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G.K. Chesterton (1874–1936)

Author of The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare

760+ Works 50,908 Members 783 Reviews 293 Favorited
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About the Author

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born in London, England, in 1874. He began his education at St Paul's School, and later went on to study art at the Slade School, and literature at University College in London. Chesterton wrote a great deal of poetry, as well as works of social and literary criticism. show more Among his most notable books are The Man Who Was Thursday, a metaphysical thriller, and The Everlasting Man, a history of humankind's spiritual progress. After Chesterton converted to Catholicism in 1922, he wrote mainly on religious topics. Chesterton is most known for creating the famous priest-detective character Father Brown, who first appeared in "The Innocence of Father Brown." Chesterton died in 1936 at the age of 62. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Includes the names: G Chesterton, chesterton g., C K Chesteron, GC Chesterton, Chesteron G K, G.K. Chesteron, G.K. Chesteton, G.K.Chesterton, G.K. Chesterson, G.H. Chesterton, C.K. Chesterton, G. K. Cheserton, G. K. Chesterton, G. F. Chesterton, G. K. Chasterton, K. G. Chesterton, G. K. Chesterton, G. K. Chesterton, G. K. Chesterton, G. K. Chesterton, Chesterton G. K., G K] [Chesterton, G. K. Chessterton, G. K. Čestertons, Gilbert Chesterton, GILBERT CHESTERTON,, M. G. K. Chesterton, K. Gilbert Chesterson, Gilbert G. Chesterton, Chesterton K. Gilbert, K. Gilbert Chesterton, Chesterton Gilbert K., Gilbert K. Chesterton, Gilbert K. Chesterton, GILBERT AND CHESTERTON, GILBERTH K. CHESTERTON, Gilbert Kii CHesterton, G K ChesG K Chesterton, Gilbert Keith Chesteron, G. K. Keith. Chesterton, Gilbert Ketih Chesterton, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Keith Gilbert Chesterton, Chesterton Gilbert Keith, Gildert Keith Chesterton, Gilberth Keith Chesterton, Г.К. Честертон, Chesterton Gillbert Keith, Г. К. Честертон, G・K・チェスタトン, G. K. Chesterton Introdution, Chesterton Gilbert Chesterton, Chesterton G. K; Kenneth Baker, G.K. Introduction by) Chesterton, Гилберт Честертон, Chesterton G. K. (Gilbert Ke 1874-1936, Gilbert K. Chesterton G. K. Chesterton, Chesterton G. K. (Gilbert Ke 1874-1936, Гилберт Кит Честертон, Gilbert Keith G. K.; Chesterton Chesterton, Гилберт Кийт Че?тертон, Гилберт Кийт Честертон, Hale Sebnem Kaptan Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Auberon Waugh (Preface) G.K. Chesterton (Author), G.K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton, 1874-1936, et al, Гилберт (Gilbert) Кит (Kit) Честертон (Chesterton)

Series

Works by G.K. Chesterton

Orthodoxy (1908) 6,544 copies
The Everlasting Man (1925) 2,870 copies
The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) 1,914 copies
St. Francis of Assisi (1923) 1,675 copies
The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904) 1,124 copies
Heretics (1905) 1,070 copies
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1922) 1,008 copies
The Club of Queer Trades (1905) 979 copies
What's Wrong with the World (1910) 904 copies
Manalive (1912) 834 copies
The Wisdom of Father Brown (1913) 800 copies
The Ball and the Cross (1906) 790 copies
The Secret of Father Brown (1927) 452 copies
Father Brown: Selected Stories (1955) — Author — 387 copies
The Flying Inn (1914) 373 copies
Charles Dickens (1906) 344 copies
The Scandal of Father Brown (1935) 329 copies
Tremendous Trifles (1909) 319 copies
All Things Considered (1908) 248 copies
Four Faultless Felons (1930) 243 copies
The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond (1937) 240 copies
A Short History of England (1917) 212 copies
Father Brown Stories (1959) 154 copies
Lepanto (1911) 152 copies
The Poet and the Lunatics (1929) 140 copies
The Well and the Shallows (1935) 138 copies
What I Saw in America (1922) 138 copies
A Miscellany of Men (1912) 137 copies
George Bernard Shaw (1909) 129 copies
The Defendant (1901) 129 copies
The Outline of Sanity (1900) 121 copies
Robert Browning (1903) 117 copies
The New Jerusalem (1920) 113 copies
Thirteen Detectives (1987) 107 copies
Chaucer (1932) 98 copies
The Thing (1929) 95 copies
The Return of Don Quixote (1927) 93 copies
Stories, essays, & poems (1935) 87 copies
Tales of the Long Bow (1925) 86 copies
Utopia of Usurers (1917) 84 copies
Twelve Types (1902) 83 copies
Alarms and Discursions (1910) 75 copies
Poems (1915) 73 copies
100 Eternal Masterpieces of Literature - volume 2 (2020) — Contributor — 70 copies
Magic A Fantastic Comedy (1913) 67 copies
The man who was Chesterton (1937) 63 copies
Robert Louis Stevenson (1906) 59 copies
The Trees of Pride (1922) 59 copies
The Crimes of England (1915) 58 copies
Selected Essays (1939) 58 copies
The Common Man (1950) 56 copies
The spirit of Christmas (1984) 56 copies
Wine, Water and Song (1916) 50 copies
Varied Types (1903) 46 copies
L'Oeil d'Apollon (1901) 46 copies
Essays and Poems (1958) 45 copies
William Blake (1909) 45 copies
Lunacy and Letters (1900) 42 copies
The Appetite of Tyranny (2004) 42 copies
Irish Impressions (1919) 37 copies
On Running After One's Hat (2005) 36 copies
The Superstition of Divorce (1920) 34 copies
Father Brown Short Stories (2018) 31 copies
On Tremendous Trifles (1909) 31 copies
G.F. Watts (1909) 29 copies
The Barbarism of Berlin (1914) 27 copies
The Uses of Diversity (1920) 26 copies
William Cobbett (1925) 25 copies
Fancies Versus Fads (1923) 25 copies
Seven Suspects (1990) 25 copies
The Resurrection of Rome (1930) 23 copies
Lord Kitchener (1917) 23 copies
Handful of Authors (1953) 23 copies
Generally Speaking (1928) 22 copies
Christendom in Dublin (1933) 19 copies
Father Brown: A Selection (1995) 19 copies
Greybeards at Play (1900) 19 copies
The Secret Garden (1910) 17 copies
Essays (1939) 16 copies
The Surprise (1953) 16 copies
Divorce versus Democracy (2009) 15 copies
El fin del armisticio (1940) 15 copies
Come to think of it (1930) 15 copies
Prophet of Orthodoxy (1997) 15 copies
All is Grist (1931) 14 copies
El arte del asesinato (1999) 14 copies
The queen of seven swords (1926) 13 copies
Selected Stories (1972) 13 copies
Avowals and Denials (1934) 12 copies
Three Works on Distributism (2009) 12 copies
Poems Of G.K. Chesterton (2006) 11 copies
Chesterton on Shakespeare (1971) 11 copies
The Oracle of the Dog (1926) 11 copies
A Chesterton Calendar (1911) 10 copies
The Shop of Ghosts (1994) 10 copies
The Book of Job (1916) 10 copies
The Best of Father Brown (1987) 8 copies
The Donnington Affair (1914) 8 copies
Isa Browni lood (2013) 7 copies
Basic Chesterton (1984) 7 copies
Opere scelte (1956) 6 copies
Gloria in Profundis (1927) 6 copies
Five Types (1910) 6 copies
The Sword Of Wood (1928) 6 copies
Thomas Carlyle (1902) 6 copies
G.K.C. as M.C. (1929) 6 copies
Fábulas y cuentos (1901) 5 copies
Leo Tolstoy (1903) 5 copies
L'assassin modéré (1993) 5 copies
Come si scrive un giallo (2002) 5 copies
Obras Completas Tomo I (1952) 5 copies
Pater Brown Geschichten (1995) 4 copies
Die neue Weihnacht (2004) 4 copies
The Three Tools of Death (2013) 4 copies
Supervivant (1981) 4 copies
Simplicity And Tolstoy (1912) 4 copies
The mask of Midas (1991) 4 copies
Tėvas Braunas 3 copies
Das Gold in der Gosse (1998) 3 copies
Przygody Księdza Browna (2010) 3 copies
Dieci detective (1988) 3 copies
Milton: Man and Poet (2010) 3 copies
Maestro de ceremonias (2006) 3 copies
Color de España (2009) 3 copies
Racconti di Padre Brown (2015) 3 copies
London (2010) 3 copies
The Face in the Target (2019) 3 copies
Cheese 3 copies
Der Umriss der Vernunft (2020) 2 copies
Pozo y los Charcos, el (2014) 2 copies
Padre Brown poliziotto (1969) 2 copies
El bocamoll honrat (1994) 2 copies
MUJER Y LA FAMILIA, LA (1900) 2 copies
Thackeray (1974) 2 copies
Radio Chesterton (2015) 2 copies
Contos do Padre Brown (2021) 2 copies
Priester und Detektiv (2011) 2 copies
The Quick One 2 copies
The Ballad of St. Barbara (2014) 2 copies
Ubi Ecclesia (1929) 2 copies
Resurrection of Rome (1930) 2 copies
The Green Man (1935) 2 copies
Orthodoxy [Audiobook] (2006) 2 copies
Essays on Shakespeare (1968) 2 copies
G.K. Chesterton (2019) 2 copies
The Arrow of Heaven (2012) 2 copies
The Surprise 2 copies
La Cólera de las Rosas (2015) 2 copies
Obrona czlowieka (2008) 1 copy
Best of Father Brown (2008) 1 copy
Charlas 1 copy
Brown atya nyomoz (2019) 1 copy
Voltaire (2000) 1 copy
OBRA SELECTA 1 copy
Obrona wiary 1 copy
Pyaterka shpag (1991) 1 copy
On Detective Stories (2008) 1 copy
Leggendo Shakespeare (2018) 1 copy
de Todo Un Poco (2005) 1 copy
Paradoks 1 copy
Tennyson 1 copy
Povídky otce Browna (2007) 1 copy
Where All Roads Lead (1961) 1 copy
Den ömma punkten (1987) 1 copy
Razones para la fe (2008) 1 copy
The Wise Men 1 copy
El mago 1 copy
Historia de la familia (2023) 1 copy
The Angry Street (2009) 1 copy
EL GRAN MINIMO (2014) 1 copy
La tour de la trahison (1977) 1 copy
Peder Brown Oykuleri (2013) 1 copy

Associated Works

Great Expectations (1861) — Introduction, some editions — 38,215 copies
A Christmas Carol (1843) — Preface, some editions — 24,452 copies
The Pilgrim's Progress (1678) — Introduction, some editions — 17,346 copies
Bleak House (1852) — Introduction, some editions — 13,621 copies
Hard Times (1854) — Introduction, some editions — 10,482 copies
The Song of Roland (1040) — Introduction, some editions — 5,362 copies
The Complete Fables (0600) — Introduction, some editions — 3,572 copies
Christmas Books (1843) — Introduction, some editions — 2,298 copies
The Art of the Personal Essay (1994) — Contributor — 1,371 copies
Arms and the Man (1894) — Contributor, some editions — 1,087 copies
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (1995) — Contributor, some editions — 915 copies
The Floating Admiral (1931) — Contributor — 799 copies
A Study in Scarlet / The Hound of the Baskervilles (1887) — Afterword, some editions — 635 copies
The Nation's Favourite Poems (1996) — Contributor — 622 copies
The Book of Fantasy (1940) — Contributor — 601 copies
English Country House Murders (1989) — Contributor — 481 copies
The Oxford Book of English Detective Stories (1990) — Contributor — 400 copies
Eight Great Comedies (1958) — Contributor, some editions — 348 copies
The Hound of Heaven (1893) — Introduction, some editions — 329 copies
Bleak House [Norton Critical Edition] (1977) — Contributor — 306 copies
Knights of Madness: Further Comic Tales of Fantasy (1998) — Contributor — 297 copies
The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries (2013) — Contributor — 289 copies
Extraordinary Tales (1955) — Contributor — 272 copies
A Book of English Essays (1942) — Contributor — 242 copies
Silent Nights: Christmas Mysteries (2015) — Contributor — 228 copies
Crime Stories from the Strand (1991) — Contributor — 227 copies
The Omnibus of Crime (1929) — Contributor — 208 copies
The Oxford Book of English Short Stories (1998) — Contributor — 190 copies
Masterpieces of Mystery and Suspense (1988) — Contributor — 189 copies
Stories to Remember {complete} (1956) — Contributor — 181 copies
Love Letters (1996) — Contributor — 180 copies
The Big Book of Classic Fantasy (2019) — Contributor — 166 copies
Murder at the Manor: Country House Mysteries (2016) — Contributor — 165 copies
Resorting to Murder: Holiday Mysteries (2015) — Contributor — 147 copies
Stories to Remember, Volume I (1956) — Contributor — 147 copies
Belief: Readings on the Reason for Faith (2010) — Contributor — 143 copies
The Faber Book of Beasts (1997) — Contributor — 140 copies
The Saturday Evening Post Treasury (1954) — Contributor — 137 copies
A Literary Christmas: An Anthology (2013) — Contributor — 134 copies
The Golden Arrow (1916) — Introduction, some editions — 134 copies
Read With Me (1965) — Contributor — 129 copies
Day of the Tyrant (1985) — Contributor — 119 copies
Best Dog Stories (1990) — Contributor — 112 copies
Great English Short Stories (1957) — Contributor — 108 copies
Cottage Economy (1833) — Preface, some editions — 106 copies
A Surprise for Christmas and Other Seasonal Mysteries (2020) — Contributor — 105 copies
Serpents in Eden: Countryside Crimes (2016) — Contributor — 103 copies
Great Tales of Action and Adventure (1958) — Contributor — 100 copies
Great British Detectives (1991) — Contributor — 100 copies
Continental Crimes (2017) — Contributor — 96 copies
Murder On Christmas Eve (2017) — Contributor — 87 copies
Murder for Christmas, Vol. 2 (1982) — Contributor — 86 copies
Murder Mayhem Short Stories (Gothic Fantasy) (2016) — Contributor — 82 copies
The Mammoth Book of Great Detective Stories (1985) — Contributor — 80 copies
Great Short Tales of Mystery and Terror (1982) — Contributor — 79 copies
Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated) (2011) — Contributor, some editions — 77 copies
The Everyman Anthology of Poetry for Children (1994) — Contributor — 72 copies
Eyes to See (2008) — Contributor — 71 copies
Crime and Mystery Short Stories (2016) — Contributor — 70 copies
Saints Are Not Sad: Short Biographies of Joyful Saints (1949) — Contributor — 69 copies
Great Ghost Stories (1936) — Contributor — 67 copies
The Bedside Book of Famous British Stories (1940) — Contributor — 66 copies
The Toys of Peace (1938) — Introduction, some editions — 65 copies
The Edinburgh Mystery: And Other Tales of Scottish Crime (2022) — Contributor — 63 copies
A Book of Narrative Verse (1930) — Contributor — 61 copies
The Complete Clerihews (1981) — Illustrator, some editions — 60 copies
Murderous Schemes (1996) — Contributor — 58 copies
A Century of British Mystery and Suspense (2000) — Contributor — 57 copies
14 Great Detective Stories (1949) — Contributor — 57 copies
Tales of Detection (1940) — Contributor — 56 copies
If It Had Happened Otherwise (1931) — Contributor — 55 copies
Survival of Freedom (1981) — Contributor — 54 copies
The Penguin Classic Crime Omnibus (1984) — Contributor — 54 copies
Hound of Heaven and Other Poems (1936) — Introduction, some editions — 52 copies
The Mammoth Book of Thrillers, Ghosts and Mysteries (1936) — Contributor — 47 copies
Prose and Poetry for Appreciation (1934) — Contributor — 44 copies
A Century of Humour (1934) — Contributor — 42 copies
The Lucifer Society (1971) — Contributor — 41 copies
65 Great Murder Mysteries (1983) — Contributor — 41 copies
Guilty Creatures: A Menagerie of Mysteries (2021) — Contributor — 40 copies
Summer: A Spiritual Biography of the Season (2005) — Contributor — 37 copies
Murder in Midsummer (2019) — Contributor — 36 copies
Fourteen Great Detective Stories (1928) — Contributor — 36 copies
Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery, and Horror (1928) — Contributor — 32 copies
The Boy's Book of Great Detective Stories (1938) — Contributor — 32 copies
The World's Great Detective Stories (1927) — Contributor — 31 copies
Agents & Spies Short Stories (Gothic Fantasy) (2018) — Contributor — 29 copies
Great Law and Order Stories (1990) — Contributor — 28 copies
The Sheed and Ward Anthology of Catholic Philosophy (2005) — Contributor — 27 copies
Detective Thrillers Short Stories (Gothic Fantasy) (2020) — Contributor — 26 copies
A Book of Essays (1963) — Contributor — 26 copies
Sporting Blood: The Great Sports Detective Stories (1942) — Contributor — 25 copies
Detective Mysteries Short Stories (Gothic Fantasy) (2019) — Contributor — 24 copies
Eyes to See, Volume Two (2008) — Contributor — 24 copies
Murder Most Divine: Ecclesiastical Tales of Unholy Crimes (2000) — Contributor — 24 copies
Good Order: Right Answers to Contemporary Questions (1995) — Contributor — 23 copies
The Pocket Book of Great Detectives (1941) — Contributor — 22 copies
Murder by the Seaside (2022) — Contributor — 22 copies
Great Tales of Detection (1936) — Contributor — 21 copies
Great English Short Stories (1930) — Contributor — 20 copies
Great detective stories (1998) — Contributor — 20 copies
100 Story Poems (1951) — Contributor — 20 copies
Racconti Gialli (1992) — Author — 20 copies
The World's Best One Hundred Detective Stories, Volume 4 (1929) — Contributor — 19 copies
Ellery Queen's Twentieth Century Detective Stories (1964) — Contributor — 19 copies
Ellery Queen's Poetic Justice (1967) — Contributor, some editions — 18 copies
Wonderful London (1935) — Contributor — 18 copies
Will Men Be Like Gods? (1932) — Introduction — 17 copies
Bodies and Souls (1963) — Contributor — 15 copies
The Victorian Mystery Megapack: 27 Classic Mystery Tales (2012) — Contributor — 15 copies
Christmas classics: A treasury for Latter-Day Saints (1995) — Contributor — 14 copies
Fifty Masterpieces of Mystery (1937) — Contributor — 13 copies
Classic Crime Short Stories (2001) — Contributor — 13 copies
Ten Tales of Detection (1967) — Contributor — 13 copies
The Second Century of Detective Stories (1938) — Contributor — 12 copies
Short Stories of To-Day (1924) — Contributor — 11 copies
Favorite Animal Stories (1987) — Contributor — 11 copies
Crime and Detection (1926) — Contributor — 10 copies
Tall Short Stories (1960) — Contributor — 9 copies
All Day Long: An Anthology of Poetry for Children (1954) — Contributor — 9 copies
My Best Detective Story (1931) — Contributor — 9 copies
Murder Without Tears (1946) — Contributor — 9 copies
Conservative Texts: An Anthology (1991) — Contributor — 8 copies
A Treasury of Great Short Stories — Contributor — 7 copies
British and American Essays, 1905-1956 (1959) — Contributor — 7 copies
Great Classic Mysteries II (2012) — Contributor — 7 copies
Verhalen omnibus (1967) — Contributor — 7 copies
Påskekrim : 17 kriminalnoveller (2009) — Contributor — 7 copies
Detection Medley (1939) — Contributor — 7 copies
Alfred Hitchcock's Fatal Attractions (1983) — Contributor — 7 copies
Number Two Joy Street (1924) — Contributor — 6 copies
Ellery Queen’s Eleven Deadly Sins (1991) — Contributor — 6 copies
The Blinded Soldiers and Sailors Gift Book (1915) — Contributor — 6 copies
Essays by Modern Masters (1930) — Contributor — 5 copies
Den kriminelle novelle (1999) — Author, some editions — 5 copies
Verdens største detektiver II (1995) — Contributor — 5 copies
Classic Crime 5 Book Gift Set (1988) — Contributor — 5 copies
Verdens største detektiver I (1995) — Contributor — 4 copies
Best Detective Stories, Second Series — Contributor — 4 copies
Kriminallitteraturen / 11 essays (1978) — Contributor — 4 copies
30 Eternal Masterpieces of Humorous Stories (2017) — Contributor — 4 copies
Gli investigatori di Dio — Contributor — 3 copies
Selected Stories of Great Authors — Contributor — 3 copies
The Analog Sea Review: Number Four (2022) — Contributor — 2 copies
Crime and Detection (Second Series) — Contributor — 2 copies
Spionhistorier fra hele verden — Contributor — 2 copies
150 anni in Giallo (1989) — Contributor — 2 copies
The Detective in Fiction: A Posse of Eight — Contributor — 2 copies
Great Stories of Detection (1960) — Contributor — 2 copies
Classic British Short Stories (2009) — Contributor — 2 copies
Ellery Queen's 1966 Anthology — Contributor — 1 copy
The ship of destiny — Preface, some editions — 1 copy
Rosemary — Contributor — 1 copy
Verdens beste kriminalhistorier — Contributor — 1 copy
Number Three Joy Street (1925) — Contributor — 1 copy

Tagged

19th century (2,315) allegory (767) anthology (1,167) Apologetics (699) biography (819) British (1,534) British literature (1,623) Charles Dickens (585) Chesterton (797) Christian (692) Christianity (1,321) Christmas (2,314) classic (4,075) classic literature (617) classics (4,815) crime (553) Dickens (1,272) ebook (953) England (1,475) English (841) English literature (1,888) essays (832) fantasy (762) fiction (14,787) Folio Society (553) Kindle (1,175) literature (3,632) mystery (3,438) non-fiction (876) novel (2,176) own (514) philosophy (564) poetry (756) read (1,200) religion (1,463) short stories (2,200) Theology (1,075) to-read (5,345) unread (689) Victorian (1,337)

Common Knowledge

Canonical name
Chesterton, G. K.
Legal name
Chesterton, Gilbert Keith
Other names
Chesterton, Gilbert K.
Birthdate
1874-05-29
Date of death
1936-06-14
Burial location
Roman Catholic Cemetery, Shepherd's Lane, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
Gender
male
Nationality
UK
Country (for map)
England, UK
Birthplace
Kensington, London, England, UK
Place of death
Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
Cause of death
congestive heart failure
Places of residence
London, England, UK
Education
Slade School of Art
St. Paul's School, London, England, UK
Occupations
journalist
short-story writer
lay theologian
poet
philosopher
orator (show all 9)
critic
biographer
Christian apologist
Relationships
Chesterton, Cecil (brother)
Jones, Ada Elizabeth (sister-in-law)
Chesterton, A. K. (cousin)
Chesterton, Frances (wife)
Organizations
The Detection Club
Roman Catholic Church
Awards and honors
Order of St Gregory the Great
Episcopal Church USA observes June 13 as a provisional feast day
Short biography
G K Chesterton has been described as one of the most unjustly neglected writers of our time. Born in 1874 -when Kensington still formed part of Middlesex-, he became a journalist and later began writing books and pamphlets. His work includes novels, literary and social criticism, political papers and spiritual essays in a style characterised by enormous wit, paradox, humility and wonder. He converted to Catholicism in 1922 and he explores the nature of spirituality in many of his books and essays, including the mighty Orthodoxy.

Chesterton created the fictional priest-detective Father Brown, and wrote on apologetics. Even some of those who disagree with him have recognised the wide appeal of such works as Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man. Chesterton routinely referred to himself as an "orthodox" Christian, and came to identify this position more and more with Catholicism, eventually converting to Catholicism from High Church Anglicanism. Biographers have identified him as a successor to such Victorian authors as Matthew Arnold, Thomas Carlyle, Cardinal John Henry Newman, and John Ruskin. On his contributions, T. S. Eliot wrote,

He was importantly and consistently on the side of the angels. Behind the Johnsonian fancy-dress, so reassuring to the British public, he concealed the most serious and revolutionary designs—concealing them by exposure ... Chesterton's social and economic ideas...were fundamentally Christian and Catholic. He did more, I think, than any man of his time—and was able to do more than anyone else, because of his particular background, development and abilities as a public performer—to maintain the existence of the important minority in the modern world. He leaves behind a permanent claim upon our loyalty, to see that the work that he did in his time is continued in ours.

Members

Discussions

Reviews

This volume is a collection of four books which I shall review separately.
Book One: The Innocence of Fr. Brown. The little priest is a whiz-bang analyzer and reaches conclusions far in advance of those with him. The curious, and disconcerting, aspect of these stories is the ubiquitousness of Fr. Brown. He turns up in the most unusual places in a most timely manner. It is entertaining but can become boring.
 
Flagged
DeaconBernie | 32 other reviews | Mar 18, 2024 |
Christian apologetics is not my thing. On the other hand, Chesterton could be insightfully witty about ignorant anti-Christians. Like Oscar Wilde, Chesterton seems to write very insubstantially, and his work is best consumed in quotations, rather than in whole-book chunks. I don't think he's quite so precious as Wilde, though.

https://www.chesterton.org advertises a new, thoroughly annotated version of the book. Chesterton was an exceptionally erudite person so some of his allusions, being both erudite and dated, would be incomprehensible to many contemporary readers.… (more)
½
 
Flagged
themulhern | 15 other reviews | Feb 25, 2024 |
First, I don't really feel qualified to review this book. Chesterton seems to be having a one-way conversation with his peers. I am far from a peer of G.K. Chesterton. From a comprehension standpoint, I'd say somewhere between 15 and 19%. What I did manage to glean is magnificent. If I had the necessary years left, I'd begin directly on St. Thomas Aquinas but that is not the way I'll go. I recognize in life today a few of the things that the Saint urged to avoid but we didn't.
As for Chesterton's writing, it is clear even when the subject is difficult. Now, on to his books on Fr. Brown where I think my comprehension will be better.… (more)
 
Flagged
DeaconBernie | 14 other reviews | Feb 25, 2024 |
A selection of short mysteries solved by Father Brown, written in the first quarter of the 1900s.

Father Brown is unimpressive in appearance: stubby brown hair, round face, a short, round body, wearing his black clerical garb and a quiet demeanor, makes him blend more into the surroundings. It is his ability to put bits and pieces together and solve the mysteries that come his way and bring attention to himself.

In each story, (there are ten) the clues and people involved are all given. It is the subtle items and behaviour that need to organized to come to the solution. Father Brown’s observation of the behaviour of people is the cement that holds the bits together and forms the solution.

A cozy mystery series, with a bit of an edge seems to be Chesterton’s style. Rather than come to various conclusions, Father Brown takes time, observations of physical action and what people say as the pieces of the puzzle: items that are mentioned in the story for the reader to know.

I found it interesting to see if I could come up with the solution before it was revealed.
… (more)
 
Flagged
ChazziFrazz | Jan 16, 2024 |

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Agatha Christie Contributor
Selwyn Jepson Contributor
John Dickson Carr Contributor
J. S. Fletcher Contributor
H. C. Bailey Contributor
Eden Phillpotts Contributor
Thomas Burke Contributor
Henry Wade Contributor
Mrs. Henry Wood Contributor
G. R. Malloch Contributor
Frank King Contributor
F. A. Kummer Contributor
Edgar Allen Poe Contributor
Gilbert Frankau Contributor
Hulbert Footner Contributor
John Guest Editor
David Case Narrator
Simon Vance Narrator
Edward Ardizzone Illustrator
David Gentleman Cover artist
Ron Keith Narrator
Alfonso Reyes Translator
David Thorn Narrator
Hans Romberg Cover designer
Jonathan Lethem Introduction
Walter Covell Narrator
Lin Carter Introduction
Gervasio Gallardo Cover artist
Philip Yancey Introduction
F. J. Sheed Introduction
Lea Kukkola Translator
Timo Kukkola Translator
David Stuart Davies Introduction
R. T. Bond Foreword
Axel Amlie Translator
Remo Costanzi Translator
J.-C. Laurens Translator
Francisco Gijon Translator
Pau Romeva Translator
Annalisa Teggi Translator
Bernard Mayes Narrator
Chr. de Graaff Translator
Fiep Westendorp Cover artist
Robert Austin Illustrator
Carl Greek Translator
Olov Jonason Translator
Ronald Knox Introduction
Ralph McInerny Introduction
Joseph Pearce Introduction
Derek Perkins Narrator
Boris Greff Translator
Matthias Marx Translator
Bruce F. Murphy Introduction
Anthony Boucher Introduction
John Lawrence Illustrator
Russell Kirk Contributor
Leo Manso Cover artist
Ben Schott Foreword
James Bemis Introduction
Tony Ross Illustrator
Joachim Kalka Illustrator
Elizabeth Turner Illustrator

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