Bay Pond’un Paradoksları

by G.K. Chesterton, Çiçek Öztek (Translator)

Chesterton’ın 1936 yılındaki ölümünden hemen sonra yayımlanan Bay Pond’un Paradoksları, sekiz dedektiflik öyküsünden oluşuyor. Sıradan bir devlet memuru olan Bay Pond, başta dostları Yüzbaşı Gahagan ve Sir Hubert Wotton olmak üzere çevresindekileri çileden çıkaran paradokslarıyla, ilk bakışta anlamsız görünen çelişkili ifadeleriyle ünlüdür. Ne var ki “kafasında bir anlığına yüzeye çıkıp sonra dibe batan” bu “canavarlar” Bay Pond’a, karşılaştığı gizemli olayları çözecek müthiş bir sezgi gücü kazandırmıştır.

Sherlock Holmes’ta temsilini bulan İngiliz polisiye geleneğinin hem devamı hem de yöntemsel bir eleştirisi sayılan Bay Pond’un Paradoksları, hiciv ile akılcılığın çarpıcı bir bileşimi olarak dünya klasikleri arasında yerini almıştır.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Short Stories, Classics, Detective, Literature, Christianity

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1936

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

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing book! I enjoyed it almost more than Father Brown. Chesterton's style of writing is both captivating and literate, and this book in particular is worth reading and rereading several times. The character of Mr. Pond is entertaining, and all the supporting characters are very good too. I especially like "The Three Horsemen of Apocalypse" and "When Doctors Agree" Very good indeed!

[Ferda Nihat Koksoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chesterton sevdiğim önemli bir zeka ve bilgi küpü; keşke çok sevdiği marazi İngiliz kibrini abartmayıp, öykülerini, okuyucuya gereken tüm bilgileri vererek, tuhaf  atlamalara başvurmadan yazabilseydi.

***

"...bazen o eski, ihtişamlı hanedan armacılığı çağının, şu doğa tarihiyle, bukalemun ve böceklere tapınmayla birlikte gelen taklit renkler çağından daha zarif olduğunu düşünüyorum."

"Olay, Prusyalılara özgü aşırı itaatten kaynaklanıyordu gerçekte. Aynı zamanda, başka bir Prusyalı zaafından da kaynaklanıyordu: Küçümseme. İnsanları körleştiren, delirten ve yanlış yollara sevk eden tutkular arasında en kötüsü ve en soğuğudur küçümseme."

"Dublinliler hakkında, şeytanın da dinamitin de onların ezberden dize okumalarını engelleyemeyeceğini bilecek kadar bir şeyler biliyordu."

"Tek derdim onlarla birlikte yolculuk edebilmekti, bunun nedeni de liderin taktığı nişanlardı ve bu nişanlar kumpanyanın bir lorda ait olduğunu, lordun izin belgesini
ellerinde bulundurduklarını gösteriyordu; yani yakalanan kaçaklara ya da efendisiz adamlara olduğu gibi başıboş gezdikleri için boyundurukla teşhir edilmeyecek ya da kamçılanmayacaklardı. Bu cezalar, piskoposluklarından izin almadan bölgelerinden ayrılan papazlar için de geçerliydi."

"Şu mütevazı inananın düşlerini vahşice mahvettin, zayıf umutlarıyla da alay ettin. Öldürdüğün Haggis nasıl ki sana acımasız, insaniyetsiz göründüyse sen de bana öyle acımasız, insaniyetsiz görünüyorsun. Sen kendi yasalarına göre iyi bir insansın, fakat Haggis de kendi yasalarına göre iyi bir insandı. O, iyi şeyler yapıp ederek kurtuluşun geleceğine inanma numarası yapmıyordu; senin On Emir'e inanma numarası yaptığından daha çok değildi en azından. Bazı bireylere karşı iyiydi, fakat kalabalıklar onun yüzünden mustarip oldu; sense kalabalıklara karşı iyisin, fakat bir birey senin yüzünden mustarip oldu. Nihayetinde sen de sadece bir bireysin.
Günlerce ama günlerce, seni öldürmemek için kendimi zor tuttum, beni tutan şey sadece bu gece yerle bir ettiğin batıl inanışımdı. Konuşmalarınla günlerce seni ölümden kurtaran vicdan azaplarıma vurdun da vurdun. Sen ey bilge düşünür; sen ey temkinli mantık timsali; seni aptal! Bu gece hâlâ Tanrı'ya ve insan öldürmeyeceksin diyen emrine inanıyor olmam senin için daha iyi olurdu."

"Sizin şu İngiliz okullarının kasıntı stoacılığına benim de dahil edilmemi bekleyemezsin; ömürlerinin yarısını, basitçe, gösteriş yapmamak suretiyle gösteriş yaparak geçirir onlar."

"Ateş görüntüleri, tıpkı bulut görüntüleri gibi, tamı tamına hayal gücünü tamamlamaya davet edecek kadar eksiktir."

"Fransa'nın bütün modern savaşlar ve devrimler arasında kaybolmuş monarşinin yerine temsili demokrasiye dayalı cumhuriyetle yönetilen pek çok modern devletten biri olduğunu söylemek yeterli olur. Diğer pek çok benzeri gibi, siyasi eşitliğin kurulmasıyla birlikte, tüm dünya iktisadi eşitlik yüzünden derinden altüst olmuşken, başındaki bütün belaların bitmediğini gören bir devletti."

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume consists of eight well-written humorous mysteries - which can be characterized as ingenious, light, escapist fiction, the opposite of thrillers. I was reminded of the Jeeves stories (that I read long ago as a child) given the correctness and gentility of the characters and the mild disparagement of anyone or anything not British, really the final echo of a (non-ironic) sense of British superiority in the waning days of Empire, given that the stories were written just before the Second World War and the subsequent British Empire decolonization.

Even so the stories are charming - mostly consist of conversations in which the three main characters (the obscure government functionary Pond, his colleague Sir Hubert Wotton, and the dashing young Irishman Captain Gahagan) recount stories, in which mysteries are solved through logical deduction, etc. I can see why the author was popular - since he's a fantastically precise and deliciously understated humorous writer, such that his prose transports you to the genteel world of Victorian palm-filled tea rooms, etc. It's great escapist fiction - entertaining, soothing and so forth.

The following quotes may give you an idea of the author's finely polished style:

From "The Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse:"

"[Pond describing the Prussian Marshal Von Grock:] He did not scoff at visions; he only hated them. He knew that a poet or a prophet could be as dangerous as an army."

"[Grock to Lieutenant Von Hocheimer:] ...we must all save His Highness. Is it not enough for our kings that they should be our gods? Is it not enough for them to be served and saved?"

"[Grock:] I care nothing for the world... beyond the last black and white post of the Fatherland."

"The world is changed," said Grock, "not by what is said, or what is blamed or praised, but by what is done."

From "The Crime of Captain Gahagan:"

"[Pond:] Love never needs time. But Friendship always needs time. More and more and more time..."

"...Love is like that. It is a thing of great moments; and it lives on the memory of moments. Perhaps it is a fragile illusion; perhaps, on the other hand, it is eternal and beyond time."

From "When Doctors Agree:"

"[Pond to Gahagan:] "...agreement can be rather risky, unless it's agreement with the truth."

From "Pond the Pantaloon:"

"[Gahagan:] You can't expect me to be taken in, mind you, by most of your swagger of stoicism in the English public-school man. Half the time they are simply showing off by not showing off. But in Pond it's genuine."

"[Wotton's story:] ...there was at one time under the surface, but very near to the surface, a conspiracy aiming at a coup d'etat, which was backed by a Continental Power of similar leanings."

"[Pond:] There's a much more elaborate gangster organization working against us already than most people have any notion of..."

"[Pond:] I sometimes wonder whether things weren't better when pictures meant the pictures in the fire, instead of the pictures on the film."

"The fire pictures, like the cloud pictures," went on Mr. Pond, "are just incomplete enough to call out the imagination to complete them."

"[When the shabby stranger, the Clown, walks in:] It seemed to Wotton that he himself had his first real glimpse of those depths in which despair manufactures the many revolutionary movements which it had been his duty to combat..."

From "The Unmentionable Man:"

"[Pond:] Like many such [modern States], it did not find all its troubles were over with the establishment of political equality [that is, a Republic]; in face of a world deeply disturbed about economic equality."

"[Marcus:] I can't see how the Republic can reconcile it with its liberal principles to suppress newspapers. But they're going to suppress that newspaper."

"[M. Louis:] And do you think ... that all the wheels of your sort of progress have ever done anything yet but grind the faces of the poor?"

"[Pond to Marcus:] Republics might be alright if Republicans were as honourable as you are; but you have confessed that they are not ..."

"[Pond:] You will of course recall the meaning of the word ostracism. It meant that in ancient Athens a man was sometimes exiled merely for being important; and the votes were recorded by oyster -shells. In this case he should have been exiled for being important; but he was so very important that nobody could be told of his importance."

From "The Ring of Lovers:"

"[Pond:] Life is artistic in parts, but not as a whole; it's like broken bits of different works of art."

"[Pond:] Once assume the wrong beginning, and you'll not only give the wrong answer but you ask the wrong question."

"[Gahagan:] How many men have sold their souls to be admired by fools?"

"[Gahagan:] I was the new hypocrite; but mine was the homage that virtue pays to vice."

[Matt Sautman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Called by some as the worst book that G.K. Chesterton has ever written, I cannot help but disagree wholly. Mr. Pond is incredibly charming, an occupant living in a world that does not always take him as seriously as they they should. This collection of short stories regarding this titular government employee and his tendency to speak within paradoxes illustrates the Wittegensteinan notion that the meaning of the speaker is not always immediately grasped by the person listening to the story. As the result, the reader gets treated to such humorous gems as "Naturally, having no legs, he came first in the foot race." This wit alone places this short volume high upon my list. The social commentaries regarding War, Nostalgia, and Culture are equally as stimulating.

[Emilio Gonzalez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Para los que disfrutamos de Chesterton este libro no defrauda. Son ocho cuentos en los que el protagonista, Mr Pond, resuelva con la sencillez, inocencia e ingenio a que nos tiene acostumbrados Chesterton un caso donde el centro del problema pasa por alguna paradoja planteada desde el comienzo del cuento. Borges decía del cuento que abre el libro que "no es menos arduo y elegante que un severo problema de ajedrez.." y no le falto razón.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wotton looked at him with a smoldering suspicion, but finally decided, with a sigh of relief, that it was only metaphysics.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chesterton paints word pictures that are kind of like an Arthur Rackham illustration - realistic, distorted and ethereal whimsy. He takes ordinary images and pulls out the extraordinary, the humorous, the absurd, and the magical. And so it goes with the Paradoxes of Mr. Pond.

I did not find them so seductive as those in The Man Who Was Thursday, or the earlier tales in The Innocence of Father Brown. They were a bit more forced. The reason is the mechanism Chesterton chose to draw them all together: all begin with a paradox uttered by Mr. Pond, an unassuming and fish-like civil servant. Then his friends laugh at his ability to condense something deep into something so pithy and inexplicable. And then he explains it as though it's obvious. Probably of necessity - it's not an easy thing to keep up - some of the paradoxes or their explanations feel contrived. Of course, they *are* contrived, it's the *feeling* contrived that's problematic. Anyway, Chesterton still sprinkles lovely alliterations and descriptions of scenery and so forth throughout, which saves them even when they're most contrived...

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

This may be unfair of me, but the way Chesterton wrote mysteries always makes me think of someone insufferably smug telling stories about how amazing they are. The stories are all long winded and most are decidedly not fair play mysteries (which would be fine if the framing didn’t feel so smug - but it’s easy to be smarter than your audience if you don’t give them necessary information). Meh.

[Francisco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply delicious, in Chesterton's general tone. Great writing, very good stories (especially the three first ones) and tons of those witty sentences that make Chesterton one of the best writers ever existing in the Earth.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my favorite collection of Chesterton short stories, but brimming, nonetheless, with humor, wit, whimsy, and entertaining puzzles.

[FP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paradoja es definido como una idea que de un punto de vista lógico no tiene sentido. Es cuando uno dice que el reloj de alguien estaba tan a la hora que terminó llegando tarde, o que alguien es demasiado alto para ser visto. A Chesterton le encantaba este tipo de cosas. Requiere algo de ingenio el frasear las cosas de modo que suenen confusas cuando tienen una explicación sencilla.

Los cuentos aquí presentes tienen un formato estilo cuentos de detective: algún misterio ha sucedido, los personajes no saben bien qué puede ser, y luego viene el señor Pond y suelta una paradoja que lo explica todo. Como nadie más le entiende, él tiene que entrar a explicar la lógica del asunto. En otras palabras, el misterio no es sólo lo que ocurrió, sino también cómo la explicación del Sr. Pond tiene sentido. Todo es muy ‘detective de sofá’, pero tiene su gracia intelectual. También es divertido por el mero hecho de que la explicación sería bastante sencilla, pero el Sr. Pond tiene que decirla de un modo súper rebuscado, y después se queja de que otros no le entienden.

[Hendrik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zuerst muss ich mal die ausgesprochen schöne grafische Gestaltung der gebundenen Ausgabe hervorheben. Jede Seite erscheint in einem individuellen Look, feiner Leineneinband in einem extravaganten Schuber, fadengeheftete Seiten, also kurz um ein Traum für alle bibliophilen Leser.
Trotz der schönen Verpackung, konnte mich der Inhalt nicht völlig überzeugen. Die Geschichten sind durchweg recht humorig (wenn auch auf typisch englische Art), sowie von reichlich skurrilem Personal bevölkert. Aber der Aufbau der Erzählungen ist für meinen Geschmack etwas zu verworren geraten (was aber vermutlich vom Autor so beabsichtigt war - es geht hier schließlich um "Paradoxe" und "Überspanntheiten").

[Garrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond are almost his parables, and are a concentrated dose of Chesterton's famous addiction to irony, litotes and, well, paradox. The stories are written in his characteristic style, and while they flit between different narrative layers, they are easy to read, and a good thing to. The reader will find him or herself eagerly digesting the story to find the resolution to Mr. Pond's outrageous statement, which precedes every tale. Not as famous or clever as Father Brown, but another wonderful read from the brilliant, labyrinthian mind of GK.

[Michael Joosten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although, I suppose, technically a collection of mystery short stories, The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond don't quite read like detective stories. This is a negative, if you find yourself solving the paradox a bit before the characters do and you were expecting an Agatha Christie-level puzzle. But, if you aren't approaching it that way, if you are approaching it from the point of view of someone who enjoys Chesterton's unique perspective wherein paradoxes are the heart of his metaphysics, then it *is* a positive, and it is an entertaining read.

[Bettie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Posthumously published, Chesterton's last crime novels.

[Oscar Manuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Las paradojas de Chesterton son el efecto de darle a vuelta a una perogrullada como si fuera un calcetín... y viceversa.

[L.D. Stewart-Author · Rating 5 out of 5]

To begin this series with 'The Three Horsemen of Apocalypse' you could just stop there, it is so remarkable. G.K. Chesterson's view from his writing chair is truly like no other. You can sense Wilkie Collins admiration as a predecessor in the bravery of story play and see how Agatha Christie had to have been inspired by the levels achieved by these writing phenoms as a student of those greats who began these English mystery books. 'The Crime of Captain Gahagan' these are bold and thought-provoking stories. Worthy of a museum to ponder. I would say they are manly stories, with unnerving scenes, but that would not be fair to those who want to be challenged to think of goodness and those that challenge it. Chesterson always threads through his moral view of character and those that fall into pits without it in his stories. It is a fantastical book of stories that should not be labeled as 'shorts' because each one is a masterpiece of individuality and most often give great pause with their endings. Worthy of a reread.

[Daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for August 2025 Midwest Chesterton Society. Written 1935/possibly early 1936 - published posthumously in 1936. Hard to rate this - maybe even 4 1/2 to 5? What I liked most:
- Overall feeling of war looming & it seems like Chesterton thought the war would start in Poland/Eastern Europe. In the last story GKC specifically mentions Germany’s anti-Semitic laws.
- My favorite character is Captain Gahagan. I really enjoyed seeing his self realization & character growth in Ring of Lovers.
- Pond, Gahagan & Wotton reminded me a bit of Poirot, Hastings & Japp. And I think Pond possibly reminded me of another Christie character, but can’t put my finger on it.
- The references to Pantomime & Harlequin also reminded me a bit of Christie’s Mr. Harley Quin. Another tenuous connection is that Mr. HQ is a former government official & Mr. P is a current government official.

[Shandon Mullet]

The paradoxes of Father Bro—excuse me, of Mr. Pond—are not paradoxes where two fully seen truths stand in tension, but rather only seeming paradoxes; they are resolved when the truth of the mystery is fully seen. As such, they are not up to Chesterton's finest flights of prose; nor are they meant to be. This difference was, I believe, intentional. Regardless, these stories are all great fun, and though they are Chesterton's final mystery stories, it's not a bad note on which to go out. There's even some mention of the looming threat of World War 2, though Chesterton himself would not have known it, and the final story gives us a tantalizing hint of what he might have done with the spy mania that overtook fiction after in the coldness of the postwar.

[Abigail Drumm · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond much more than The Man Who Knew Too Much, the first collection of detective stories that I read by Chesterton. The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond has a greater consistency of characters, with more developed dynamics between the main trio, Mr. Pond and his friends Sir Henry Wotton and Captain Gahagan. The mysteries themselves were lacking, the solutions depending as they did largely on extrapolations, conjectures, and tortuous reasonings in which Mr. Pond has the utmost confidence and that the reader is given few to no hints to guess themselves. I admit here, though, that I am not familiar with the detective genre, and that Chesterton's structure may be standard, for all I know.

[Lisachan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Zero affinità con quest'opera, purtroppo XD Alcune delle storie le ho lette anche con piacere, specialmente quelle che vedevano come protagoniste le vicende del capitano Gahagan - probabilmente perché si trattava delle storie un po' più movimentate, in cui si trovava, effettivamente, una successione di eventi da seguire. Altre, più speculative, le ho trovate veramente noiose, quando non addirittura incomprensibili. All in all, un libretto faticoso, il che è ingiustificabile, considerata la sua brevità.

[Alexia Athanassiadou · Rating 2 out of 5]

Πολύ φλύαρο σε σημείο να ξεχνάς τι έχεις διαβάσει πριν. Υπήρχε μια ευφυΐα πίσω από τις ιστορίες αλλά 2 με 3 μόνο μου άρεσαν και τις κατάλαβα. Οι υπόλοιπες ήταν πολύ δυσνοητες για τα γούστα μου. Σε γενικές γραμμές δεν μου άρεσε και ήταν πολύ επιτηδευμένα για τα γούστα μου. Τα θέματα των ιστοριών επίσης ήταν πολύ αναχρονιστικα για εμένα όπως ο πόλεμος, η βασιλεία, ο γάμος, ο ρατσισμός. Πολυ παλιακο αλλά με άσχημο τρόπο.

[dilara 🍒 · Rating 1 out of 5]

yani ne diyebilirim bilemiyorum ama bu aralar bana gore kotu olan bircok kitabi ust uste okudugumdan artik tahammul seviyem azaldi. ben zaten puanlari genel olarak dusuk biriyim ama bunlar cidden hic benlik kitaplar degil.

acikcasi daha onceleri cok severek okudugum dedektif, polisiye turu kitaplari su an direkt elimin tersiyle itiyorum. su anki okuma zevkimle taban tabana zitlar cunku. bu sebeple bu kitabi da sevmedigim kitaplar kategorisinde yerine ugurluyorum. bu turu sevenler belki de begenebilirler.

[Germán · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simpática colección de pequeñas historias detectivescas bien escritas e ingeniosas (si bien en alguna es posible olerse la solución). Sin embargo, quizás por el carácter episódico del libro, no me ha llegado a enganchar. Probablemente merece algo más de 3/5, pero personalmente me ha parecido un poco como si le faltase algo.

[Dee · Rating 2 out of 5]

You will really enjoy the stories in this book IF IF IF you can make it to the end. I really disliked Chesterton's writing style, it's extremely long-winded with paragraphs that run for entire pages. I wouldn't read Chesterton again I think.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chesterton really can turn a phrase. These delightful mystery short stories all involve Mr Pond, who always carries a paradox in his pocket, such as “two men came to agree so completely that one of them killed the other”

[Yousuf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creative mysteries that rely on the ever humble paradoxical comments of Mr. Pond. The stores are imaginative -- my favorite being the Horsemen -- and contain fun tableaus in different themes; some hints of religious and social commentary with a cozy set of friends.

[Smallllama · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great but inconsistent. My favorite short story of all time, "Ring of Lovers," is in this book.

[Nina Ive · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only read the three horseman as I couldnt find a listing for it by itself as a short story. was interesting.

[Ciccio · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only refer to the first story in the book. “The three horsemen of the apocalypse”.
Good story. Great title. Borges wrote that it’s elegance is comparable to a chess move.