G. K. Chesterton Books

This volume contains the most important works of G. K. Chesterton, his study of St. Francis, his study of St. Thomas Aquinas, and _The Everlasting Man_.

I have chosen the word "study" rather than biography deliberately. Readers looking to find a strict chronological account of St. Francis or St. Thomas according to the modern or postmodern canons of historiography should look elsewhere. What Chesterton does is get you at the heart of these two saints. He tells you what they were all about. He is somehow able to convey to his readers the very air that these saints breathed.

And then there is _The Everlasting Man_. While it is hard to characterize, this is Chesterton's best work. Period. Written as an answer to H. G. Wells's _Outline of History_, Chesterton gets at what is most important in human history: the fact that God became Man in Jesus Christ. It really is an incredible book.

Chesterton had an amazing knack to cut to the heart of the matter. If you want to see what St. Francis or St. Thomas were all about, or to appreciate more the Lord who inspired these saints, I would highly recommend this book.

If you're a Catholic Christian and want to appreciate your faith more, these books will serve you well. If you're not Catholic or Christian and wish to encounter the most persuasive apologetics, this is an excellent place to start.

Chesterton is a wonderful writer. A poet by nature, Chesterton focuses on the material and concrete in ways that seems both paradoxical and wondrous. In "Saint Francis of Assisi," Chesterton takes the most popular saint, and presents all those details that really make us modern secularists most uncomfortable with him. In another book here, he links St. Thomas Aquinas to Francis, showing that, despite their vast differences in temperament, they both strove to save and present the goodness of creation and nature and to rebuke (in word or action) those who would hold the bodily in disdain.

In a sense, the biographies here are more than biographies. They're filled with diversions, and those diversions all point in the direction of the remaining book, "The Everlasting Man," which is presented between the other two. The central point here is that the Incarnation is the central event of human history; it allows us to joyously celebrate the good of creation and nature, as God has blessed matter with His very being.

Also, Chesterton is a real pleasure to read, as this passage shows: "One of my first journalistic adventures, or misadventures, concerned a comment on Grant Allen, who had written a book about the Evolution of the Idea of God. I happened to remark that it would be much more interesting if God wrote a book about the evolution of the idea of Grant Allen."

His wit shines in the conclusion of this anecdote. To his bemusement, his editor castigates *him* for being blasphemous. "In that hour I learned many things, including the fact that there is something purely acoustic in much of that agnostic sort of reverence. The editor had not seen the point, because in the title of the book the long word came at the beginning and the short word at the end; whereas in my comments the short word came at the beginning and gave him a sort of shock. I have noticed that if you put a word like God into the same sentence with a word like dog, these abrupt and angular words affect people like pistol-shots. Whether you say that God made the dog or the dog made God does not seem to matter; that is only one of the sterile disputations of the too subtle theologians. But so long as you begin with a long word like evolution the rest will roll harmlessly past; very probably the editor had not read the whole of the title, for it is rather a long title and he was rather a busy man."

Chesterton is one of those rare intellects who says things which actually change your perception of the world and alters the way you think. The Everlasting Man is a great book in so many ways. First, as in all books in this volume, TEM is great apologetics. Chesterton challenges arguments in favor of evolution and atheism. He is a tremendously gifted arguer. He has the ability to control an argument, direct where it's going, and reserve his judgment and wisdom until the very last sentence in such a way whereas the reader is more or less at his mercy. Many times, Chesterton was so convincing playing the devil's advocate (when he was giving the opponents arguments), I found myself acknowledging how legitimate some of the evolution's or atheist's points were...until Chesterton demolished all the psuedo-argument he had presented as their opinions as misguided argument or unsound thinking.

The book on Thomas Acquinas is invaluable as well. While only the surface of some of Acquinas' arguments are covered, the ones which are covered are the most powerful and relevant. Also, this serves as a simple, yet very thorough, biography of Acquinas' life.

Chesterton is a deep thinker, but he is also very practical and common sensical. No one can ever accuse him of bringing up irrelevant points or creating unclear argument. He says everything he means to say, nothing more or less.

If you are interested in apologetics and in reading a book which has influenced C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, and not to mention countless other thinkers and writers, you should buy this book. And it's a great deal too.

Ignatius Press has done the world a great favor by releasing their "Collected Works of Chesterton" series. If you can only afford three volumes, get # 1, 2, and 6. If you can only afford one volume, it should be # 2.

Chesterton's book on St Francis is wonderful. Unlike most modern books, it places Francis squarely in Christianity. (Many contemporary books on Francis portray him as a 13th-century hippie, which would have astounded the devout friar!)

The book on Thomas Aquinas is simply the best biography of him ever, and many noted Thomists have agreed with this sentiment.

But "The Everlasting Man" is the true pinnacle of Chesterton's amazing output. In one book he puts "comparative religion" into a new and brilliant perspective. C.S. Lewis listed "Everlasting Man" as one of the reasons he became a Christian, and it really will floor you.

(If you are short on funds you can always buy Everlasting Man as a single volume, too!)

After reading The Hammer of God, one of the Father Brown stories, I found myself both perplexed and enlightened. Chesterton is one of the few short story authors I have encountered that can consolidate a global message into a short parable. In the Father Brown stories, he uses his superb wit and literary elegance to send readers through innumerable epiphanies, usually with the aid of some very potent metaphors. One quotation that I will always remember from this story is "humility is the mother of giants; one sees great things from the valley, only small things from the peak." For me, G.K. Chesterton has always been able to manipulate landscape and concrete images into a meaningful, and lucid, metaphor. The Hammer of God, in particular, is inundated with these powerful metaphors that tackle the essence of man's struggle with his outside world, and with himself. I found many of the other stories to be very stimulating, although the Hammer of God was clearly my favorite. If you seek literay merit and powerful lessons, but have neither the time nor the inclination to read a novel or anything else over one hundred pages, G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories are perfect for you.

Six classic tales featuring the priest-sleuth, Father Brown. Excellent tales, they are engaging and addictive, and will leave you looking for more!

These stories by G.K. Chesterton were very enjoyable reading. Father Brown is an endearing character, and his intellect is impressive (but then again, what literary detective's isn't?). His companion Flambeau is equally enjoyable. I was disappointed with one thing: I had the impression that Father Brown was a detective in the sense that he solved crimes for the police, like Sherlock Holmes. Actually, this was only the case in a couple of the stories. Instead, he put his mind to solving mysteries that weren't necessarily crimes.

G. K. Chesterton created more than fifty entertaining Father Brown stories. This Dover Thrift Edition offers six delightful short stories illustrating the deductive genius of this quiet, amusing, slightly eccentric, contemporary of Sherlock Holmes.

Written in the early 1900s, these short stories move more slowly than many modern mysteries. Chesterton may even sidetrack to explore a moral issue or moral ambiguity. But beware. Father Brown, a man of the church, is not entirely naïve and innocent. Like Sherlock Holmes, he is a keen observer. The reader will need to remain alert to keep pace with his remarkable deductions.

The first two stories, The Blue Cross and The Sins of Prince Saradine, come from the first twelve Father Brown stories, published as The Innocence of Father Brown (1911). The earliest stories often feature Flambeau as a dazzling, brilliant arch criminal. Later, Flambeau abandons his risky career and becomes a constant companion to Chesterton's remarkable cleric.

The last four stories are taken from the second Father Brown collection, The Wisdom of Father Brown (1914). The Sign of the Broken Sword reveals a startling crime. The Man in the Passage offers a surprising and amusing solution to conflicting testimony. The Perishing of the Pendragons provides mayhem and danger in an unlikely setting. Hopefully, The Salad of Colonel Cray will not be found in most cookbooks.

I highly recommend this little Dover edition to anyone new to Father Brown. Once acquainted, the reader can then look elsewhere for larger collections.

The New Jerusalem reprints G. K. Chesterton's classic travelogue in which he sought to better understand the Middle East in the years following World War I. Nearly three decades before the creation of the State of Israel, Chesterton observed the Christians, Jews, and Muslims of Palestine; his unvarnished conclusions are presented at face value, without any allowances for political correctness or other modern contrivances. In addition to his blunt assessments and judgments are also a wonder of firsthand description and depiction of ordinary people surviving day-to-day life, and evidence of seekers searching the holy land for revelation, and extended philosophical speculation concerning the ancient histories destinies of races and faiths of people. Though limited by Chesterton's individual perspective and opinions, The New Jerusalem is an invaluable addition to collective understanding concerning Palestine and how it was viewed by individuals and religious organizations nearly a century ago.

G.K. Chesterton displays his level of wit and insights into Palestine. His candid views are presented here in a style that is fresh and interesting to modern readers. I highly recommend "The New Jerusalem".

When G. K . Chesterton published The New Jerusalem he was called an anti Semite. He denied it but after reading the book it's pretty clear that Jews were not his favorite people. He refers to the poor newly arrived immigrant Jews as tacky to the point of hideousness and showered contempt on the sophisticated fully assimilated upper class London Jews. He even goes as far as to opine that had a great disaster had befallen England during Benjamin Disraeli's years as prime minister, Disraeli (because he was Jewish) probably would've sailed off to America or somewhere else without a thought for England. That's harsh.

Chesterton also had sour things to say about Orthodox Christians. His comments on the religious Jews of Jerusalem are a little kinder or at least less mean but his only real admiration seems to have been for the Muslims of what was then called Palestine. He seems to have viewed them like we view wild lions today. You can't help but be awed by the beasts but you also know that if that they're dangerous.

Finally, this cold, gloomy book makes a startling prediction that has, alas, come horribly true. Chesterton bluntly stated that the area known as Palestine was hopelessly divided if a Jewish state was ever established there the local Arabs would fight it.

Please don't come to this book looking for the cuddly fellow who wrote the Father Brown stories because he is not here.

G.K. Chesteron's book titled THE NEW JERUSALEM is the only "angry" book this reviewer has ever read of Chesterton's vast literary work. This book is not for the timid or the dull. Those who are serious Catholics, religious Jews, or devout Muslims will learn from this book. Those who religious views are fashionable and politically correct will be shocked by honest language and thoughtful insight.

Chesteton reminds readers that Palestine and Judea (modern Israel)was at one time under Ancient Roman control and during the late 11th. and 12th. centuries under European control. The complex history of the Middle East includes peoples of different cultures, languages, and political views. The fact is that Europeans as well as Western Asians. The Middle East was "the cradle" of early Catholocism, the flowering of Judaism, and the original area of Islam.

Those who are aware of the Byzantine rule know that the Byzantines used the Greek language. Yet, they ruled using Roman Law, and the Greek Orthodox Church was very similiar to the Catholic Church. As an aside, the Greek Orthodox ligurgy and sacramental system are similiar to those of Catholicism. This reviewer is very aware that there are differences which have caused bitterness and schism.

Chesterton chides the British for not knowing little or nothing of the Middle East, and the same could be said of American "experts" whose knowledge of the history and georgraphy of this area is either nil or fabricated nonsense. Chesterton contrasts the vague, undignified language of modern policy "experts" with the clear yet poetic bluntness of the Old Hebrew Prophets whose denounciations was quite understandable by those whom they condemned.

Contrary to modern fads and notions, Jerusalem was and is a place of vivid religious and cultural differences which has exploded at times in violence and bitter clashes. As Chesterton makes clear, modern fashionable Protestantism would never have survived in Jerusalem. Islam, Judaism and Catholcism did.

Chesterton saw the post World War I situation with prophetic vision. He argued that while there was no war, there was no actual peace, and the Middle East was an armned camp. This was a problem for the British who were under the illusion that their inherent superiority and arrogant ignorance would protect them from the realities that Chesterton clearly understood.

Chesterton reserves his most serious writing for Zionism. He presents those of the Jewish faith that they were Europeans or Zionists. Chesterton DOES NOT condemn Judaism. He was critical of what some may consider Jewish Nationalism as compared to Judaism as a religion. By avoiding these issues British, and later American, policy makers tried to exert their influence with little knowledge much to their chagrin. Chesterton argued that Europeans regardless of their religion benefitted from Catholic Canon Law, a gradual respect for legal rights, and the rediscovery of reason via Aristotle and Catholic Scholasticism. The Zionists were forced to ask themselves whether or not they were Westerners. This is still a current debate. Chesterton commented that he had more respect for Jewish radicals who championed the rights of the poor than he had for the wealthy plutocrats, Jewish or not.

G.K. Chesterton knew that after World War I, the Middle East was a political powder keg. One weakness of this book is that Chesterton could have critisized the Balfour Declaration (1917) which was so poorly written and vague that both Arabs and Jewish Zionists could use it to justify their political aspirations. An Ancient Hebrew Prophet would have been much clearer and succinct.

G.K. Chesterton defends his views from a Catholic point of view. THE NEW JERUSALEM is a well written and blunt assessment of the Middle East that thoughtful men (there are so few of such men) will have a better understanding of the historical drama (a tragic historical drama)that is evolving. What is more tragic is that sensible men were avoided or ignored when something could have been done during and just after World War I. But men in power were and are seldom sensible.

This is one of the best introductions to popular Christian fiction that seeks to draw the reader into the world of meaning. too often modern literature, following earlier reductionist authors, strips the inner meaning of life away, leaving a dark, bleak universe void of any real and lasting meaning by which the reader can transcend the shadows of life. The authors covered in this short intro do the opposite by enlivening the universe with meaning, playfulness, sobriety, and joy.

Lewis, Chesterton, Bunyan, Charles Williams, George MacDonald, Tolkien, L'Engle, and Walter Wangerin are discussed individually with a fantastic apologia for their literary forms as an introduciton. A great read! Enjoy!

In this relatively short work, Rolland Hein manages to successfully review and critique the works of many Christian authors who created mythological stories. The critiques, ranging from Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" to Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings," are arranged chronologically, beginning with Dante and ending with contemporary 'mythmakers.'

The reviews not only cover the works and the Christian elements in them, they also provide useful information and good insight into the lives of these men and women. Quotes are presented, giving the authors' views on the art of Christian mythmaking and their attitudes toward the various ways we can discover truth.

This book is excellent. It is very well-written, and thoughtfully organized. The insight it provides on such authors as Tolkien, Lewis, and MacDonald is invaluable. If you are interested in one or more of these authors, get this book--it may help you to better understand them or even discover new authors and new worlds to explore.

Fantasy's "breaking away" from the primary sensory world offers a journey into the unknown to experience the REAL, according to Rolland Hein. We all have a Mythos (worldview); this cherished text sharpens the Christian sensibility by using the secondary worlds to help us understand spiritual concepts. Out-of-print version has been updated, a superior gift to anyone interested in Christianity, Fantasy, Narnia, Middle Earth, Imagination, or any of the Oxford Christian Writer or their successors.

G. K. Chesterton was probably the greatest optimist who ever lived. He BELIEVED where most of us give up and become despondent. The three stories in this volume take place in a strange twilight world in which the author, as he says in THURSDAY, makes you want to see the lamppost by the light of the tree rather than vice versa. This, by the way, is his most profound and eccentric book.

In THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY, we see an incredible global conspiracy dissipate like swamp gas. (As Calvin Coolidge once said, nine out of ten of the troubles one sees down the road swerve off and disappear before they get to you.) THE BALL AND THE CROSS is about two heretics who appear to fight each other to the bitter end, until they find a worse enemy. And THE CLUB OF QUEER TRADES is a delightful entertainment made up of wonderful shaggy dog stories, much like THE PARADOXES OF MR POND.

If life hasn't been going your way, curl up with this volume -- and you WILL feel better.

The Club of Queer Trades - Not quite like the Father Brown mystery stories but very close. GKC traces the adventures of a club comprised of men and women who invented their own trade. You usually don't understand the trade until the end of the story, and the book never disappoints.

The Man Who Was Thursday - This is probably the most famous of all Chesterton books. The book describes the attempts of a Scotland yard detective to infiltrate a secret anarchist society. The garden party conversations between anarchists are laugh out loud funny. I'm still fascinated by the ending, mainly because I don't understand it.

The Ball and Cross - Chesterton's hilarious story of how an adamant Catholic duels to the death with an ardent atheist is a worthy read. Chesterton systematically critiques popular delusions of educated thinking as the book unfolds. The atheist and the Catholic grow closer together through their duel, and realize that they understand each other better than the other characters understand either of them. Chesterton's wit is second to none and if you liked Pilgrim's Regress by C.S. Lewis, you will love this book.

I've loaned two of these books to friends, and both of them were immediate fans. If you find this collection interesting, try the Napoleon of Notting Hill also by GKC.

The Club of Queer Trades is by far the funniest story I have ever read! I assure you that it will keep you rolling on the floor from the beginning to the end of the story.

G.K. Chesterton (1874-1937)wrote THE OUTLINE OF SANITY as a possible alternative to Big Capitalism and Big Communism. Chesterton offered an economic solution that was both "idealistic" and practicle. Bascially, Chesterton argued that, "Smaller is better." Chesteron knew that the economic arrangements in Great Britian and these United States had serious flaws that undermined small farmers, small shop owners, and industrial workers. He suggested that men should gradually attempt to reverse the trends that were taking place by restoring men as owners of small shops and small land holdings in place of large farms and monopolisitc owned factories which ruined so many people. Chesteron was clear that Big Communism an evil system which offered so actual solution.

Chesterton described Big Capitalism as a system whereby monopolists used a corrupt parliament and a corrupt legal system to condemn land and property to control economic activities and concentrate vast wealth in the hands of a few plutocrats. He described Big Capitalism as a system where the very wealth concentrated wealth in the pockets of a few while economic despoiling most people. He described Big Communism as a system where no one could have pockets because a politically powerful oligarchy of party hacks would run the economy and use and abuse the mass of people.

Chesterton also critisized the Machine Age, but he did not critisize machines or technology. Chestertoned that unfair and corrupt legislation resulted in Big Capitialism having access to factories and machines. He also noticed that the economic situation in Great Britain resulted in idle machines since so many men were unemployed. In other words, what good were machines without men to work them. Chesterton appreciated machines, but he was against worshipping machines.

Chesterton also critisized monopolists who wanted to make money (profits),but they wanted to lower wages and salaries. Chesterton wryly asked how could men buy what the monopolists produced with lower incomes. Part of Chesteron's solution was for people to boycott the Big Shops (Box Stores?)and patronize the Small Shops. Chesterton noticed that the Big Shops had poor service and inferior quality. However, the Small Shops had a "personal touch" and better made goods.

Another problem that Chesterton noticed was that Big Capitalists and Big Communists bitterly resented clear thinking, independent men. Both Capitialists and Communists wanted a standardized society whereby conformity and hypocrisy were substituted for honesty and independence. Big Capitalism ruined men by corrupting politicans and jurists. Big Communism ruined men by concentration camps and mass murder.

Chesterton showed concern that Big Capitalism and Big Communism dehumanized men. The monopolists wanted an utopia of stock brokers, and the communists wanted an utopia of utopian comrades, and neither of these existed or could exist. Chesterton want a practicle society of men who had a personal stake in their farms or shops and who had time to reflect on cultural attainments whether they be religion (for Chesterton the Catholic Faith) literature, song, dance, etc. Chesterton cited an example whereby Henry Ford, a Big Capitialist, did not know who Benedict Arnold was. For someone who touted "The American Way" and not know U.S. History was considered a sad state of affairs as far as Chesterton was concerned.

Chestertoned suggested a modified guild system where the rules were known by all men and where the plutocrats could not corrupt political representatives and jurists could restore a better economy and social order. Chesterton was clear that he respected free enterprise but not private enterprise. The latter abused the political legal systems to the disadvantage of everyone else.

While some writers argued that men should become gods or icons, Chesterton wanted me to be normal and free. Chesterton observed that while men had the vote, they had little else. Big Capitalists and Big Communists did not want men to have their own wives, children, or land. Both imposed legal restrictions on parents' raising chidlren and providing them with values and learning which functions were increasingly dominated by bureaucrats in the name of progressivism or socialsim.

One of the weaknesses of Chesterton' book is that he was not specific enough. Chesterton could have cited laws that literally robbed men of their land and wealth by having private property condemned in favor or Big Capitalists. Chesterton could have specified Acts of Parliament or the U.S. Congress that were designed to ruin small property owners such as recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed a corporation to take private property which is beyond belief here in the U.S.

Yet, Chesterton's book THE OUTLINE OF SANITY is a hopeful antidote to Big Capitalsim and its corrupting influences or Big Communistm with its unworkable system and use of concentration camp brutality to gain compliance. While Chesterton died in 1937, this book is prophetic and useful. If men destroy their civilization in favor of unworkable systems, Chesterton's book is there for the record.

The Outline Of Sanity is a philosophical treatise on the social vision of renowned British author and Christian philosopher G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), known as "distributism". Chesterton presents his antithesis to the impersonal bustle of increasingly fast-paced modern life, and offers a logical means for human beings swept by the tide to regain control over life and future. With a Catholic foundation yet meant to encompass people of all religious persuasions, Chesterton's vision of Distributism is a powerful one that justly demands consideration, particularly in this modern day and age where his concerns of a society of alienation multiply a thousandfold!

Were Chesterton a camel, the thing that broke his back was a half- baked philosophy called Distribustism, a clunkily- named alternative to both Capitalism and Socialism. For a long time I believed that, because you can even read it in biographies of Chesterton and, naive reader that I am, I thought biographers knew what they were talking about.

Having dipped into this book, which reprints articles on that subject, however, I realize Distributism wasn't his hobby horse; it was his passion and his soul. It also strikes me as the best idea to come down the pike in about a hundred years, and if you want to call Chesterton a prophet (small 'p'), here's good reason for doing so. In other words, long before Marshall McLuhan, (an avid student of Chesterton) he said the medium is the message. In still other words, he said something I'm always saying, vote with your wallet. He even advocated the radical idea of making your own media choices.

In "The Bluff of the Big Shops" he points out that no matter how enticing a megoplis super mega store may be, you still always have the option to shop at small mart. In this book, first published in 1926, he meditated on the future of the then relatively recent, newly mass-produced Ford car. What Chesterton stands up for is private property and private enterprise. Although this sounds almost the same as free trade and free enterprise, to Chesterton there is an important distinction. One means the right of the wealthy to do what they like, and the other the right of the poor to do anything at all. His meaning is closer to the original draft of the American document, recognizing the right to life, liberty, and ownership of property.

I got this book through the American Chesterton Society, although I'm happy to see it's also on Amazon. The ACS's magazine, Gilbert, has continually run bits from these essays, which were so tantalizing as to make me want to read the book. This edition is from IHS Press, which bills itself as "the only publisher dedicated exclusively to the social teachings of the Catholic Church". Not that this is an overtly religious book. But it feeds from the same stream as the Catholic Worker Movement of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, and the still radical words of Pope Leo XIII in the 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum: "On the Condition of the Working Classes". What goes around comes around, and some eighty years later, Chesterton's words seem more true and relevant than ever. If this book seems a bit pricey, think of it not only as an enthralling read, but as a textbook for revolution.

Easily the darkest of Chesterton's Father Brown collections, "The Secret of Father Brown" is nonetheless as much of a masterwork of perception into the human condition as his others. The conceit of the book is that it is an exhibition (to an American guest of Flambeau's) of Father Brown's sleuthing style. The collection begins and ends around a woodstove at Flambeau's Spanish castle as Father Brown wearily unburdens himself to the inquisitive guest. Along the way we are treated to the typical impossible crimes and a parade of rogues and saints -- a corpse in shining armor, a thieving mystic, insouciant British aristocrats and a Canadian journalist. We are asked to solve death by duel and pistol shot, and thefts of jewels large and small.

"Secret" betrays Chesterton's pessimism about mankind. In this collection, Father Brown is more inward and is vastly more bothered by human sin and folly than in other books. And Chesterton's annoyance at the greatest theft of precious stone in the world - the dispossession of Catholic churches and abbeys during the Reformation - is particularly bitter. But this is an observation, not a criticism.

The stories in this collection are worth reading (or hearing!) over and over - to see how the plot unfolds, to hear Chesterton's gorgeous and well-informed prose, or to hear the narrator (in this case, the marvelous Geoffrey Matthews) bring life to Chesterton's characters.

If you're interested in an unabridged audio edition, I recommend that narrated by Geoffrey Matthews over the David Case version. Matthews, to my way of thinking, has a better voice, produces more distinct characters, and brings the text more vividly to life. (Naturally, his recording seems to be harder to find just now.) David Case is OK - he sounds exactly like the narrator for Aird's 'Cause and Effects' - but I was spoilt by hearing Matthews' reading first.

"The Secret of Father Brown" - In this prologue, Father Brown has come to visit Flambeau, who has long since retired to a castle in Spain. Another visitor asks Father Brown for the secret of how he solves all his cases - and gets a startling answer. The epilogue at the end of the book is supposedly the end of the same evening (all the stories in between having been produced as examples). Don't worry, the narrative style is the same as usual; the prologue and epilogue are just here to tie all the stories together.

The key to coping with Chesterton's stories is to remember the dictum of Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter: "When you've got how, you've got who." If you go haring off after motive in a Chesterton story, all I can wish you is luck; you'll need it. They're good stories, with lovely use of language and settings, but weird things happen for weirder reasons, sometimes. Just sit back and enjoy, and don't worry about whether anybody could *really* hope to get away with some of these crimes. Some stories have multiple crimes, where one crime is committed because of another. If you feel sympathy for some of these 'second' criminals, you might also like to try Chesterton's _The Club of Queer Trades_, even though Father Brown doesn't appear there.

"The Mirror of the Magistrate" - Agatha Christie's Poirot once asked Hastings to mention 'chocolate box' to him if he ever needed to be humbled with a reminder of failure. This case is the closest that Father Brown came to that - he refers to this case in later stories whenever his terse comments divert the authorities in the wrong direction in an investigation. I take comfort that *somebody* felt guilty about all those red herrings... :)

"The Man with Two Beards" - This case is sometimes referred to as the Moonshine murder. Michael Moonshine is a legendary burglar, who "stunned people - and bound and gagged them," but who made it a point of honour never to kill anyone. Now he's apparently in the neighbourhood - but someone died during this robbery. What really happened? (Incidentally, for Moonshine-style burglary, let me recommend Looking Glass Studios' game _Thief_.)

"The Song of the Flying Fish" - Locked-room theft (that is, a locked-room mystery which is a theft rather than the traditional murder). The rich man's favourite toy, an antique glass bowl of solid gold fish, gave him his favourite joke when meeting new people: "Have you seen my gold fish?" Now somebody, upon seeing them, has caused them to disappear.

"The Actor and the Alibi" - Locked-room murder. How was the theater manager murdered in his locked office, especially when most of the company was on stage for an undress rehearsal? The only member of the company who wasn't in view of witnesses - a hot-tempered Italian actress dissatisfied with her part - had locked herself in her dressing-room, hence Father Brown being called in to reason with his parishioner. (On being asked whether to break the door down, the priest advises against it, contrasting her with a certain broody metaphysical type; the other half of the comparison can be found in Chesterton's "A Tall Story" in _The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond_.)

"The Vanishing of Vaudrey" - Locked-room disappearance, more or less. The local squire disappeared in the middle of the morning in the tiny village near his home. Father Brown begins by accompanying Vaudrey's secretary in the search, and hears his troubles while picking up background information on the setting and characters.

"The Worst Crime in the World" - Father Brown accompanied his friend Granby to Sir John Musgrave's castle, but not to assist in finding out if Sir John's son was a good credit risk. Young Musgrave needs money because he wants to get married to Father Brown's niece - who isn't quite sure about him. Unfortunately, while setting Granby's mind at rest, Sir John made a cryptic pronouncement about his son's character...

"The Red Moon of Meru" - Again, a theft rather than a murder, and leaves an impression much like that of 'The Song of the Flying Fish' (see above). This time, a mystic has apparently made a ruby vanish - the best thing that ever happened to his reputation, in terms of psychic phenomena.

"The Chief Mourner of Marne" - The Marquis of Marne dropped all his old friends and left England many years ago, upon the sudden death of his best friend and idol, his cousin Maurice Mair. Even upon his return, he has shut himself up and appears to be obsessed with religion - his old friends often bewail the 'vampires' he's taken up with. Enough so that one of them now complains to Father Brown, who isn't about to hear his religion slandered...

"The Secret of Flambeau" - Returning to the scene of the prologue, the American visitor questions the wisdom of Father Brown's charity with criminals, to be countered by a rather startling defense from Flambeau. (See the first few stories in _The Innocence of Father Brown_ if you're not already familiar with Flambeau's history.)

THE SECRET OF FATHER BROWN is unique among the Father Brown books because of its unusual integrated structure, which is somewhat reminiscent of the CANTERBURY TALES. The eight stories are framed by a prologue and an epilogue in which Father Brown is seen visiting Flambeau's house in France along with an American traveler, Mr. Chace. Chace wants Father Brown to explain his "method" of detection, the supposed "secret" which has made him famous. Brown attempts to demonstrate that unlike the modern science of criminology, he treats criminals not as remote monsters but as something familiar. Rather than than "inspecting" the criminal from afar, he tries to get "inside" the criminal, to understand what motivates him. This he does by discovering those qualities which he shares in common with the criminal and his own human potential for evil. Father Brown explains that his "method" is really like a religious exercise. The eight tales which follow are actually memories which pass through Father Brown's mind as he sits conversing with Flambeau and Chace, and which demonstrate Father Brown's unique "method". Father Brown fans may find THE SECRET OF FATHER BROWN to be their favorite in the series, for its artful, ingenious structure and its intelligent discussion of the great priest-detective's technique.

I found this book by accident and haven't even finished it yet, but what a pleasure to read! Chesterton's logic and humor are delightful and the way he is always looking at the "big picture" of Christianity is wonderful. It's a good thing it has footnotes to explain some of the references to British politics. He writes as though to non-Catholics (which I am) who know very little about St. Francis (other than he preached to the animals) and next to nothing about St. Thomas Aquinas. If you like Chesterton and are remotly interested in these two saints who were in many ways opposites of each other, buy and read this book.

Legendary Christian philosopher GK Chesterton wrote concise semi-biographies of St. Francis and St. Thomas Aquinas in 1923 and 1936 (the year of his death), respectively. Those years saw him convert to Catholicism, crystallizing a journey taking him from early appreciation of St. Francis in poetry and essays, to the depths of Oscar Wilde's nihilism to the freedom of orthodoxy expressed in that book and in his classic "Everlasting Man."

For their contrasting both saints' lives, drawn differently as silhouettes of Sancho Panza and Don Quixote (to name one of Chesterton's first, richest allegories in the Aquinas book), both books could with editing meld into the single volume Ignatius Press published. Both used Chesterton's mix of allegory, paradox and common sense eloquence making each of his books a re-discovery. Best of all, in Chesterton's words, both saints "reaffirmed the incarnation, by bringing God back to earth."

Chesterton writes each saint's biography inside out, seeing the major events of both lives through the prisms of their times. He shows both refuting their near-assigned destinies: born "on the hem of the imperial purple," Aquinas asks to be a begging friar and winds up arrested, imprisoned, and even tempted by his family. Born a successful merchant's son, young Francis Bernadone renounces his possessions (including his father Peter), takes poverty and dependence as a lover and walks into the woods in a hair-shirt, taking every existing thing as his family, every day as one without history, and finally writing his life philosophy in "Canticle of the Sun."

Loving the poor, having and wanting nothing, both depended on and thanked God for everything. Francis begged for the worst crumbs and traded down with beggars, using the remainder rebuild churches and lives. Aquinas appreciated his gift senses as windows into God's beauty and reality, refusing to separate earthly process from heaven's factual logic. His "Ens" philosophy, stemming from his need to draw Aristotle's influence back to Christ, filled volumes and stood as the easiest theory to understand and accept of how the world works. (Chesterton's image of the child at the window watching grass makes it simpler still.)

The same can be said of Chesterton's humorous to miraculous anecdotes attributed to St. Francis. These range from Francis' attempts to convert the Sultan of Damietta by throwing himself into fire, creating a snow angel substitute family to refute temptation, to receiving Stigmata (which Chesterton defends with stiletto-sharp apologia). Chesterton also shares part of Francis' relationship with St. Clare, from which formed one of three religious orders he'd inspire. After Francis' death, without his guidance, these would splinter into heresy before the Papacy wisely reigned its passions against what Chesterton referred to as "the staleness" of a new religion.

Benito Mussolini, who hijacked his country's proud religious and secular history to gain power, once said, "The history of saints is mainly the history of insane people." Chesterton's sketches of Thomas Aquinas and Francis of Assisi counter by saying both these sane, logical saints, mistaken by their times for poison, were medicine because they were antidotes. They stood and yet stand against changing 20th-21st century fashions and facelessness. Few Chesterton writings bring his enduring linguistic and logical gifts to such high yet focused purpose and proof. These books, economically and ideologically joined, make essential reading for followers of Chesterton, Catholic apologetics, and Christian history.

St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Francis make for quite a contrast--St. Thomas was one of the greatest brains of the Catholic Church, and St. Francis had one of the greatest hearts. Chesterton has a knack for putting ideas and people into the largest possible context with the least amount of details. These biographies, though short on specifics, put across the essence of each man's character and his impact on the world. Chesterton's writing style in both is more poetic than his essays and even some of his fiction.

"And for him [St. Thomas] the point is always that Man is not a balloon going up into the sky, nor a mole burrowing merely in the earth; but rather a thing like a tree, whose roots are fed from the earth, while its highest branches seem to rise almost to the stars."

"He [St. Francis] devoured fasting as a man devours food. He plunged after poverty as men have dug madly for gold. And it is precisely the positive and passionate quality of this part of his personality that is a challenge to the modern mind in the whole problem of the pursuit of pleasure."

Chesterton piles on insights like these on page after page. Chesterton paints a very personal picture--after reading these biographies, I felt as if I really knew who these men were, how they spoke, how they thought, how they might have talked to me.

One caution--these works may not be the best place to start. In my case, I didn't know much about St. Francis to begin with. Since Chesterton doesn't provide many historical details, some of his references (e.g., to his miracles and famous sayings), were hard to follow.

I discovered Chesterton about fifteen years ago and I have been continuing to discover him ever since. One can never get enough of this great man. Claimed by both liberals and conservatives, he defies modern categories just as he defies modern thought.
Along with C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, G. K. C. is a pillar of wonder and joy in an age of sarcasm and despair. A devout Christian, his generous thought is characterised by humility, humor and a sharp brilliance that both awakens and renews the mind.
This volume is a wonderful summary of Chesterton's vast library of work. I challenge anyone with a real interest in truth to read a selection from this book and not want to read more. One of the great things about Chesterton is that he wrote about everything and wrote well. His thinking is original and fresh, but also ancient and deep as the deepest streams of philosophy.
If you can read just one book by Chesterton (yes, I said it) read this one. This is the cheepest way to buy a Chesterton library. You will never be the same.
Enjoy!

There are two kinds of people, runs the old joke: those who divide everyone into two kinds of people, and those who don't. Belonging firmly to the first group, as regards the subject at hand, I hold that there are two kinds of people: those who have never read Chesterton, and those who want everyone else to. The problem for the first group is where to start. The problem for the second group is how to get them started. This book, I humbly suggest, meets both needs.

As usual, Regent has gone all out to produce a beautiful edition of a classic book, earning them high points on my list of best publishers. This one was originally a hardback from Eerdmans, published in 1985. There have been other Chesterton readers, so how does this one, edited by Robert Knille, the late avid fan and founder of the first eastern chapter of the Chesterton Society, hold up? Quite well on a few counts.

The problem for those in the second group compiling bits of Chestertonia for novices in the first group is to know how to group them. GKC wrote across the board; nearly everything piqued his interest, and nearly all he wrote displayed his sparkling wit, whimsy, and insight. Nearly all of it also contained some common sense idea at the heart, and nearly everyone from the first group who reads so much as a sentence, or even hears it quoted, at once dives headlong into the second group.

Chesterton collections really don't need any headings, and those supplied cannot help but be more sedate and boring than the lively bits below them. In that regard, this volume is no exception. There are three sections of poems, but nothing stops the reader from wildly reading them all together. The book starts off with selections from the autobiography, the last thing Chesterton wrote, not the first, published in 1936, a few months before his final farewell. This is one of the few collections to quote at all from the so- called Catholic books, which is to say, those published after 1922, or for that matter, to quote any Catholics. Most of the best- known non- fiction, including Orthodoxy, and the best known novels, including The Man Who Was Thursday and The Ball and the Cross, however, not to say the first Father Brown mysteries, were published long before that time.

One very helpful feature of the book is that each selection includes the source from which it is taken, which enables the interested reader to track down the books which catch his or her fancy. The selections range from a paragraph to a few pages, to an entire story, in the case of the Father Brown mysteries. Now that Ignatius has embarked on its publishing project, the Collected Chesterton, the lesser known titles are easier to obtain, and, for that reason, more widely read. But even those with well- thumbed GK books lining the library shelves will find this volume a valuable guide to finding (again) that zinger that lies buried in the stacks somewhere (who knows where), and which converted the reader, a former member of the first group, to a true believer.

GKC's poems are certainly beautiful, as language is capable of being (you know, rhyme and meter--the way each syllable feels in the mouth or on the ear), but what strikes me about them is not the mere sound or configuration of the words (although they indeed sound wonderful); rather, it is the powerful and often startling insights which they convey (Insight, I suppose, is what we have come to expect from Mr. Chesterton). I wholeheartedly commend this collection to you (particularly The Last Masquerade, A Certain Evening, and The Convert). Good luck finding a copy.

You must get this book, whether you are a Chesterton fan or simply a lover of poetry. Even if you don't like poetry, this gold mine may convert you. The power and beauty of some of Chesterton's poetry is unsurpassed, and even his lesser stuff is generally very good.

This book would be worth it for the Ballad of the White Horse alone; Charles Williams (whose opinions are not to be sniffed at) has said that the Ballad may possibly be the best war poetry since Homer, and that many passages are in fact better than portions of the Iliad. The characters are also very well-developed and memorable (I plan on naming one of my children Colan, if/when I have children).

This is, of course, a dificult volume to find; Amazon is definitely the best route, in my opinion. I spent [my money] to get a rather beat-up copy, and it has been my most satisfying online purchase ever. Do get this one.