{"product_id":"man-who-was-thursday-book-g-k-chesterton-9781796416220","title":"The Man Who Was Thursday","description":". An extraordinary book, written as if the publisher had commissioned him to write something rather like \u003ci\u003eThe Pilgrim's Progress\u003c\/i\u003e in the style of \u003ci\u003eThe Pickwick Papers\u003c\/i\u003e.--Msgr. Ronald Knox\u003cbr\u003ePerhaps best known to the general public as creator of the Father Brown detective stories, G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was especially renowned for his wit, rhetorical brilliance and talent for ingenious and revealing paradox. Those qualities are richly abundant in the present volume, a hilarious, fast-paced tale about a club of anarchists in turn-of-the- century London.\u003cbr\u003eThe story begins when Gabriel Syme, a poet and member of a special group of philosophical policemen, attends a secret meeting of anarchists, whose leaders are named for the days of the week, and all of whom are sworn to destroy the world. Their chief is the mysterious Sunday--huge, boisterous, full of vitality, a wild personage who may be a Chestertonian vision of God or nature or both. When Syme, actually an undercover detective, is unexpectedly elected to fill a vacancy on the Anarchists' Central Council, the plot takes the first of many surprising twists and turns.\u003cbr\u003eThe poet\/sleuth is soon caught up in a deadly scheme to bomb a meeting in Paris of the Czar and the President of the French Republic. The story grows steadily more bizarre, at the same time serving as a vehicle for Chesterton's philosophical, political and religious speculations, cloaked in cheerful irreverence, and pointed wit: You've got that eternal idiotic idea that if anarchy came it would come from the poor. Why should it? The poor have been rebels, but they have never been anarchists; they have more interest than anyone else in there being some decent government. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.\u003cbr\u003eSuch perceptions, expressed with profound good humor, add a delightful dimension of interest to this inventive and readable allegorical puzzle. In Dover's inexpensive paperbound edition, completely reset in new type for easier reading, \u003ci\u003eThe Man Who Was Thursday \u003c\/i\u003ewill delight any reader who relishes clever plotting, delicious irony and rousing adventure in a novel in which.the wisdom flashes out in star-showers: (Baker and Packman, \u003ci\u003eA Guide to the Best Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e).","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49773843087633,"sku":"CIN1796416223VG","price":4.86,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1796416223.jpg?v=1750962522","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/man-who-was-thursday-book-g-k-chesterton-9781796416220","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}