Las muertes de los Pendragon

by G.K. Chesterton

FATHER BROWN was in no mood for adventures. He had lately fallen ill with over-work, and when he began to recover, his friend Flambeau had taken him on a cruise in a small yacht with Sir Cecil Fanshaw, a young Cornish squire and an enthusiast for Cornish coast scenery. But Brown was still rather weak; he was no very happy sailor; and though he was never of the sort that either grumbles or breaks down, his spirits did not rise above patience and civility. When the other two men praised the ragged violet sunset or the ragged volcanic crags, he agreed with them. When Flambeau pointed out a rock shaped like a dragon, he looked at it and thought it very like a dragon. When Fanshaw more excitedly indicated a rock that was like Merlin, he looked at it, and signified assent. When Flambeau asked whether this rocky gate of the twisted river was not the gate of Fairyland, he said "Yes."

Genres: Short Stories, Mystery, Crime, Audiobook, Fiction, Classics

94 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Gilbert 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.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

From BBC Radio 4 Extra:
1/6: Mystery afloat as a Cornish family's curse starts to unravel. Who will come into his rightful inheritance - and will Father Brown be in time to avert a tragedy?

2/6: An American millionaire safe in his fortress, death threats, a murky past and a bolt from the blue. Father Brown, on his first visit to the United States, unravels the mystery and exposes thereby a mire of hypocrisy.

3/6: A suspect is locked away, but has a prison governor got the right man? Can Father Brown discover the answer as he makes his way across America?

4/6: What do an itinerant gambler, an English lady, a steward, a vicar and a professor have in common? And who has the right to it?

5/6: A theatrical murder amid much back-stabbing is announced in the Chop-House. Father Brown finds himself in the midst of a School for Scandal.

GK Chesterton's stories of an amateur clerical sleuth with an uncanny understanding of the criminal mind at work.

Stars Andrew Sachs as Father Brown, Olivier Pierre as Flambeau, Edward Kelsey as the Admiral and Brian Hewlett as Sir Cecil Fanshaw.

Dramatised by John Scotney

Directed in Bristol by Alec Reid.

First broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 in 1986.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00f0sgw

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mystery afloat as a Cornish family's curse starts to unravel. Andrew Sachs stars as GK Chesterton's clerical sleuth.


Categories:
Drama, Crime

[Pablo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Creo que hasta aquí llegó mi incursión en el Padre Brown

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Father Brown is on a boat, in Cornwall, with Flambert and Sir Cecil Fanshaw when they hear about the Pendragon curse. Can Father Brown stop the curse happening again.
An enjoyable story

[Rob Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ancestral Echoes

The Perishing of the Pendragons reads like a dimly lit ancestral hall, where family crests and old grievances cast long shadows over the present. I rated it three stars because Chesterton’s handling of legacy, pride, and hidden shame yields a brooding atmosphere that engages intellectually, even though the plot’s mechanics occasionally feel stiff. The novel excels when it turns the notion of inheritance inside out, showing how reputation and vanity can become the true source of peril; Chesterton’s voice delights in exposing the human pettiness beneath grand names. Yet the story’s machinery—its clues and their deployment—does not always produce the satisfying “click” you hope for in the best detective tales. Characters often act as embodiments of ideas, which amplifies theme but can make emotional involvement harder to sustain. A scene that lingers is Chesterton’s unmasking of the theater of pride: the way outward ceremonies and family rituals reveal inner hollowness. Read this when you want a mystery that privileges moral resonance and atmosphere over breathless plotting.

[Chanover55 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Father Brown, Flambeau are introduced to Admiral Pentdragon by an admirer named Fanshaw. The story of the family curse and an island estate cause some trouble for the three. What is really happening here?

[Mike Lisanke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm beginning to like this author's detective mystery stories Not because they allow the reader to involve themself in unraveling mysteries... but rather they are an ohmage to Father Brown and his sidekick and the good works they do Always (like Scooby Doo) running into another mystery to solve.

[Leo · Rating 4 out of 5]

El primer cuento estuvo bueno, los dos siguientes no tanto.

[Florence Witt · Rating 3 out of 5]

BBC radio dramatization >> https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b00...

[Luismi]

This edition of the 90s include another shortb stories: "The God of the Gongs" and "The salad of the colonel Cray"

[Rolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chesterton’s version of the classic gothic estate mystery. Pleasant enough.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

[Bob Wolniak · Rating 2 out of 5]

Everyone gets racially profiled and hosed in this one. Father Brown is sea sick over it.