The best-loved of all Irish novelists, it is sometimes forgotten that Canon Sheehan was also a critic, a commentator, and a philosopher, concerned with all the great issues that still obsess men as deeply as they did in the nineteenth century when he wrote his books. He he confronts his material directly, discarding the mask of the novelist. He discusses the Psalms; Cardinal Newman; compares De Quincey with Richter and Saint Augustine with Maine de Biran; surprises us with Thomas Carley's views on the Mass; reminds us of the vision of Boethius; and, perhaps most significantly of all, finds inspiration in the pensees of Pascal. The Loneliness of Winter reflects that love; it reflects also Canon Sheehan understanding of man and of his total dependence of the love of God.