The Compleat Gentleman, Third Revised Edition

The Modern Man's Guide to Chivalry

By: Brad Miner

Narrated by: Bob Souer

Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

At a time of astonishing confusion about what it means to be a man, Brad Miner has recovered the oldest and best ideal of manhood: the gentleman. Reviving a thousand-year tradition of chivalry, honor, and heroism, The Compleat Gentleman provides the essential model for 21st-century masculinity.

Despite our confusion, real manhood is not complicated. It is an ancient ideal based on service to one’s God, country, family, and friends - a simple but arduous ideal worthy of a lifetime of struggle.

Miner’s gentleman stands out for his dignity, restraint, and discernment. He rejects the notion that one way of behaving is as good as another. He belongs to an aristocracy of virtue, not of wealth or birth. Proposing neither a club nor a movement, Miner describes a lofty code of manly conduct, which, far from threatening democracy, is necessary for its survival.

Miner traces the concept of manliness from the jousting fields of the 12th century to the decks of the Titanic. The three masculine archetypes that emerge - the warrior, the lover, and the monk - combine in the character of the “compleat gentleman”. This modern knight cultivates a martial spirit in defense of the true and the beautiful. He treats the opposite sex with the passionate respect required by courtly love. And he values learning in the pursuit of truth - all with the discretion, decorum, and nonchalance that the Renaissance called sprezzatura.

The Compleat Gentleman is filled with examples from the past and the present of the man our increasingly uncivilized age demands.

©2004 Brad Miner (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

Excellent read

Excellent book for any man, every man, and woman, to read. This book puts into context many current polarities of thought with an honest, insightful, committed perspective.

One of a kind.

Only a handful of books have I picked up and read only to wish I had discovered them sooner. This was one such book. In a time when the world seems to be lacking men, and beyond that, strong male figures, where we are constantly told men aren't needed and men are trash and toxic; this book highlights what sets the gentlemen apart from his boyish and weak counterparts. I wish I had read this in my teens and I can't wait to give each of my sons a copy so that they, may someday be the strong, honorable and courageous men the world needs.

Excellent Direction for Men of this Century and Beyond

To be a complete gentleman is not a gift that comes simply natural at birth, but is acquired by understanding past tradition, culture, a higher power, and wanting the best for other’s and yourself with the power of the Monk, Warrior, and the Lover. This book is not for the liberal iconoclastic, or politically correct; but for the man who stands for values and morals even when unpopular. When you read or listen to it you will know who you are and get a fair gauge on how to make adjustments to become a complete gentleman. Every young man should be required to study this in school. How better would our society and the world be for it.

too political

he goes off about Black minds matter and cancel culture. i personally disagree, but at the end of the day that is not the book I asked. i wanted to learn about being a gentleman and its history, why do I have to learn his politics.