What do you think?
Rate this book
Man Alive
Paperback
Published January 1, 2000
2 people are currently reading
69 people want to read
About the author
G.K. Chesterton
4,616 books5,905 followersGilbert Keith Chesterton was an English writer, philosopher, lay theologian, and literary and art critic.
He was educated at St. Paul’s, and went to art school at University College London. In 1900, he was asked to contribute a few magazine articles on art criticism, and went on to become one of the most prolific writers of all time. He wrote a hundred books, contributions to 200 more, hundreds of poems, including the epic Ballad of the White Horse, five plays, five novels, and some two hundred short stories, including a popular series featuring the priest-detective, Father Brown. In spite of his literary accomplishments, he considered himself primarily a journalist. He wrote over 4000 newspaper essays, including 30 years worth of weekly columns for the Illustrated London News, and 13 years of weekly columns for the Daily News. He also edited his own newspaper, G.K.’s Weekly.
Chesterton was equally at ease with literary and social criticism, history, politics, economics, philosophy, and theology.
He was educated at St. Paul’s, and went to art school at University College London. In 1900, he was asked to contribute a few magazine articles on art criticism, and went on to become one of the most prolific writers of all time. He wrote a hundred books, contributions to 200 more, hundreds of poems, including the epic Ballad of the White Horse, five plays, five novels, and some two hundred short stories, including a popular series featuring the priest-detective, Father Brown. In spite of his literary accomplishments, he considered himself primarily a journalist. He wrote over 4000 newspaper essays, including 30 years worth of weekly columns for the Illustrated London News, and 13 years of weekly columns for the Daily News. He also edited his own newspaper, G.K.’s Weekly.
Chesterton was equally at ease with literary and social criticism, history, politics, economics, philosophy, and theology.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 10, 2023
Great book! I found it amusing and enlightening.
August 14, 2025
First, the narrator of the audio book I listened to from Ignatius kind of ruined the experience. I would have been better off reading it or using a different reader.
This is a lovely introduction to Chesterton's writing through a fun, sweet, and surprisingly deep little mystery featuring quite the large cast of characters... but how many remains a question. Just who is Innocent Smith and what exactly has he done? That's what a tribunal sets out to determine. Is he villain or just a man? The stories surrounding him leaves you wondering what's happening like a light-hearted version of Kafka's Trial until the very end.
This is a lovely introduction to Chesterton's writing through a fun, sweet, and surprisingly deep little mystery featuring quite the large cast of characters... but how many remains a question. Just who is Innocent Smith and what exactly has he done? That's what a tribunal sets out to determine. Is he villain or just a man? The stories surrounding him leaves you wondering what's happening like a light-hearted version of Kafka's Trial until the very end.
October 19, 2025
This review will be somewhat biased, as G.K. Chesterton occupies the place of a hero and saint in my heart. Also, there will be no spoilers.
Protagonist Innocent Smith is an almost supernatural character, like Chesterton, who by his actions exposes the absurdity of cynicism, atheism, nihilism, and even paganism, in all those around him - not just showing their relative futility, but their objective wrongness (also like Chesterton).
Chesterton has a way of subverting the secular orthodoxy of his (and our) times with tradition. Here he lives up to his title as Prince of Paradox.
There are no pretensions of springing surprising plot twists upon the reader; rather, to make good reading, Chesterton need only rely on the revelations which come when modern pretensions meet the Truth. Therefore, I think that if one complains of a predictable plot point then the point is missed.
My only complaint is that I wish there were more pages, and more detail in places.
Protagonist Innocent Smith is an almost supernatural character, like Chesterton, who by his actions exposes the absurdity of cynicism, atheism, nihilism, and even paganism, in all those around him - not just showing their relative futility, but their objective wrongness (also like Chesterton).
Chesterton has a way of subverting the secular orthodoxy of his (and our) times with tradition. Here he lives up to his title as Prince of Paradox.
There are no pretensions of springing surprising plot twists upon the reader; rather, to make good reading, Chesterton need only rely on the revelations which come when modern pretensions meet the Truth. Therefore, I think that if one complains of a predictable plot point then the point is missed.
My only complaint is that I wish there were more pages, and more detail in places.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews