The Selected Works of G.K. Chesterton

by G.K. Chesterton

G. K. Chesterton was born in London in 1874. He went to St Paul's School and then on to the Slade School of Art. In 1900, he was asked to write a few magazine articles on art criticism, and from that beginning went on to become not only one of the most prolific writers of all time but, in the opinion of some, the best writer of the twentieth century. Chesterton, an absent-minded, overgrown elf of a man, standing 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighing around 21 stone, was a well-known figure invariably to be seen in voluminous cape and crumpled hat, with tiny glasses pinched to the end of his nose and swordstick in hand. Despite a chaotic life-style this was the genius who wrote The Everlasting Man, a book which led a young atheist named C. S. Lewis to become a Christian; The Napoleon of Notting Hill, a novel which inspired Michael Collins to lead a movement for Irish Independence; an essay in the Illustrated London News that inspired Mahatma Gandhi to lead a movement to end British colonial rule in India. He wrote countless books, poems, plays, novels and short stories - most famously those about his creation, the priest-detective Father Brown. In 1909 Chesterton moved with his wife to Beaconsfield, at that time a village near to London, and in 1922 he converted to Catholicism. He died on 14 June 1936, at his home and is buried in the Beaconsfield Catholic Cemetery.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, 20th Century

1488 pages, Paperback

First published January 5, 1998

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

[Gene · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of GKC's fiction was very enjoyable summer reading. Except for a few stand-alone novels in the collection, most of the entries were short stories. It made for pleasant reading to just knock off one short story at a time. And the Father Brown mysteries never appeared so many times in a row that one would tire of them. Other writings were interspersed therein.

The favorite for me is still Manalive. It seems to encapsulate Chesterton's theme throughout which is that life is good and is to be lived to the fullest, regardless of the irritation it might cause those around us who are less vibrant. And the other main theme is the value of the lives of those around us and is best illustrated by Fr. Brown's way of related to everyone from children to athiests and pagans.

It was a very long collection of writings: 1482 pages of fairly small print. But I highly recommend it to those who like to read mysteries. My only recommendation for the collection would be that some other story than The Napoleon of Notting Hill be placed at the front of the collection because I can imagine some readers getting bogged down or confused by it and giving up the book earlier than they ought.

[Paolo Merolla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Explosive :))))

[Jordan Waverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chesterton is a favourite of mine.