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Father Brown #4
The Secret of Father Brown
Clerical detective Father Brown encounters mysteries that force him to put his deductive abilities to the test in this collection of eight short stories. From solving a murder that occurred at a theatre during the staging of a play to investigating the history of his niece’s fiancé, Father Brown is unwavering in his commitment to solve each and every crime.
The Secret of Father Brown is the second installment of G.K. Chesterton’s popular detective series.
HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.
The Secret of Father Brown is the second installment of G.K. Chesterton’s popular detective series.
HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.
224 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1927
About the author
G.K. Chesterton
3,922 books6,012 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 139 reviews
November 30, 2012
As I commented in my review of the best of collection, Father Brown: The Essential Tales, G.K. Chesterton was a writer of elegance and beauty. His work is so tightly written and plotted within each of his short stories that at times if you miss a single point you can find yourself missing some of the genius storytelling.
It is easy to see why the Father Brown Stories are Chesterton's most popular works in our modern times. They are absolute classics of the detective genre, written exquisitely with wit, charm and insight. Though written decades ago they still speak to the modern reader with intelligence and without patronisation.
It is clear to me that Chesterton is well suited to the short story format, perhaps slightly better than the novel. I've yet to read his plays, his poetry or criticism however this is my perspective so far. He keeps his short stories more-or-less to the point without meandering into philosophical tangents, which he does in his novel, The Man Who Was Thursday. It appears that G.K. Chesterton in his short stories instead uses the plot to share his philosophy rather than deviating. This works much better in my view as it gives a great insight into his ideology and thoughts without preaching irrelevantly or affecting the story quality. The other aspect of his short stories that works a lot better are that the lack the allegorical and fantasy elements of The Man Who Was Thursday all of which further makes them more accessible to the reader.
A good example of how Chesterton shares his philosophy through the plot is this:
"'There is a limit to human charity,' said Lady Outram, trembling all over.
'There is,' said Father Brown dryly; 'and that is the real difference between human charity and Christian charity. You must forgive me if I was not altogether crushed by your contempt for my uncharitableness today; or by the lectures you read me about pardon for every sinner. For it seems to me that you only pardon the sins you don't really think sinful. You only forgive criminals when they commit what you don't regard as crimes, but rather as conventions.'"
I personally find Chesterton to be a truly witty writer much like another man who made his living with writing - Oscar Wilde. The beginning of this collection opens with a short story (The Secret of Father Brown) discussing the methodology by which Father Brown solves all the crimes. To which the obvious answer is:
"'You see it was I who killed all those people.'
'What?' replied the other, in small voice out of a vast silence.*
'You see, I had murdered them all myself,' explained Father Brown patiently. 'So, of course, I knew how it was done.'
This story pauses to allow for the other stories in the collection room. It is suggested that they are being recalled to memory by Father Brown during this pause in the story. The story then closes at the end of the book as the reader looks at the secret of another key figure across the short stories (The Secret of Flambeau).
I fully recommend this collection. The Father Brown Stories are as relevant today as when they were published and, in my eyes, G.K. Chesterton is a must-read author. His work questions morality, theology, philosophy and analyses how extraordinary everyday life truly is. Not only that but he writes some incredible mystery stories in this volume with all the intricacy of a Sherlock Holmes' tale. In fact one of the interesting things I note is how Chesterton is able to write in such a way to detract from who the real criminal is in his stories. You guess one individual and often the real criminal may be less obvious than it appears.
*how poetic!
December 16, 2024
I dare say, God bless my soul! Or, Lord have mercy on me! What a pity to finish another series of Father Brown genuine detective tales. To some characters, he must be rather eccentric, but he isn't at all eccentric. He is only conventional. That's it. And facts will always support him, regardless if some possibly are stiffened with surprise on the manner he unfolds any criminal enigma.
April 29, 2022
«Βλέπετε, τους είχα δολοφονήσει όλους μόνος μου… Είχα σχεδιάσει κάθε ένα από τα εγκλήματα πολύ προσεκτικά. Είχα σκεφτεί πώς ακριβώς θα μπορούσε να γίνει μια τέτοια σκέψη και σε ποια κατάσταση θα μπορούσε πραγματικά να την κάνει ένας άντρας. Και όταν ήμουν σίγουρος ότι ένιωθα ακριβώς όπως ο ίδιος ο δολοφόνος, φυσικά ήξερα ποιος ήταν».
Πολύ ενδιαφέρουσες αστυνομικές ιστορίες με έντονη δόση καρυκευμάτων φιλοσοφίας, θεολογίας, υλισμού, ανθρώπινου ψυχισμού. Πνευματώδεις, έντονες, πολύ όμορφα γραμμένες μες την απλότητα που αποπνέουν,
με εξαιρετική πλοκή και τέλεια δομημένους χαρακτήρες ανάλογα με τις συνθήκες και τα βιώματα τους.
Ο Πατέρας Μπράουν πιστεύει στη δυνατότητα λύτρωσης για όλους όσοι συνειδητοποιούν ότι το έχουν ανάγκη.
Αν και μπορεί να έχει συμπόνια για τους εγκληματίες, δεν είναι ευγενικός με το έγκλημα. Ωστόσο, η πιο σκληρή του κρίση προορίζεται για άνετους υποκριτές και σκληρούς υλιστές, που δεν διαπράττουν όλοι εγκλήματα με τη νομική έννοια.
Θαύμασα την οξυδέρκεια και την απλότητα σκέψης του, χωρίς να δυσκολεύεται να διεισδύσει στα κατάβαθα της ανθρώπινης συνείδησης.
Για τον Πατέρα Μπράουν όλοι είμαστε ικανοί για το πιο απλό ή το πιο στυγερό έγκλημα και από αυτό είναι που χρειαζόμαστε λύτρωση.
Μπαίνοντας στο ρόλο του δολοφόνου, όταν γίνεσαι και ο ίδιος δολοφόνος για να μπορέσεις να αισθανθείς τις προσλαμβάνουσες και το σκεπτικό που απορρέει το κακό τότε κάνεις πνευματικές ασκήσεις, οι οποίες και θα διευκολύνουν στην αναγνώριση της αλήθειας.
Όλες οι ιστορίες που βρίσκονται μέσα στο
Μυστικό του πατήρ Μπράουν πάνε πολλά βήματα πιο μπροστά από μια αστυνομική έρευνα για την επίλυση του κακού.
Η ανθρώπινη ψυχοσύνθεση μπορεί να προγυμνάσει και δολοφόνους και άγιους.
Πράττοντας κάποιο έγκλημα δεν τοποθετείσαι αυτομάτως στο κατώτατο στρώμα απαξίωσης και αχρειότητας.
Ο ρηξικέλευθος Πατήρ Μπράουν κρίνει σκληρότερα αυτούς που αυτοπροσδιορίζονται ανώτεροι και άμεμπτοι με δικαίωμα να βάζουν ταμπέλες και να κατακρίνουν άλλους ανθρώπους με το χαρακτηρισμό του «εγκληματία».
Καλή ανάγνωση.
Πολλούς και σεμνούς ασπασμούς.
Πολύ ενδιαφέρουσες αστυνομικές ιστορίες με έντονη δόση καρυκευμάτων φιλοσοφίας, θεολογίας, υλισμού, ανθρώπινου ψυχισμού. Πνευματώδεις, έντονες, πολύ όμορφα γραμμένες μες την απλότητα που αποπνέουν,
με εξαιρετική πλοκή και τέλεια δομημένους χαρακτήρες ανάλογα με τις συνθήκες και τα βιώματα τους.
Ο Πατέρας Μπράουν πιστεύει στη δυνατότητα λύτρωσης για όλους όσοι συνειδητοποιούν ότι το έχουν ανάγκη.
Αν και μπορεί να έχει συμπόνια για τους εγκληματίες, δεν είναι ευγενικός με το έγκλημα. Ωστόσο, η πιο σκληρή του κρίση προορίζεται για άνετους υποκριτές και σκληρούς υλιστές, που δεν διαπράττουν όλοι εγκλήματα με τη νομική έννοια.
Θαύμασα την οξυδέρκεια και την απλότητα σκέψης του, χωρίς να δυσκολεύεται να διεισδύσει στα κατάβαθα της ανθρώπινης συνείδησης.
Για τον Πατέρα Μπράουν όλοι είμαστε ικανοί για το πιο απλό ή το πιο στυγερό έγκλημα και από αυτό είναι που χρειαζόμαστε λύτρωση.
Μπαίνοντας στο ρόλο του δολοφόνου, όταν γίνεσαι και ο ίδιος δολοφόνος για να μπορέσεις να αισθανθείς τις προσλαμβάνουσες και το σκεπτικό που απορρέει το κακό τότε κάνεις πνευματικές ασκήσεις, οι οποίες και θα διευκολύνουν στην αναγνώριση της αλήθειας.
Όλες οι ιστορίες που βρίσκονται μέσα στο
Μυστικό του πατήρ Μπράουν πάνε πολλά βήματα πιο μπροστά από μια αστυνομική έρευνα για την επίλυση του κακού.
Η ανθρώπινη ψυχοσύνθεση μπορεί να προγυμνάσει και δολοφόνους και άγιους.
Πράττοντας κάποιο έγκλημα δεν τοποθετείσαι αυτομάτως στο κατώτατο στρώμα απαξίωσης και αχρειότητας.
Ο ρηξικέλευθος Πατήρ Μπράουν κρίνει σκληρότερα αυτούς που αυτοπροσδιορίζονται ανώτεροι και άμεμπτοι με δικαίωμα να βάζουν ταμπέλες και να κατακρίνουν άλλους ανθρώπους με το χαρακτηρισμό του «εγκληματία».
Καλή ανάγνωση.
Πολλούς και σεμνούς ασπασμούς.
August 31, 2022
Ο Τσέστερτον και σε αυτές τις ιστορίες με τον πατέρα Μπράουν συνδυάζει πανέξυπνα whodunnit με οξυδερκείς παρατηρήσεις τόσο για τη διαδικασία εξιχνίασης ενός εγκλήματος, όσο και για την ανθρώπινη κατάσταση. Ταυτόχρονα, κατορθώνει να θεολογεί χωρίς να κάνει κήρυγμα, αφού η θεολογία του, καίτοι καθολικής πρόελευσης, είναι ουσιαστικά ανθρωποκεντρική και συγχωρετική. Κι όλα αυτά, με ένα υποδόρειο χιούμορ που υπονομεύει διαρκώς τη σοβαροφάνεια του είδους, φτάνοντας συχνά στην παρωδία του. Πολύ όμορφη έκδοση, με ενδιαφέρουσα μετάφραση και χρήσιμες επεξηγηματικές σημειώσεις.
Η εκτενέστερη κριτική μου στα Marginalia: https://marginalia.gr/arthro/to-mysti...
Η εκτενέστερη κριτική μου στα Marginalia: https://marginalia.gr/arthro/to-mysti...
February 15, 2014
I had thought that, after three volumes of short stories about that intrepid priest/detective, Father Brown, G K Chesterton would tire of his creation, with a resulting diminution in the quality of the stories. But, no, The Secret of Father Brown is as fresh as ever; and its author has instituted some interesting changes.
First of all, the stories are framed within a story in which an American writer comes to ask Father Brown about his "secret." The priest's answer startles him: "You see, it was I who killed all those people.... So, of course, I knew how it was done." He did not mean that he had literally committed the murders: Rather, he had looked deeply enough into the heart of man to understand how and why the crime was committed.
You see, Father Brown's interest in crime is actually an interest in sin, in the psyche and soul of the person who committed the crime. This is perhaps shown to best advantage in "The Vanishing of Vaudrey," though at least three of the other stories also develop this theme.
My favorite stories in the volume were "The Worst Crime in the World" and "The Chief Mourner of Marne," in which Brown manages to penetrate particularly resistant knots to arrive at paradoxical truths.
Although I call Father Brown a detective, he really wasn't one. In fact, he has no interest in apprehending the guilty party and seeing him or her standing in the dock to receive sentencing. Once he has determined who and why and what, he leaves the rest to the police. There is only one policeman in this volume, James Bagshaw in "The Mirror of the Magistrate," and he is no more than a secondary character who doesn't have a clue.
First of all, the stories are framed within a story in which an American writer comes to ask Father Brown about his "secret." The priest's answer startles him: "You see, it was I who killed all those people.... So, of course, I knew how it was done." He did not mean that he had literally committed the murders: Rather, he had looked deeply enough into the heart of man to understand how and why the crime was committed.
You see, Father Brown's interest in crime is actually an interest in sin, in the psyche and soul of the person who committed the crime. This is perhaps shown to best advantage in "The Vanishing of Vaudrey," though at least three of the other stories also develop this theme.
My favorite stories in the volume were "The Worst Crime in the World" and "The Chief Mourner of Marne," in which Brown manages to penetrate particularly resistant knots to arrive at paradoxical truths.
Although I call Father Brown a detective, he really wasn't one. In fact, he has no interest in apprehending the guilty party and seeing him or her standing in the dock to receive sentencing. Once he has determined who and why and what, he leaves the rest to the police. There is only one policeman in this volume, James Bagshaw in "The Mirror of the Magistrate," and he is no more than a secondary character who doesn't have a clue.
March 2, 2023
Free download available at Project Gutenberg
Although I am not a big fan of short-stories this book is a true exception.
I made the proofing of this book for Free Literature and Project Gutenberg will publish it.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
THE SECRET OF FATHER BROWN
1. THE MIRROR OF THE MAGISTRATE
2. THE MAN WITH TWO BEARDS
3. THE SONG OF THE FLYING FISH
4. THE ACTOR AND THE ALIBI
5. THE VANISHING OF VAUDREY
6. THE WORST CRIME IN THE WORLD
7. THE RED MOON OF MERU
8. THE CHIEF MOURNER OF MARNE
THE SECRET OF FLAMBEAU
Although I am not a big fan of short-stories this book is a true exception.
I made the proofing of this book for Free Literature and Project Gutenberg will publish it.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
THE SECRET OF FATHER BROWN
1. THE MIRROR OF THE MAGISTRATE
2. THE MAN WITH TWO BEARDS
3. THE SONG OF THE FLYING FISH
4. THE ACTOR AND THE ALIBI
5. THE VANISHING OF VAUDREY
6. THE WORST CRIME IN THE WORLD
7. THE RED MOON OF MERU
8. THE CHIEF MOURNER OF MARNE
THE SECRET OF FLAMBEAU
January 15, 2018
Picked this up at a railway station on the way home from the NSTB Awards... just looking for something to take me home to Cornwall. But what a little gem. Dated, certainly, but such clever little mysteries. My first Father Brown, but not my last.
November 7, 2023
It seems fitting that this slightly threadbare edition of yet another collection of Chesterton's stories, featuring the always wise, always patient Father Brown, comes with a blood-red background in its covers. The face of that fine actor Kenneth More, playing that affable priest and unlikely detective, gazes back at the reader but the colour behind him is indeed red, the hue of both blood and ignoble passions. "The Secret of Father Brown" marks the titular priest' return to his original vocation as a sleuth of errant souls and this means that the eight stories that fill up this volume are indeed more of mysteries of murders, thefts and strange disappearances, all committed out of the most ignoble and even disreputable passions. Most of the stories are truly sinister and even eerie, even as Chesterton enlivens the proceedings lightly, very lightly, with his trademark wit and imagination.
True to its title, however, this collection does reveal to the reader something of the secret of Brown's uncanny grasp of the darkness that lies coiled in the criminal heart or even the deviant mind. The prologue to the stories is set in rural Spain, at night, wherein the English priest, and his French friend Flambeau, once a dreaded criminal himself, try and convince the typically misguided American skeptic who wonders at how can he detect and deduce crime so accurately.
This comes as a remarkable difference from the usually accepted truism about Father Brown that his ability to fathom the depths of evil and vanity come from his being entrusted with people's confessions. With each subsequent collection of stories, Chesterton seemed to be pushing his own boundaries of thoughts, ideas and perceptions and if the last volume that I read this year plunged Father Brown into a series of incredulous incidents and crimes that nevertheless had very prosaic explanations for the same, these stories conform only lightly to the murder mystery genre; the writer's penchant for absurd imagination and Gothic surrealism is enjoyably evident in many of these eight stories where mysticism and metaphysical forces come to play and yet the truth that is revealed glitters like a bejewelled paradox.
To return to the colour red, however, many of these stories unfold against a landscape both nocturnal and macabre, even borrowing the elements of old castles and ruined houses. Chesterton keeps the suspense rattling, in the fashion of Arthur Conan Doyle and Wilkie Collins, doffing his hat at both these legends but also subverting their tropes with his own audacious, bizarre and even sensationally horrifying imagination to keep the readers always on tenterhooks.
A certain measure of Christian or rather Catholic morality is to be expected in Chesterton's fiction and yet always, the wonder is how deftly and dramatically he translates it into his stories, in such entertaining fashion, thus leaving an influence on C.S Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien - not to forget even that great Catholic agnostic novelist Graham Greene. The simple, unpretentious beauty of Chesterton's storytelling is how he pares down his own immense intelligence into a universally appealing sense of morality that makes Father Brown such an endearing hero to root for - a little, black-clad, stumpy figure with his hat and umbrella who represents, not just some Eternal Truth, but also the qualities of dignity, grace, wisdom and boundless empathy.
True to its title, however, this collection does reveal to the reader something of the secret of Brown's uncanny grasp of the darkness that lies coiled in the criminal heart or even the deviant mind. The prologue to the stories is set in rural Spain, at night, wherein the English priest, and his French friend Flambeau, once a dreaded criminal himself, try and convince the typically misguided American skeptic who wonders at how can he detect and deduce crime so accurately.
This comes as a remarkable difference from the usually accepted truism about Father Brown that his ability to fathom the depths of evil and vanity come from his being entrusted with people's confessions. With each subsequent collection of stories, Chesterton seemed to be pushing his own boundaries of thoughts, ideas and perceptions and if the last volume that I read this year plunged Father Brown into a series of incredulous incidents and crimes that nevertheless had very prosaic explanations for the same, these stories conform only lightly to the murder mystery genre; the writer's penchant for absurd imagination and Gothic surrealism is enjoyably evident in many of these eight stories where mysticism and metaphysical forces come to play and yet the truth that is revealed glitters like a bejewelled paradox.
To return to the colour red, however, many of these stories unfold against a landscape both nocturnal and macabre, even borrowing the elements of old castles and ruined houses. Chesterton keeps the suspense rattling, in the fashion of Arthur Conan Doyle and Wilkie Collins, doffing his hat at both these legends but also subverting their tropes with his own audacious, bizarre and even sensationally horrifying imagination to keep the readers always on tenterhooks.
A certain measure of Christian or rather Catholic morality is to be expected in Chesterton's fiction and yet always, the wonder is how deftly and dramatically he translates it into his stories, in such entertaining fashion, thus leaving an influence on C.S Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien - not to forget even that great Catholic agnostic novelist Graham Greene. The simple, unpretentious beauty of Chesterton's storytelling is how he pares down his own immense intelligence into a universally appealing sense of morality that makes Father Brown such an endearing hero to root for - a little, black-clad, stumpy figure with his hat and umbrella who represents, not just some Eternal Truth, but also the qualities of dignity, grace, wisdom and boundless empathy.
February 9, 2026
A new kind of fictional set-up for the stories. Generally, theya re more sophisticated and somewhat upside down from GKC's other Father Brown tales.
July 27, 2015
Desde que vi por primera vez la serie de televisión de la BBC The Father Brown o el Padre Brown, me cautivó y sus deducciones y su aura de bondad llenaron mi cabeza de nuevas ilusiones sobre otro detective más que se une a mi colección que tanto añoraba aumentar. Y por la gracia del señor tengo en mis manos el relato del Secreto del Padre Brown y otro más llamado La Cruz Azul en un libro que incluye un cd para escucharlo en ingles y les puede decir que me fascinaron. Un buen día vi el pequeño libro en un estante junto con otras obras clásicas y me lo llevé porque era finalmente el Padre Brown, cosa que nunca pensé ver en mi ciudad, era la edición de bolsillo con cd, bilingüe y que solo vienen dos relatos. Llegué a casa y lo terminé de leer y escuchar el cd en poco tiempo. Disfruté cada palabra, cada parte de la aventura en La Cruz Azul y su despliegue lógico en el Secreto del Padre Brown. Se los recomiendo, es una lectura ligera y muy nutritiva, seria y graciosa a la vez y su sencillez es tan preciosa como la más compleja de las novelas que alguna vez hayamos leído. Todo un deleite!
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August 31, 2022Κριτική του βιβλίου από τον Αντώνη Γαζάκη στα Marginalia: https://marginalia.gr/arthro/to-mysti...
December 15, 2024
3.45 stars. Another book of mostly enjoyable Father Brown stories.
My bookmarks:
My bookmarks:
“No man's really any good till he knows how bad he is, or might be…”
“People who complain are just jolly, human Christian nuisances; I don't mind them. But people who complain that they never complain are the devil.”
March 18, 2022
Μου άρεσε ο λιτός χαρακτήρας του ιερέα Μπράουν, αλλά οι ιστορίες γίνονταν όλο και πιο απίθανες καθώς προχωρούσε στο βιβλίο, κάτι που με χάλασε σε μεγάλο βαθμό και με έβγαλε από το όποιο θετικό κλίμα είχε δημιουργηθεί.
October 2, 2011
G.K. Chesterton’s tales of his humble little priest with “a harmless hobby of murder and robbery” continue to be a gentle joy. They certainly lack danger and suspense, and are probably best viewed from a kind of academic armchair detective’s perspective. There is no Sherlock Holmes adrenalin of charging out with the game afoot, but instead a sitting back and allowing a quiet and simple man to explain just what the game was and how it worked.
I don’t know how far the BBC show ‘Jonathan Creek’ has travelled around the world, but a number of these tales may almost have served as an inspiration for it. They share almost impossible mysteries which can only be solved in the most convoluted and unguessable manner by a man who looks at things differently to others, combined with a gentle view of Englishness and a caustic wit. David Renwick and Alan Davis often manage to squeeze more danger out of their work, but Chesterton’s sense of humour and keen intelligence is on display throughout and make these tales an always quietly enjoyable pleasure.
I don’t know how far the BBC show ‘Jonathan Creek’ has travelled around the world, but a number of these tales may almost have served as an inspiration for it. They share almost impossible mysteries which can only be solved in the most convoluted and unguessable manner by a man who looks at things differently to others, combined with a gentle view of Englishness and a caustic wit. David Renwick and Alan Davis often manage to squeeze more danger out of their work, but Chesterton’s sense of humour and keen intelligence is on display throughout and make these tales an always quietly enjoyable pleasure.
June 11, 2022
This is only my second Father Brown book I've read, but I can say this is for sure my favourite thus far! Per the usual format, it's a series of short mysteries, charmingly and beautifully told. The crimes are usually quite horrid and grim, but Chesterton spares us the grisly details and instead focuses on the people at the hearts of it all. And speaking of hearts...Chesterton does more than simply try and tell good stories - he attempts to examine the hearts of men and women and understand why they do what they do - what motivates us? There are definitely a few words and phrases used by Chesterton that dates him a bit, but all in all, this was a delight to read. The Secret of Father Brown indeed. This is a remarkably humane, compassionate book - and it sparkles with joy and dry wit. As I've said before, Chesterton's descriptions of scenes and setting - natural and unnatural alike - are beautifully put to page. And each story is pretty much perfect for a pre-bedtime read! The last chapter of this book was unexpected and hit me harder than I expected. The author is unflinching in his belief that there are both good and evil forces in this world, and that people themselves have both deep capacities for love as well as reservoirs of grimmest darkness. While this is not exactly always a popular opinion these days, I appreciate the fact that Chesterton is attempting to philosophically explore the depths of humanity in this shadowed world in which we live.
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July 22, 2025Take a shot every time Father Brown goes "heehoo, I'm a murderer" in this volume.
January 13, 2023
Some fatigue and flagging notable in my own perception of the storytelling — possibly a matter of saturation: too much, too quickly. Nonetheless, Chesterton's prose remains unparalleled in many respects. He was able to write so clearly, so interestingly, and with such apparent ease. It's fascinating.
March 23, 2020
My first, and probably last, Father Brown collection. I rather liked the unassuming, mystery-solving priest. But the stories got more and more improbable as I progressed through the book, until I had to force myself to keep reading.
I understand that this probably says more about me than about Chesterton's writing. These are classic old-school British mystery stories, after all, with clever thieves and murderers and a cleverer amateur detective. I just found the crimes and solutions more and more ridiculous from story to story. I won't reveal any spoilers by going into more detail.
So four stars for the admirable title character and two stars for the plots, for a generous average of three.
I understand that this probably says more about me than about Chesterton's writing. These are classic old-school British mystery stories, after all, with clever thieves and murderers and a cleverer amateur detective. I just found the crimes and solutions more and more ridiculous from story to story. I won't reveal any spoilers by going into more detail.
So four stars for the admirable title character and two stars for the plots, for a generous average of three.
April 25, 2020
Get your dead butt back here Chesterton. We need to talk about your racism. Based on the stories within your collection, you obviously know it's wrong and YET you say some of the most disgusting things I have heard uttered by someone not running around in their Mama's bedsheets. I HAVE WORDS AND FISTS FOR YOU!
February 22, 2025
This book takes concentration but it deserves your concentration! Chesterton doesn’t give any throw away details but weaves in clues with every detail so that the reader can be as much as a detective as Father Brown. Like C.S. Lewis, Chesterton uses playful narrative to communicate profound theological truths. This book truly is a study on the human nature and the truth behind the depths of grace and forgiveness. “No man’s really any good till he knows how bad he is, or might be; till he’s realized exactly how much right he has to all this snobbery, and sneering, talking about “criminals”, as if they were apes in a forest ten thousand miles away; till he’s got rid of all the dirty self-deception of talking about low types and deficient skulls; till he’s squeezed out of his soul the last drop of the oil of the Pharisees; till his only hope is somehow or other to have captured one criminal, and kept him safe and sane under his own hat” (13).
November 6, 2021
No seu penúltimo livro (dos escritos pelo seu criador), o padre Brown mostra-se em excelente forma. A sua intuição é saborosa, as suas leituras psicológicas são profundas, a sua visão do mundo é elaborada, e as suas invectivas morais são desafiantes e penetrantes. Chesterton exibe os melhores traços dos seus contos (e da sua ficção em geral), demonstrando (a quem pudesse duvidar) mestria na intriga policial, riqueza teológica e, claro, o sempre presente e brilhante uso de paradoxos e jogos entre opostos. Se os enredos deixam o padre Brown, de pleno direito, a comer à mesa de Poirot, Sherlock Holmes e companhia, a capacidade teórica de Chesterton dá-lhe uma densidade com que aqueles não podem sonhar. Enfim, não posso ser parcial, porque Chesterton tem demasiadas coisas de que gosto, e porque gosto demasiado das coisas que ele tem. Mas não duvido de que ele merece toda a minha parcialidade.
September 3, 2023
Father Brown stories are (unsurprisingly) like no other mysteries. I love them for the absolute profundity that Chesterton offers through his detective priest. Father Brown forces you to look at the thief and murderer within your own heart; it’s rather like the BCP says… “apart from your grace, there is no health in us.”
August 5, 2023
I really enjoyed this charming and funny collection of mystery stories. G.K. Chesterton has created a clever, witty, and humble character in Father Brown, and I would definitely read more of him. I also loved how the stories contained a little bit of the gospel message in them. I would recommend!
November 27, 2025
Such a good collection! Read this only after reading some of the earlier stories though. You should already be well acquainted with Flambeau to properly appreciate the vignettes that frame the book and give it its power as a collection.
November 23, 2017
The Father Brown stories... one either loves them or not. I do.
Found this article:
Lecture 52: The Secret of Father Brown
by DALE AHLQUIST
It is no secret that the character of Father Brown was inspired by Fr. John O’Connor. Chesterton was intrigued by the fact that most people do not take priests seriously, thinking them out of touch with the grime and crime of the real world. It never occurs to them that a man who hears confessions might have some insight into the dark recesses of the human soul.
Confession is about telling secrets, telling what we don’t want anyone to know. But these are not secrets to be kept. They must be gotten rid of. They must be forgotten. They must be absolved. There is only one way to do that.
This is the fourth of five collections of Father Brown stories. It was dedicated to that real priest who first enlightened Chesterton about the sacrament of Confession, and who was himself the inspiration for the character of the cleric who solved crimes. “To Father John O’Connor,” wrote Chesterton in the dedication, “whose truth is stranger than fiction, with a gratitude greater than the world.” It is a gratitude the whole world still shares.
This is perhaps the most intriguing set of Father Brown stories, as we meet “The Man with Two Beards,” and hear “The Song of the Flying Fish,” and discover “The Worst Crime in the World.” These are mysteries that look into the deepest mystery of the soul itself, exploring the nature of sin, of confession, of forgiveness. But besides that, they are rattling good yarns. In fact, the story that deals most extensively with confession is also the tale that has been called by one respected critic the best mystery story ever written: the Gothic-like “Chief Mourner of Marne.”
There is one other element that sets this collection apart. It includes a prelude and a postlude, a scene of Father Brown visiting Flambeau in later years. The former thief and former detective and former sidekick of the priest has married and retired to a mountain estate in the Spain. The two of them are being interviewed by an American reporter, who asks the questions we would like to ask, but doesn’t get the answers we expect. The answers, of course, are the stories themselves. Full of secrets. Full of surprises.
We learn that Father Brown has niece and that he is her guardian. We learn that he is very fond of strong Protestants because he knows they will tell the truth. We discover, perhaps not surprisingly, that one of his heroes is Pope Leo XIII. We find out, also not surprisingly, that he’s very partial to anything that is brown. But the most intriguing revelation of all is that somewhere in this collection – we won’t say where – Father Brown makes his own startling confession about how he solved the most puzzling murders: “You see, it was I who killed all those people.”
If that line does not startle you, perhaps you should check your pulse.
The priest’s methods are anything but modern, we might say anything but scientific. A criminologist attempts to get outside of the criminal and study him like a giant insect. Father Brown does just the opposite. He tries to get inside the criminal. “You may think a crime horrible because you could never commit it. I think it horrible because I could commit it.”
Understanding the motive for the crime is more important than understanding the mechanics. Understanding the motive means understanding sin. Sin destroys. It destroys from within. That is why it is horrible. It does its work in the dark. The wildest crimes, Father Brown tells us, are not the worst. It is the cold and calculated ones that are most horrifying, committed by the man who lives only for this world, who believes that his success and pleasure are the only important things, or even worse, who will do anything to save his respectability.
Most sin involves being small-minded. Forgiveness involves being large-minded, that is, generous. Father Brown points out that most of us pardon only those sins that we don’t think are sins. The priest does not have that comfortable option. But Father Brown’s great sympathy comes from never forgetting that he, too, is a sinner. “I don’t care for spiritual powers much myself. I’ve got much more sympathy with spiritual weaknesses.”
And yet before the forgiveness is the sad discovery of the sin. In one scene Chesterton describes his famous detective as wearily laying down his famous umbrella as a pilgrim might lay down his staff, and having “an air of some depression…It was not the depression of failure, but the depression of success.” Solving the crime is never a pleasure for the priest. But seeing sinners forgiven is always a joy for him.
We want the criminal caught and punished. Father Brown wants his soul to be saved. When one character protests to the priest: “But he is a convicted thief!” the little cleric gently reminds him that it was a convicted thief who is the only person “who has ever in this world heard that assurance: ‘This night shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.’”
https://www.chesterton.org/lecture-52/
Found this article:
Lecture 52: The Secret of Father Brown
by DALE AHLQUIST
It is no secret that the character of Father Brown was inspired by Fr. John O’Connor. Chesterton was intrigued by the fact that most people do not take priests seriously, thinking them out of touch with the grime and crime of the real world. It never occurs to them that a man who hears confessions might have some insight into the dark recesses of the human soul.
Confession is about telling secrets, telling what we don’t want anyone to know. But these are not secrets to be kept. They must be gotten rid of. They must be forgotten. They must be absolved. There is only one way to do that.
This is the fourth of five collections of Father Brown stories. It was dedicated to that real priest who first enlightened Chesterton about the sacrament of Confession, and who was himself the inspiration for the character of the cleric who solved crimes. “To Father John O’Connor,” wrote Chesterton in the dedication, “whose truth is stranger than fiction, with a gratitude greater than the world.” It is a gratitude the whole world still shares.
This is perhaps the most intriguing set of Father Brown stories, as we meet “The Man with Two Beards,” and hear “The Song of the Flying Fish,” and discover “The Worst Crime in the World.” These are mysteries that look into the deepest mystery of the soul itself, exploring the nature of sin, of confession, of forgiveness. But besides that, they are rattling good yarns. In fact, the story that deals most extensively with confession is also the tale that has been called by one respected critic the best mystery story ever written: the Gothic-like “Chief Mourner of Marne.”
There is one other element that sets this collection apart. It includes a prelude and a postlude, a scene of Father Brown visiting Flambeau in later years. The former thief and former detective and former sidekick of the priest has married and retired to a mountain estate in the Spain. The two of them are being interviewed by an American reporter, who asks the questions we would like to ask, but doesn’t get the answers we expect. The answers, of course, are the stories themselves. Full of secrets. Full of surprises.
We learn that Father Brown has niece and that he is her guardian. We learn that he is very fond of strong Protestants because he knows they will tell the truth. We discover, perhaps not surprisingly, that one of his heroes is Pope Leo XIII. We find out, also not surprisingly, that he’s very partial to anything that is brown. But the most intriguing revelation of all is that somewhere in this collection – we won’t say where – Father Brown makes his own startling confession about how he solved the most puzzling murders: “You see, it was I who killed all those people.”
If that line does not startle you, perhaps you should check your pulse.
The priest’s methods are anything but modern, we might say anything but scientific. A criminologist attempts to get outside of the criminal and study him like a giant insect. Father Brown does just the opposite. He tries to get inside the criminal. “You may think a crime horrible because you could never commit it. I think it horrible because I could commit it.”
Understanding the motive for the crime is more important than understanding the mechanics. Understanding the motive means understanding sin. Sin destroys. It destroys from within. That is why it is horrible. It does its work in the dark. The wildest crimes, Father Brown tells us, are not the worst. It is the cold and calculated ones that are most horrifying, committed by the man who lives only for this world, who believes that his success and pleasure are the only important things, or even worse, who will do anything to save his respectability.
Most sin involves being small-minded. Forgiveness involves being large-minded, that is, generous. Father Brown points out that most of us pardon only those sins that we don’t think are sins. The priest does not have that comfortable option. But Father Brown’s great sympathy comes from never forgetting that he, too, is a sinner. “I don’t care for spiritual powers much myself. I’ve got much more sympathy with spiritual weaknesses.”
And yet before the forgiveness is the sad discovery of the sin. In one scene Chesterton describes his famous detective as wearily laying down his famous umbrella as a pilgrim might lay down his staff, and having “an air of some depression…It was not the depression of failure, but the depression of success.” Solving the crime is never a pleasure for the priest. But seeing sinners forgiven is always a joy for him.
We want the criminal caught and punished. Father Brown wants his soul to be saved. When one character protests to the priest: “But he is a convicted thief!” the little cleric gently reminds him that it was a convicted thief who is the only person “who has ever in this world heard that assurance: ‘This night shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.’”
https://www.chesterton.org/lecture-52/
January 24, 2019
Der Pater sollte Mörder werden, er kennt sich schließlich aus.
July 7, 2020
3.5 stars
Some good stories in this collection.
Some good stories in this collection.
September 26, 2022
This suffers from ingrained racist language. If you can ignore that, it is one of the better Father Brown books. It is more story driven, then the previous books.
February 22, 2023
Ni las aventuras de Sherlock Holmes ni Agatha Christie logran alcanzar la profundidad de los misterios del Padre Brown. Y es que a diferencia de los anteriores, la suspicacia del rollizo sacerdote proviene desde un sustento no temporal.
July 13, 2023
I really find these Father Brown stories quite interesting
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