‘Unless we are all mad, there is at the back of the most bewildering business a story: and if we are all mad, there is no such thing as madness. If I set a house on fire, it is quite true that I may illuminate many other people’s weaknesses as well as my own. It may be that the master of the house was burned because he was drunk; it may be that the mistress of the house was burned because she was stingy, and perished arguing about the expense of the fire-escape. It is, nevertheless, broadly true that they both were burned because I set fire to their house. That is the story of the thing. The mere facts of the story about the present European conflagration are quite as easy to tell.’ (Summary by Gilbert Keith Chesterton)

• Gutenberg e-text
• Wikipedia - G. K. Chesterton
• LibriVox’s The Appetite of Tyranny Internet Archive page
• Zip file of the entire book 61.2MB

The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton

For a book that’s only about a hundred pages long, “The Man Who Was Thursday” is pretty packed.

G.K. Chesterton’s classic novella tackles anarchy, social order, God, peace, war, religion, human nature, and a few dozen other weight concepts. And somehow he manages to mash it all together into a delightful satire, full of tongue-in-cheek commentary that is still relevant today.

As the book opens, Gabriel Symes is debating with a soapbox anarchist. The two men impress each other enough that the anarchist introduces Symes to a seven-man council of anarchists, all named after days of the week. In short order, they elect Symes their newest member — Thursday.

But they don’t know that he’s also been recruited by an anti-anarchy organization. And soon Symes finds out that he’s not the only person on the council who is not what he seems. There are other spies and double-agents, working for the same cause. But who — and what — is the jovial, powerful Mr. Sunday, the head of the organization?

Hot air balloons, elaborate disguises, duels and police chases — Chesterton certainly knew how to keep this novel interesting. Though written almost a century ago, “The Man Who Was Thursday” still feels very fresh. That’s partly because of Chesterton’s cheery writing… and partly because it’s such an intelligent book.

He doesn’t avoid some timeless topics that make some people squirm. Humanity (good and bad), anarchy, religion and its place in human nature, and creation versus destruction all get tackled here — disguised as a comic police investigation. And unlike most satires, it isn’t dated; the topics are reflections of humanity and religion, so they’re as relevant now as they were in 1908.

But the story isn’t pedantic or boring; Chesterton keeps things lively by having his characters act like real people, rather than mouthpieces. From Symes to the Colonel to the mysterious Sunday himself, they all have a sort of friendly, energetic quality. “We’re all spies! Come and have a drink!” one of the characters announces cheerfully near the end.

And of course, once the madcap police investigations are finished, there’s still a mystery. Who is Sunday? What are his goals? And for that matter, WHAT is Sunday — genius, force of nature, villain or god? The answer is a bit of a surprise, and as a reflection of Chesterton’s beliefs, it’s a delicate, intelligent piece of work.

“The Man Who Was Thursday” is a wacky little satire that will both amuse and educate you. Not bad for a book often subtitled “A Nightmare.”

The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton, Vol. 1: Heretics, Orthodoxy, the Blatchford Controversies (Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton) by G. K. Chesterton

This volume, the first in Ignatius Press’s _Collected Works_ of Chesterton series, contains what is probably G. K. Chesterton’s most famous work, _Orthodoxy_.

What many people do not know is that Orthodoxy was written only at the end of a long debate in the British press. Chesterton had been making a name for himself in English journalism for attacking the Spirit of the Age in turn-of-the-century England; his critics (rather justly) claimed that it was unfair for Chesterton to attack others’ beliefs without stating what he himself believed. _Orthodoxy_ was the result.

This volume allows the reader to trace the story from the beginning, in the so-called “Blatchford Controversies”, through the critique of Chesterton’s contemporaries in _Heretics_ to its culmination in _Orthodoxy_. _Orthodoxy_ is definitely the star of the volume, but there are treasures to be found in the other works as well. Knowing something about the figures mentioned in _Heretics_ does help, but is not strictly necessary, as their heresies are alas still with us.

In my opinion, this volume is the perfect entre into Chesterton’s thought, and would make a valuable edition for anyone concerned about clear thinking in regards to life, the universe, and everything.

A hundred years ago in England, religion was under attack for being an obsolescence, an obstruction to the realization of human potential, the province of the unenlightened.

Along came Chesterton, irrepressible optimist and genial adversary (foes GB Shaw and HG Wells were counted among his many friends) who masterfully - some would say dizzyingly - used paradox to stand the arguments of the anti-religious on their heads.

This particular volume of GKC’s invaluable work has much to recommend: 1) a collection of material that nicely encapsulates the controversy (HERETICS, wherein he points out the short-sightedness of his adversaries’ positions, the unmatched ORTHODOXY, which set forth his own philosophy, and BLATCHFORD, a resource containing the seeds of the foregoing two books), 2) a wonderful introduction by David Dooley that describes the context and milieu of post-Victorian England, and 3) a high-quality sewn soft-cloth binding.

The drawback to Chesterton is that, as a journalist, his work does have a noticeable connection with the time of its original publication (in this case, 1904-1908)*. What is striking is how glaringly relevant the underlying issues he addresses are to our own time.

Common Sense 101: Lessons from G.K. Chesterton by Dale Ahlquist

At six foot four, weighing in at 300 pounds, Chesterton was certainly the biggest writer of the Victorian/ Edwardian era. But why was he always laughing? “I suppose I enjoy myself more than other people because there’s such a lot of me having a good time.” If that doesn’t make you want to read this book, nothing will. But that’s only from the Introduction of this 300 page book, the tip, if you will, of the iceberg.

As with Ahlquist’s earlier book, The Apostle of Common Sense, this book is collected from TV shows that played on EWTN. However, the reaction I continually had when watching the first series on video was “Ah! Let me write that down!” The great thing about that book (and this one) is that it is written down. Not only that, the book ends with a biography of all the books by Chesterton, with brief and very helpful annotations (notes) on each book. Most of the Chesterton I’ve read I found out about either from Dale’s other book or his notes on books sent out by the American Chesterton Society, of which he is president.

In between these two bookends, as it were, I expected quotes from GKC, but it’s more than that, with our host providing what are likely slightly revised transcripts of the shows. So you get a cornucopia of Chesterton, with footnotes of where it came from so you can track down those books, but also Dale’s engaging writing. In my view, he is the Boswell if Chesterton is Johnson. It’s as if he were introducing us to a particularly zany uncle or grandfather who afterwards we can not wait to visit.

Rock savvy readers will place my title as a spoken aside from “Stairway to Heaven”, but this book gives the answer. “Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly,” quipped GKC. For all his poundage, so did he. Ahlquist invites us to that forgotten realm where easy laughter is part and parcel of common sense.

“This is not a book about Chesterton,” Ahlquist writes. “It is a book about everything else from a Chestertonian perspective. It is an attempt to get inside of him and inhabit him like a large house so that we can see the world through the windows he provides. . . Chesterton wrote about everything. An ocean of words poured out of his pen. . . It is deep, it is dangerous, it is delightful, it is refreshing, it is full of suprises, it is full of life” (9-10).

Dangerous and delightful indeed. In this unusually written but suprisingly well executed book, we see the genius of Chesterton at work on nearly every level. From poetry to capitalism to catholicism Alhquist extracts and applies the Chestertonian “essence” almost as if he were the man himself. He does this through substantial (but not overbearing) excerpts from Chesterton’s volumous writing and careful commentary.

Alhquist seemingly pulls off the impossible: He offers a comprehensive introduction to Chesterton, includes enough direct excerpts from Chesterton’s writing to effectively convey his wit and stytle, manages to apply his thinking to the present era, and does it all in under 300 pages. A remarkable feat.

Whether you come to Chesterton from his Father Brown fiction or from ‘Orthodoxy’ there is something for everyone here. I was repeatedly suprised by his timeless wisdom and grace. Of the half-dozen books I’ve read about Chesterton, Ahlquist’s is the most well-rounded and interesting.

Highly recommended.

Only downside to this book is you’ll fill it up with slips of paper to mark pages you want to show others. This was so good, I’m buying Ahlquist’s “G. K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense” next.

Update: This book has become my standard gift. Bought four copies so far and the feedback has been terrific. Somewhat suprised that all Catholics have not been exposed to Chesterton. This week a friend of my parents ,a devout (attends Mass weekly at least) southern Italian Catholic who was in the hospital, said of the gift “You’ve opened a whole new door for me.”

What she liked about Chesterton, she said, is he told her what she already knew, but in a clear, inspirational way.

Do believe if I gave Orthodoxy as a gift, it might be put on the shelf. Common Sense 101 is deep but a light. flowing read. I know those who read 101 will get Orthodoxy on their own. One lady, after finishing 101, subscribed to GK.

Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton

What’s Wrong With The World (Dodo Press) by G. K. Chesterton

Manalive by G. K. Chesterton

The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton, Volume 2 : The Everlasting Man, St. Francis of Assisi, St Thomas Aquinas by G. K. Chesterton

Man Who Was Thursday a Nightmare by G.K. Chesterton

The Autobiography of G.K. Chesterton by G. K. Chesterton and Randall Paine

The Everlasting Man by G. K. Chesterton and Gilbert K. Chesterton

Saint Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox by G.K. Chesterton

Heretics by G. K. Chesterton

Favorite Father Brown Stories (Dover Thrift Editions) by G. K. Chesterton

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.