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

This book is the 3rd edition, but comes with newly revised passages that address the current hypocrisies of movements seeking to strip individuals of their accomplishments in the name of “justice” and “equality.” The author details the long history of chivalry in western culture. This history is backed by numerous sources, references, and works of literature that work to not only remind American’s of the better parts of our society, but also offer a valuable reference for arguing against those who wish to destroy our culture from the inside out.

Miner acknowledged his martial arts education as a guide for writing this book, and presented himself as a true scholar. If not chivalrous himself, his pursuit to be so is akin to the quest for upholding knightly values, which define the complete gentleman as: a descendant of medieval knights and Victorian gentleman, a conservative liberal, an honorable man with self-control who knows when and why he must fight, and when and how to love.

All of the characteristics described are those which I wish for my sons. As stated in this piece of nonfiction, “A compleat gentleman is a man who tries to do what is right and honorable in any given situation. He seeks harmony with the laws of God, or nature, and of man.”

I like the premise of this book and was excited about the title, however this book reads like someones Graduate dissertation.

Too many pretentious words and needless rambling about obscure writers and quotes. I struggled through it.

I like references to classical literature but not every three sentences.

There is a difference between best SELLING authors and best WRITING authors.

You have to write in a language that the masses can easily read and enjoy. This one is not.

However, being a compleat gentlemen also means being astute and worldly, so there is an argument for both sides.

This book is mostly about the history and philosophy behind being a gentleman. If you're looking for practical situational advice, it's only somewhat useful. Not an etiquette manual.

If you are looking for a guide to being a gentleman, you've probably come to the wrong place. This is a rather thorough survey of the literature over the last 1000 years that define chivalry and its evolution into the idea of the gentleman. There are no quick answers here, but it delves with real seriousness into concepts of defining the gentle man and the great men who shaped or described them. While I know little of the scholarship in this area, this book seems well grounded and thorough. There is a great deal of valuable ideas to digest.

This is unique book. Miner is a good writer who traces the history of chivalry and draws upon original and morphed meanings of being a gentleman. He divides the idea into three categories: warrior, monk, lover. Each of these categories are given adequate attention and he concludes with attempts to interpret being a gentleman in the 21st century. At times, Miner gets sidetracked due to his great breadth of literature, especially medieval literature. I found myself at times moving from the book to my Amazon wish list to add certain works to my Kindle account. Nonetheless, I was refreshed by Miner's high ideals and his capable exploration of the topic.

While providing several great threads to follow up on, the book seems incomplete. On the positive side, the book provides a history of chivalry and shows how the idea evolved through time. Chapters 2 and 3, on knighthood in the middle ages and on the English and American idea of the gentleman respectively, were excellent. The later chapters were not as good.

The book convinced me, without intending to, that the “gentleman” must be attached to an objective standard. The author doesn’t require a system for discerning the good, the true, and the beautiful, (though he seems to suggest that he finds Christian ethics to be the answer personally), yet he argues throughout that the gentleman must be willing to fight and die for these things. This system would be found, if it’s found anywhere, in religious commitment. Yet, the author goes so far as to say that the gentleman must not overemphasize his religious commitment to the detriment of his other duties.  And this, to me, is why the book is inadequate. The author’s claim that religious faith is one of several orbiting duties that the gentleman balances is one that I see as deadly to the whole idea of chivalry. There must be priority given to fundamental commitments. From these fundamental commitments, we can then order our duties and act accordingly. Without this ordering, the gentleman is lost and chivalry will remain dead.

In other words, Miner doesn’t solve what may be called the Bibb Barrett problem. Bibb Barrett, a character from Walker Percy’s book The Last Gentleman, is a young man who is lost and who knows he is lost. He comes from a line of great men, gentlemen in fact, but he himself has no clue how to act. He wants to be a man of honor, but he doesn’t know how. Percy describes the degeneration of Southern chivalry and honor through the Barrett family line:

“Over the years his family had turned ironical and lost its gift for action. It was an honorable and violent family, but gradually the violence had been deflected and turned inward. The great grandfather knew what was what and said so and acted accordingly and did not care what anyone thought. He even wore a pistol in a holster like a Western hero and once met the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan in a barbershop and invited him then and there to shoot it out in the street. The next generation, the grandfather, seemed to know what was what but he was not really so sure. He was brave but the gave much thought to the business of being brave. He too would have shot it out with the Grand Wizard if only he could have made certain it was the thing to do. The father was a brave man too and he said he didn't care what others thought, but he did care. More than anything else, he wished to act with honor and to be thought well of by other men. So living for him was a strain. He became ironical. For him it was not a small thing to walk down the street on an ordinary September morning. In the end he was killed by his own irony and sadness and by the strain of living out an ordinary day in a perfect dance of honor. As for the present young man, the last of the line, he did not know what to think. So he became a watcher and a listener and a wanderer.”

In a postmodern world, Bibb Barrett is where abstract chivalry leads us (or to a Miniver Cheevy, which Miner refers to). Miner does a great job of plugging in several roles and duties to the surge protector of chivalry and gentlemanly conduct. He just neglects to highlight the importance of plugging the surge protector into the electrical outlet, which is not a minor detail.  From this perspective, it is easy to see how chivalry soured and turned into pretension, pride of social standing, debauchery, and laziness. And it also explains why the thought of a “gentleman” is laughable in our modern culture. It is out of fashion because it implies living in accordance with a certain set of principles, and these principles are held to be superior to any other way of living.  But the principles themselves are essential to the whole idea of chivalry.

A bit complicated to follow at times but overall a good book with a great deal of information regarding the history of the title of gentleman.

In need of multiple reads to truly grasp all the apparently problematic arguments and conclusions.