. Resale for profit is not allowed. Chapter subtitles and footnotes containing English translation from the Latin, French and Italian have been provided by David Tománek.