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I have an appalling hole in my literary experience. The only Chesterton I've ever read is The Man who was Thursday and assorted excerpts from his non-fiction writings. What's a good place to start? I'd like to check out both fiction and non-fiction. Is there a good anthology that would let me sample?
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I'm currently reading The Complete Father Brown Mysteries.
I'm going to start alternating with something else though, because the stories are a little monotonous one right after the other.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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I started with G. K. Chesterton's short biography of Aguinas, and moved on to read Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man. If you don't like theology (and there are such folks, but Chesterton is so stimulating you might change your mind), you should try The Man Who Was Thursday.
I love his wit, his passion, and his keen ability to cut through established pieties. Enjoy!
Posts: 42 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Definitely start with a Fr. Brown anthology of sorts for fiction...
For non fiction, I'd start with Orthodoxy. It's a very fast read and has some of his most amazing prose ever. Then St. Thomas Aquinas:The Dumb Ox and then, when you have a little time, The Everlasting Man because it's longer and more scholarly, but also because there are moments where you'll just want to put down the book and think about what he just said.
Heretics is fun because one of the first things he does (in Ch. 3, IIRC) is accuse Kipling of not being properly patriotic, which I thought was a hoot. He similarly hoists Shaw, Wells, and a host of other of his contemporaries on their own petards with his usual alacrity and wit.
But Thursday, Orthodoxy, Aquinas, and The Everlasting Man are the must reads.
Sorry I saw this so late.
Posts: 3846 | Registered: Apr 2004
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Oh... for collections, you might check with the American Chesterton Society, which, I am pretty sure, catalogs and sells a multivolume collected works.
Also, The Napoleon of Notting Hill inspired the real life Michael Collins, but I have not yet read it myself, so I can't speak to how good it is.
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I saw it. And I'll be using it, too. (Edit: Oh, yeah, thanks!)
I'll post when I finish the first one and share my thoughts.
quote:Also, The Napoleon of Notting Hill inspired the real life Michael Collins, but I have not yet read it myself, so I can't speak to how good it is.
I'll recommend this to my Dad - he's a big Michael Collins buff.
Including my favorite and most appropriate to hatrack:
quote:Reason is always a kind of brute force; those who appeal to the head rather than the heart, however pallid and polite, are necessarily men of violence. We speak of 'touching' a man's heart, but we can do nothing to his head but hit it.
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I didn't like Thursday; it didn't grip me at all. I liked his essays. I often thought they were completely wrong, but they were funny, and they put a new perspective on everything.
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Thursday is actually my favorite... how odd that people would have different tastes!
It's a very Romantic (in the sense of adventurous and, perhaps, naively imaginative) book and between the changes in meaning, police organizations, and technology since then, it probably lacks a good bit on the surface to a modern reader (for whom the word "Anarchist" conjures up images of Rage Against the Machine)... still, I was captive by the end of the first few pages and I imagine anyone would either be totally rapt or totally bored by the end of the first chapter.
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I got Orthodoxy, The Complete Father Brown Mysteries, and The Everlasting Man from my sister for Christmas. I've started with Orthodoxy, and I'm loving it.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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Dagonee, I have a "complete Chesterton" paperback with many essays by him. I'm trying to winnow down my stuff so I don't have to pack as much when I move -- email me your address, and it's yours.
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My mother asked me if I wanted Thursday Sunday, and I eagerly took it, because I've never read any Chesterton, and because Martin Gardner recommended it in a philosophy book.
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