Father Brown Stories by G K Chesterton

Father Brown Stories by G K Chesterton

This unique collection of Father Brown mysteries links tales by G.K. Chesterton with the Ten Commandments. The connection is often surprising, however, for the criminal is not necessarily the worst sinner in the story, nor is his crime necessarily the worst offense.

When Chesterton created the character of Father Brown, he brought a new dimension to mystery stories--the distinction between crime and sin. As the priest-detective applies his powers of observation to solve a case, he picks up clues about other offenses, such as those against the Sabbath or one's parents. Father Brown's main concern is not the laws of the State but the Commandments of God.

As Dorothy Sayers once wrote, G.K. Chesterton was the first man of our time to introduce the great name of God into a detective story . . . to enlarge the boundaries of the detective story by making it deal with death and real wickedness and real, that is to say, divine judgment.

This edition includes footnotes not available in other versions, which help to clarify the literary and historical allusions made by Father Brown. It is based on the texts of Chesterton's original editions, for assurance of authenticity, and is set in easily readable type.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born in London, England on the 29th of May, 1874. Though he considered himself a mere rollicking journalist, he was actually a prolific and gifted writer in virtually every area of literature. A man of strong opinions and enormously talented at defending them, his exuberant personality nevertheless allowed him to maintain warm friendships with people-such as George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells-with whom he vehemently disagreed.

Chesterton had no difficulty standing up for what he believed. He was one of the few journalists to oppose the Boer War. His 1922 Eugenics and Other Evils attacked what was at that time the most progressive of all ideas, the idea that the human race could and should breed a superior version of itself. In the Nazi experience, history demonstrated the wisdom of his once reactionary views.

His poetry runs the gamut from the comic 1908 On Running After One's Hat to dark and serious ballads. During the dark days of 1940, when Britain stood virtually alone against the armed might of Nazi Germany, these lines from his 1911 Ballad of the White Horse were often quoted:

I tell you naught for your comfort, Yea, naught for your desire, Save that the sky grows darker yet And the sea rises higher.

Though not written for a scholarly audience, his biographies of authors and historical figures like Charles Dickens and St. Francis of Assisi often contain brilliant insights into their subjects. His Father Brown mystery stories, written between 1911 and 1936, are still being read and adapted for television.

Heretics belongs to yet another area of literature at which Chesterton excelled. A fun-loving and gregarious man, he was nevertheless troubled in his adolescence by thoughts of suicide. In Christianity he found the answers to the dilemmas and paradoxes he saw in life. Other books in that same series include his 1908 Orthodoxy (written in response to attacks on this book) and his 1925 The Everlasting Man. Orthodoxy is also available as electronic text.

Chesterton died on the 14th of June, 1936 in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England. During his life he published 69 books and at least another ten based on his writings have been published after his death. Many of those books are still in print. Ignatius Press is systematically publishing his collected writings.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781853269288
ISBN 10	185326928X
Title	Father Brown Stories
Author	G K Chesterton
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Wordsworth Editions Ltd
Year published	1989-01-12
Number of pages	704
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.