Showing results by author "G.K. Chesterton" in All Categories

G. K. Chesterton's surreal masterpiece is a psychological thriller that centers on seven anarchists in turn-of-the-century London who call themselves by the names of the days of the week. Chesterton explores the meanings of their disguised identities in what is a fascinating mystery and, ultimately, a spellbinding allegory.

In a London of the future, the drudgery of capitalism and bureaucracy have worn the human spirit down to the point where it can barely stand. When a pint-sized clerk named Auberon Quinn is randomly selected as head of state, he decides to turn London into a medieval carnival for his own amusement. One man, Adam Wayne, takes the new order of things seriously, organizing a Notting Hill army to fight invaders from other neighborhoods. At first his project baffles everyone, but eventually his dedication proves infectious, with delightful results.

While visiting his old friend Flambeau, Father Brown attempts to explain to an inquisitive American the 'secret' of his detective method, by means of eight stories of crime, murder, and obsession, including: a poet accused of the murder of a magistrate; stolen jewels and stolen fish; a theatre manager dead in a locked room; a mourner shut away in a castle; and the case of the worst crime in the world.

La solución, en las malas ficciones policíacas, es de orden material: una puerta secreta, una barba suplementaria. En las buenas, es de orden psicológico: una falacia, un hábito mental, una superstición. Ejemplo de las buenas y aun de las mejores es cualquier relato de Chesterton.

I have strung these things together on a slight enough thread, but as the things themselves are slight, it is possible that the thread (and the metaphor) may manage to hang together. These notes range over very variegated topics, and in many cases, were made at very different times.

In this classic of Christian apologetics, Chesterton lays out a sort of “spiritual autobiography”—how he personally came to believe. Chesterton considered it a companion book to his earlier work Heretics. Where Heretics was a collection of essays defending the Christian faith, Orthodoxy is Chesterton’s own story of how he came to believe that faith.

Read the best mystery and adventure short stories. Be it cozy, historical, detective or murder mystery stories; our collection includes them all: The Red-Headed League by Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle by Arthur Conan Doyle, The Arrow of Heaven by G. K. Chesterton, The Sign of the Broken Sword by G. K. Chesterton, The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe, The Master of Mystery by Jack London.

This essay is one in a series titled The Defendant, first published as a collection in 1901, after the individual essays were published in The Speaker. Here, a selection of these essays has been reissued by Voices of Today for a new generation.

Humility gets a bad rap these days, especially when contrasted with philosophies of egoism and self-assertion. But can we see the world as it really is without losing ourselves for a moment to take up the perspective of another?

This essay is from a series titled The Defendant, first published as a collection in 1901, after the individual essays were published in The Speaker. Here, a selection of these essays has been reissued by Voices of Today.

In the freezing English countryside, Father Brown leads Flambeau to the many monuments and shrines of the great General St. Claire. "Sacred to the Memory of General Sir Arthur St. Clare, Hero and Martyr, who Always Vanquished his Enemies and Always Spared Them, and Was Treacherously Slain by Them At Last. May God in Whom he Trusted both Reward and Revenge him." is the inscription that they read on each of them. Flambeau knows nothing of him but listens to the story of this man as Father Brown tells it. Was St. Claire truly a hero and martyr? What is the mystery behind his last foolish and ...

With G. K. C.’s characteristic wit, he explores in this essay the virtues of baby-worship, as adults are invited to see the world anew through the eyes of children. Furthermore, argues G. K. C., an appreciation of our youngest humans “forces us actually to remodel our conduct in accordance with this revolutionary theory of the marvellousness of all things.”

It is the day after Christmas. Colonel Adams and his daughter are throwing a party. The neighbor, the girl’s uncle, her godfather and the local priest Father Brown are invited. The uncle comes up with a plan: they are going to arrange a masquerade play with costumes. It seems like a very good idea, until the three diamonds the girl’s godfather had brought her as a gift disappeared from his pocket. Luckily Father Brown is there and he will try to solve this case as quickly as possible.

The Twelve True Fishermen are going on their annual dinner at an exclusive club where fifteen waiters are going to serve the guests. The fishermen are refined and insist on using their own ornate silver knives and forks, which are shaped like fish and have a pearl in the handles. The dinner goes as planned until the silver cutlery disappears. Have some of the waiters stolen it? Father Brown will find out. B. J. Harrison started his Classic Tales Podcast back in 2007, wanting to breathe new life into classic stories.

Father Brown, an amateur detective, takes up his first case ever. He has to find the infamous criminal Flambeau. The task is however very difficult because Flambeau is a master of disguise and nobody knows what he really looks like. The detective finds out that Flambeau is planning to head out to an international conference in London, most probably intending to steal some religious articles. So Father Brown decides to cross Flambeau’s path. What the detective had not expected is a police inspector from Paris to be crossing his path.

"The Man Who Knew Too Much" tells the story of Horne Fisher and the burden he had to carry throughout his whole life. He knew too much about politicians and aristocracy, about corruption and covered crimes. The prime minister of England was a friend of his father, the foreign minister married his sister. Without even intending to, he found out many things about the private life of politicians, which is very different from what is presented to the people. The question is, what is Fisher going to do with all this information? B. J.

Aristide Valentin holds a dinner party in his secret garden, which only has one main entrance. Many people are invited. Julius K. Brayne, one of Valentin’s rivals, is of the party as well. Everything goes as planned until one group of guests finds a beheaded corpse and the dinner turns into an investigation. Many questions begin to arise: How could someone be killed in a closed back garden without anyone noticing? Who is the victim? Who is the murderer? Where is the head? Find out the answers in "The Secret Garden". B. J.

"The Awful Reason of the Vicar's Visit" is a Story by G. K. Chesterton. First appeared in Harper's Weekly (May 28 & June 4, 1904) "Cherub" Swinburne is asked to investigate the mysterious assault on the Vicar of Chuntsey (in Essex). It is a mystery when a distressed reverend begins his tale of a monstrous outrage committed against him.

"The Eccentric Seclusion of the Old Lady" is a Story by G. K. Chesterton. First appeared in Harper's Weekly (July 9 & 16, 1904). Rupert Grant rescues a lady from her kidnappers but cannot understand why she refuses to be rescued. The answer leads to the final unveiling of the mystery of The Club of Queer Trades.

The Club of Queer Trades is a collection of stories by G. K. Chesterton first published in 1905. Each story in the collection is centered on a person who is making his living by some novel and extraordinary means (a "queer trade", using the word "queer" in the sense of "peculiar"). To gain admittance one must have invented a unique means of earning a living and the subsequent trade being the main source of income.