Sixth book? I thought there were only five? At least, that’s all I have in my Complete Father Brown.
Supposedly, John Dickson Carr’s detective character Gideon Fell is also modeled after Chesterton.
The sixth one is so bad they wouldn’t even reprint it!
Sorry, just a memory glitch.
As a teenager, I loved the works of Jorge Luis Borges. Somewhere, I had read that Borges was a fan of Chesterton’s works, particularly some of the Father Brown mysteries (Borges probably read them in the original English; despite his modesty on the subject, his English comprehension was supposedly excellent.)
Anyway, based on Borges’ recommendation, I purchased a book of Father Brown mysteries, but then lost the book before I had a chance to read much (I’d left it on a train.)
So, fifteen years later, I will get back to Chesterton, thanks to you Dopers.
Just a comment on this book–I almost gave up on it because, for all of its plot twists, it seemed slapdash and superficial–a spy novel with no deep point. The last chapter blew me away–one book I’m very glad I didn’t give up on.
Just don’t start with The Man Who Knew Too Much --the sheer accumulation of ignorance, anti-semitism and racism still leaves a bad taste in my mouth, after almost 20 years.
I personally like the essays better than any of the fiction, although I disagree with pretty much all of his religious beliefs.
I’ve actively avoided anything about ANANSI BOYS too successfully to know whether it’s especially relevant to the events/characters introduced by Gaiman in AMERICAN GODS. If the two books have nothing to do with each other, it doesn’t really matter. But basing it on my tendency to read series/books in the order the writer writes/publishes them – I say AMERICAN GODS, then ANANSI BOYS.
I came across one of his essays when I was in high school that assured me that I could never be completely honest with what I wrote in my private journal. Even if I locked the doors and windows and secured absolute privacy and security, I still would censor myself.
Forty-five years have passed since I read that essay. Dammit! The man put a curse on me.
I started ploughing through Chesterton about six months ago and I love his books. The Man Who was Thursday was terrific, but The Club of Queer Trades is my favorite so far. His appeal lies in two things. First, he had the ability to question everything, and to look at all aspects of society from a skewed perspective. Second, he was a very careful wordsmith. He paid close attention to every paragraph he wrote, and so his books are uniformly entertaining. They never sag or slow down.
Notable quotes:
“The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice.”
“I sentence you to three years in jail under the firm, and solemn, and God-given conviction that what you truly deserve is three months at the seaside.”
"Carlyle said that men were mostly fools. Christianity, with a surer and more reverent realism, says that they are all fools. This doctrine is sometimes called the doctrine of original sin. It may also be described as the doctrine of the equality of men. "
“Of course I say that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction is the creation of the human mind, as is therefore congenial to it.”
“His life was happy, as is the life of most professional students, but it wasn’t what you would call exhilirating.”
“Thieves respect property. They only wish for the property to become theirs so that they may respect it more fully.”
I’ll add that he has a very enjoyable book of critical comments about Charles Dickens.
However, as others have noted, he was a devout Catholic and a rabid anti-semite, and that colors a lot of what he has to say.
There’s a good collection his of essays edited by Alberto Manguel, titled One Lying in Bed and Other Essays. It’s got selections from Heretics and Orthodoxy in it, as well as a lot of his literary essays. Good collection.
Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a coloured pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling.