Summary of Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 I was born in 1915, in a war-torn world. My parents were artists, and I inherited their integrity and their capacity for work and vision. But I also inherited their dissatisfaction with the world’s condition.

#2 My father, Owen Merton, was a music master and a pious man who taught at Christ’s College in Christchurch, on the South Island. He had a lot of energy and independence, and he told me how it was in the hill country and in the mountains of the South Island.

#3 My father had come to the Pyrenees because of a dream he had of living in France and raising a family. But when the friends of his wife and him came to visit, they brought the newspapers, which depicted the Allies overcoming the Germans. My grandparents were worried about my mother being in a land at war, and they could not stay much longer at Prades.

#4 My American grandfather, Pop, was a buoyant and excitable man who, on docks, boats, trains, in stations, in elevators, on busses, in hotels, in restaurants, used to get keyed up and start ordering everybody around. My grandmother, Bonnemaman, was the opposite and her natural deliberateness and hesitancy increased in proportion to Pop’s excesses.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669358534

IRB Media

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Insights on Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I was born in 1915, in a war-torn world. My parents were artists, and I inherited their integrity and their capacity for work and vision. But I also inherited their dissatisfaction with the world’s condition.

#2

My father, Owen Merton, was a music master and a pious man who taught at Christ’s College in Christchurch, on the South Island. He had a lot of energy and independence, and he told me how it was in the hill country and in the mountains of the South Island.

#3

My father had come to the Pyrenees because of a dream he had of living in France and raising a family. But when the friends of his wife and him came to visit, they brought the newspapers, which depicted the Allies overcoming the Germans. My grandparents were worried about my mother being in a land at war, and they could not stay much longer at Prades.

#4

My American grandfather, Pop, was a buoyant and excitable man who, on docks, boats, trains, in stations, in elevators, on busses, in hotels, in restaurants, used to get keyed up and start ordering everybody around. My grandmother, Bonnemaman, was the opposite and her natural deliberateness and hesitancy increased in proportion to Pop’s excesses.

#5

I had an imaginary friend, named Jack, who had an imaginary dog, named Doolittle. I had a difficult time making friends with other children, but I could always play with the Burroughs’ children.

#6

I remember having an intense desire to go to church one day, but we did not go. It was Sunday. Perhaps it was an Easter Sunday in 1920. From across the fields, I could see the