Recommending G.K. Chesterton
From time to time readers like to know who the authors they read read. In my case, it is utterly transparent, since I make no influence to hide from whom I am stealing.
But in one case it is not, for some authors are inimitable. One such is G.K. Chesterton.
Allow me here to list my favorite of his works. What are you in the mood for?
Poetry?
- BALLAD OF THE WHITE HORSE http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Ballad_of_the_White_Horse
Religion?
- ORTHODOXY http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Orthodoxy
- THE EVERLASTING MAN http://wikilivres.info/wiki/The_Everlasting_Man
Intrigue?
- THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Was_Thursday
Mystery?
- THE INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Innocence_of_Father_Brown
Politics?
- EUGENICS AND OTHER EVILS http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Eugenics_and_other_Evils
History?
A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLAND? http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Short_History_of_England
Essays?
- WHATS WRONG WITH THE WORLD? http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/What%27s_Wrong_with_the_World
Biography?
- ST THOMAS AQUINAS THE DUMB OX http://wikilivres.info/wiki/St._Thomas_Aquinas:_The_Dumb_Ox
Science Fiction?
- THE NAPOLEON OF NOTTING HILL http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Napoleon_of_Notting_Hill
This last book yes indeed is science fiction, for it takes place in the far future year of 1984, but unlike every other science fiction book, it specifically derides the entire enterprise. The opening is priceless:
“THE human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children’s games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up. And one of the games to which it is most attached is called, “Keep to-morrow dark,” and which is also named (by the rustics in Shropshire, I have no doubt) “Cheat the Prophet.” The players listen very carefully and respectfully to all that the clever men have to say about what is to happen in the next generation. The players then wait until all the clever men are dead, and bury them nicely. They then go and do something else. That is all. For a race of simple tastes, however, it is great fun.”
It gets better from there. Because men of the future believe in evolution, they believe everything should be done by random natural selection and slow gradual change, so they still have the gaslamps and horse-drawn carriages of 1904, but they select their kings by random lottery. Unfortunately, the lot falls on a king whose wild sense of humor demands all the pomp and circumstances and local loyalties and loves of the Middle Ages — and all goes well until a mad genius takes the idea of loving his local neighborhood, in this case the unlovely New Jersey of the Old World, Notting Hill, entirely seriously.
If I had to pick just, I would say read the first story in INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN first, then read THE EVERLASTING MAN. By that point you will be aware whether his love of paradox and his vast and jovial wit are too your taste. But do not put him down until you have at least read the first two chapters of MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
