G. K. Chesterton

G. K. Chesterton Novels

The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton

Amazon.com
In an article published the day before his death, G.K. Chesterton called The Man Who Was Thursday "a very melodramatic sort of moonshine." Set in a phantasmagoric London where policemen are poets and anarchists camouflage themselves as, well, anarchists, his 1907 novel offers up one highly colored enigma after another. If that weren't enough, the author also throws in an elephant chase and a hot-air-balloon pursuit in which the pursuers suffer from "the persistent refusal of the balloon to follow the roads, and the still more persistent refusal of the cabmen to follow the balloon."
But Chesterton is also concerned with more serious questions of honor and truth (and less serious ones, perhaps, of duels and dualism). Our hero is Gabriel Syme, a policeman who cannot reveal that his fellow poet Lucian Gregory is an anarchist. In Chesterton's agile, antic hands, Syme is the virtual embodiment of paradox:

He came of a family of cranks, in which all the oldest people had all the newest notions. One of his uncles always walked about without a hat, and another had made an unsuccessful attempt to walk about with a hat and nothing else. His father cultivated art and self-realization; his mother went in for simplicity and hygiene. Hence the child, during his tenderer years, was wholly unacquainted with any drink between the extremes of absinthe and cocoa, of both of which he had a healthy dislike.... Being surrounded with every conceivable kind of revolt from infancy, Gabriel had to revolt into something, so he revolted into the only thing left--sanity.
Elected undercover into the Central European Council of anarchists, Syme must avoid discovery and save the world from any bombings in the offing. As Thursday (each anarchist takes the name of a weekday--the only quotidian thing about this fantasia) does his best to undo his new colleagues, the masks multiply. The question then becomes: Do they reveal or conceal? And who, not to mention what, can be believed? As The Man Who Was Thursday proceeds, it becomes a hilarious numbers game with a more serious undertone--what happens if most members of the council actually turn out to be on the side of right? Chesterton's tour de force is a thriller that is best read slowly, so as to savor his highly anarchic take on anarchy.

Book Description
Widely considered as Chesterton's masterpiece, The Man Who Was Thursday (1908) defies classification. Drawing on contemporary fears of anarchist conspiracies and bomb outrages, this text is firmly rooted in its time and place--turn of the century London--but it also defies temporal boundaries. This critical edition includes several short related pieces, A Picture of Tuesday, Introduction to the Book of Job, and The Diabolist, as well as a map of contemporary London and detailed explanatory notes.

The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond by G. K. Chesterton

Favorite Father Brown Stories by G. K. Chesterton

Secret of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton

G. K. Chesterton's endearing clerical detective has entertained readers for nearly a century with his outward confusion, shabby umbrella, and uncanny understanding of the criminal mind. When Father Brown journeys to the Spanish castle where the notorious Flambeau has retired, the two old friends trade secrets and reminiscences through a series of interwoven tales. "It was G. K. Chesterton whose resourcefulness first showed us that . . . the detective story could be adapted to serious purposes." - The New York Times

The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton

Shortly after the publication of ORTHODOXY, G. K. Chesterton moved from London to Beaconsfield, where he met Father O'Connor. It was the combination of Father O'Connor's shrewd insights to the darker side of man's nature together with his mild appearance that suggested to Chesterton a character that became the unassuming, pudding-faced Father Brown.
Numerous short stories followed. All of them featuring this priest who appeared to know nothing yet in fact knew more about criminals than they knew about themselves. THE INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN is the first collection of these stories.

The Incredulity of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton

"There was a brief period during which Father Brown enjoyed, or rather did not enjoy, something like fame. He was a nine days' wonder in the newspaper; he was even a topic of controversy in the weekly reviews. His exploits were narrated eagerly and accurately in any number of clubs and drawing-rooms...his adventures as a detective were even made the subject of short stories appearing in magazines."
Strangely enough, this renown reaches him at a most unwelcome time. Sent to officiate in a dispute in South America, he lands in the middle of a revolution, recognized, attacked and left for dead.
In fact everyone thinks he is dead--until he rises from his coffin, creating no end of trouble with the natives...for they certainly know a resurrection when they see one!

OxfordBooks.com / Oxford, MS

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