Product Description
Chesterton states his purpose in Orthodoxy is to "attempt an explanation, not of whether the Christian faith can be believed, but of how he personally has come to believe it." Orthodoxy has become a classic of Christian apologetics.Amazon.com Review
If G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy: The Romance of Faithis, as he called it, a "slovenly autobiography," then we need moreslobs in the world. This quirky, slender book describes how Chestertoncame to view orthodox Catholic Christianity as the way to satisfy hispersonal emotional needs, in a way that would also allow him to livehappily in society. Chesterton argues that people in western societyneed a life of "practical romance, the combination of something thatis strange with something that is secure. We need so to view the worldas to combine an idea of wonder and an idea of welcome." Drawing onsuch figures as Fra Angelico, George Bernard Shaw, and St. Paul tomake his points, Chesterton argues that submission to ecclesiasticalauthority is the way to achieve a good and balanced life. The wholebook is written in a style that is as majestic and down-to-earth asC.S. Lewis at his best. The final chapter, called "Authority and theAdventurer," is especially persuasive. It's hard to imagine a readerwho will not close the book believing, at least for the moment, thatthe Church will make you free.--Michael Joseph Gross ... Read more

Customer Reviews (101)

excellent
Chesterton's slant on an idea is interesting since he said in his time people were not believing in sin so let's call it something else and look at it from that angle. I'm enchanted with his look at the history of the time even through it was very much written for the time and place, for instance it took me a few paragraphs to determine the meaning of "Hanwell". Does well for the mystery and delving deeper. Haven't completed the book as yet so I'll have to leave it at that.

C. S. Lewis source book
G. K. Chesterton is quoted by many including C. S. Lewis and Ravi Zacharias.This is the book that is the source of many of the quotes.It provides the thinking of G.K. Chesterton as he transitioned from being an agnostic (or even atheist)to embracing christian orthodoxy.He got to that point from reading the atheist writers and their objections to christianity.He uses logic to prove that logic alone cannot solve many theological issues!If you were placed in an asylum for being crazy, how could you prove that you were sane?

Pure Brilliance
This book is pure brilliance. I only recently came across Chesterton as something more than a name I had heard. This is the first book by him that I have read, and I have to express awe and great pleasure with it. Chesterton has this wonderfully peculiar way of presenting a successive argument (in a light, almost flippant manner) that gains strength and cogency as it unfolds. Peppered within his arguments are statements that may often seem zany and funny at first, but that with more thought and concentration grow strikingly and reveal themselves to be potent catalysts for challenging long-held assumptions. Chesterton in this book puts old truths in new perspective. He succeeds admirably, and somewhat paradoxically, at turning conventional wisdom on its head and yet strengthening the very idea of convention in the process. We're living today in an age of waning traditional influences kind of like the one in which this book was written. But I invite skeptics of tradition and religion to give this book a try. They might find that Oliver Wendell Holmes's statement - about a mind never regaining its original dimensions once stretched by a new idea - applies to much of this book in ways they might not expect...or find comfortable.

Great read - great author
Mr. Chesterton does it again.Great read with many insights and several surprises.I highly recommend for any Christian who seeks a higher understanding and unique insights.

A must read for anyone trying to understand the world today!
One of the most important books written, brilliant in scope and understanding of faith.

There are many better reviews here than I can write, I just wanted to add my 5 stars, if I could give it 10 I world! ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Criticism; Philosophy, Modern; English literature - 19th century - History and criticism; Fiction / Mystery ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Exceptional analysis of England's role in developing World War I
This book was written by Chesterton during World War I to show that the war was, in part, England's fault for supporting Prussia and allowing her to get away with almost anything.His purpose is summed up very well in the first chapter, which is a letter to Professor Whirlwind, a German/Prussian supporter and writer.Chesterton says:
"There is a very great deal that is really wrong with England, and it ought not to be forgotten even in the full blaze of your marvellous mistakes. I cannot have my countrymen tempted to those pleasures of intellectual pride which are the result of comparing themselves with you. The deep collapse and yawning chasm of your ineptitude leaves me upon a perilous spiritual elevation."

This then, is what he attempts to do:to show that England should not be smug and think themselves simply the defenders of humanity (though they may be that), but England should realize that they helped Prussia come to power, and they dealt poorly with the French Revolution and Napoleon, which let to some serious problems in Chesterton's day.Also, Chesterton blasts England for their poor treatment of the Irish, which were at the time involved in the home rule movement.

Why does Chesterton do all of this?He think it is patriotic.He said in an essay entitled A Defense of Patriotism (found in his first book of essays entitled The Defendant) that "love is not blind...love is vigilant."He thought, I think correctly, that if one really loves their country one will do what is best for it, not simply say it is the best.And sometimes what is best for it is to tell it that it has made mistakes, so that it will not make them again.Chesterton says near the end of the book that "I have passed the great part of my life in criticizing and condemning the existing rulers and institutions of my country:I think it is infinitely the most partiotic thing that a man can do."

This book gives an excellent glimpse into the situation in England during World War I, as well as an excellent view of what Chesterton considered patriotism to be.Of course, it is filled with witty and deep remarks, as all of Chesterton's works are.

Overall grade:A ... Read more

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A rogues gallery of heretics by G. K. Chesterton. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

And still undefeated . . .
Heretics is basically a collection of essays written in response to the worldview, socio-political philosophies, and/or religious stances of G.K. Chesterton's contemporaries (like George Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells).Chesterton enjoyed an ongoing and lively public debate with many of these fellows throughout his writing life.To that end, if you're a Chesterton-fan, you'll enjoy this as much as anything else you've probably read by the undefeated heavy champion of linguistic pugilism.If you're not a Chesterton fan (usually because you've yet to hear of the man), this is probably as good a place as any to start.Heretics is the book that sort of necessitated Orthodoxy; a more famous, much-beloved piece.
I would recommend this book for those interested in exploring the arena of worldview debate.It isn't a long book, at only about 150 pages.The essay are broken up into nice little chunks that you can read in a half-hour or so, spend some time mulling, and maybe read through again, if you'd like.I could attempt to describe the content of the essay's, but it would take way too long, and I'd fail to do it anywhere near as well the Big Man himself.

Heretics by G K Chesterton
Marcel Sahade
Barrister-at-Law
(Sydney NSW)

In "Heretics" G K Chesterton makes the point that to find an exceptional lawyer, one must find first an ordinary man.Chesterton's reasoning is impeccable:

"Whistler could produce art; and in so far he was a great man. But he could not forget art; and in so far he was only a man with the artistic temperament.There can be no stronger manifestation of the man who is a really great artist than the fact that he can dismiss the subject of art; that he can, upon due occasion, wish art at the bottom of the sea.Similarly, we should always be much more inclined to trust a solicitor who did not talk about conveyancing over the nuts and wine. What we really desire of any man conducting any business is that the full force of an ordinary man should be put into that particular study. We do not desire that the full force of that study should be put into an ordinary man.We do not in the least wish that our particular law-suit should pour its energy into our barrister's games with his children, or rides on his bicycle, or meditations on the morning star. But we do, as a matter of fact, desire that his games with his children, and his rides on his bicycle, and his meditations on the morning star should pour something of their energy into our law-suit. We do desire that if he has gained any especial lung development from the bicycle, or any bright and pleasing metaphors from the morning star, that they should be placed at our disposal in that particular forensic controversy. In a word, we are very glad that he is an ordinary man, since that may help him to be an exceptional lawyer."

How often the lay person is in search of an exceptional lawyer.The lay person would do better to search for a truly ordinary person with a practicing certificate.Those lawyers striving to be exceptional should strive first to be ordinary.Now that would be a socially desirable outcome.A Bar Association run by ordinary persons.

Marcel Sahade
Barrister-at-Law
(Sydney NSW)

Christianity Vol. 1
As he himself affirmed, Chesterton was criticized on numerous occasions for maintaining a seemingly irreverent or flippant tone and attitude while writing about subjects that inherently demand the utmost sincerity. To superficially read Heretics might be to understand the apparent validity of such criticism. On the surface it seems as if Chesterton could not have cared much less about the philosophies of the prominent individuals that he attacks as heretical throughout this work, let alone the vague conception of orthodoxy that he utilizes as a basis of comparison. However, these claims against Chesterton only appear valid until the reader ascertains that the author's wit, jocularity, and jovial nature are not to be confused with insincerity. The light touch that Chesterton applies to heavy though is not an indication of indifference, but rather a testament to the acuity of his mind and subtle genius. It might not, it seems, have been possible for Chesterton, or anyone, to have been more serious and sincere. Chesterton cared very much, and that is what sheds light on Heretics' almost impossibly simple truth.

In Heretics, Chesterton outlines the popular philosophies of his day which stood in opposition to not only logic but also that which the author maintained as truth. Amazingly, more than a century later, the same truth is still available and apparent to those who seek it while the same philosophies, although perhaps slightly altered, still stand in direct contradiction to what Chesterton understood to be unmistakable truth. What might be the greatest truth so easily recovered from the pages of Heretics, yet which remains so hidden from the view of the masses, is the incomplete substance, as opposed to the mere falsity, of many philosophies. Chesterton's work, however, was, as he admitted, left unfinished with regard to Heretics and later fulfilled with the publication of Orthodoxy. If Heretics presented a problem, Orthodoxy presented the solution. Both are timeless classics, and both should be read if an understanding of Christianity in relation to apparent philosophical and ideological truths is sought.

Truth?
I write this short summary because this book cries out for review. Why? Because we live in an age of conformity while we pretend to be free. We live in an age of indoctrination while we pretend to know. We are in the process of selecting a President while we are afraid to ask any real questions.
Chesterton was and remains one of the great literary heroes of our age. He stood above the crowd, both his own contemporaries and ours, and saw the deep answers to the deep questions. He stood for truth as truth has stood for the ages. He believed in the common man while the elites of his time condemned them to the indignities of patronage; and they still do today.
Chesterton wrote this book to challenge the "orthodoxies" of his time; materialism, socialism, militarism and racism. These are still with us in other forms. The book is still relevant and timely today.
In summary, this is a good read that will cause you to think, reflect and want to read more Chesterton. All to the good!
Enjoy!! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (5)

Sorry I waited so long
I've enjoyed CS Lewis for years and only recently became convinced that I should get some exposure to Chesterton.Like Lewis, CHesterton's writing is very British, and something of a struggle getting through some of it, but he has an excellent manner in putting thoughts forward in a well supported way, and very worthwhile if you are open to understanding his message.It is easy to see why he is so often pointed to by so many.Chesterton wrote for his time and takes to task many of the leading "enlightened" thinkers.His personal honesty in his writing style is very apparent, and his explanations are very clear and well developed.I found the brief auto-biographical background he provided in the book is to be particularly helpful.This is my first intro to Chesterton, and I look forward to reading more, however I believe that annotated versions would be very helpful in being able to appreciate many of the references, expressions, etc.

Chesterton on Orthodoxy
Definitely a book with British language and locations.Chesterton grants us a look at his journey from atheism to believer and has had a significant impact on others of like disbelief in the foundational Christian meaning for both life now and for eternal joy later.While his writing was for the past generation, it lives today in those whos hearts and minds it has impacted.

Poor Intro for a Classic
Chesterton is a classic, who deserves the best in terms of publication and commentary, including footnotes and a proper introduction.The Moody Classics printing has no footnotes, and the editors have chosen to use an introduction by Charles Colson, which does not do justice to Chesterton's prose or to his intellect and originality.The book is probably essential, certainly as much as any book can be said to be essential, especially for readers who want to consider and reconsider Christian faith and Christian culture, from the point of view of a brilliant, wonderously informed, careful and passionate Christian writer, whose love of God and men and women, and good writing, and decency and reason, and life and creation, is palpable on every page.

Orthodoxy
I'll be honest and say that a lot of Christian books I have read have been dull or void of passion.This book is neither.I have read a few G.K. Chesterton books and in my opinion this is my favorite of his.This book displays the wonder and mystical side of Christianity through Chesterton's eyes and can get very deep philosophically and also very witty.It has some big words yet most audiences will be able to comprehend what he is saying without getting lost.Its hard for me to clealy explain the whole synopsis but this is very good book and considering the price, you won't lose out by taking a chance and picking up a copy of your own.

C.S. Lewis with more wit and humor
Lewis is one of my all-time favorite authors and thinkers.So, when I read in his autobiography the impact that Chesterton had on him, I had to pick up a copy of one of his books.I chose this one, and what an introduction it was.It is a wonderful thing to find a new author that you enjoy so immensely.

As the title of my review intimates, Chesterton has all of the intelligence and keenness of mind of Lewis, but with the added bonus of a boundless, cheery sense of humor (not to say, of course, that Lewis does not have a good sense of humor in his own rights).If you read this book without smiling to yourself dozens of times, you are missing something.Chesterton's jabs at his contemporaries, as well as his predecessors, in philosophical thought are at once humorous and severe, all without the slightest hint of mean-spiritedness; a tribute to his sense of paradox.

My one complaint about this edition is the endless typographical errors contained in its pages.I find it appalling that a publishing house would send to print something with so many glaring errors.After the first couple, I thought it to be no big deal.But after the first ten I became a bit put off.If you can overlook the typos, then this edition will suit you just fine.And the errors can in no way detract from wealth of prose, candor, analogy, and humor found within this gem of a book. ... Read more

Product Description
The 100th Anniversary Edition of G. K. Chesterton's fantastic novel, "The Ball and the Cross." In this comical clash of cultures, a passionate Christian and a dogmatic atheist battle each other against the backdrop of an unbelieving and indifferent world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

One of the funniest books I have read!
One of the funniest books I have read!

I am only half way through the book and already is on my list to re-read.The story is old yet new.A Catholic believer and an atheist are trying to find a quite place to fight a dual, but the newspapers caught wind of it, and just as if it was today with the Internet, the two are over night sensations....

Brilliant point and counter point, will be loved by Christian or Atheist!

Can`t wait to get back to it!

A powerful book for atheists and believers, and very funny too!
A night out for two opposing persons: An atheist and a Catholic Believer.After trying to kill each others (without success), they begin to talk and discuss - an amazing dialogue that is just brilliant.

There are lots of breaks for humor, as they each try their luck in a bar to meet ladies, and find that they have some things in common.

But the intellectual arguments on metaphysics, God, the afterlife, the Church, are very powerful.Chesterton does credit to his atheist, and must be congratulated.

A powerful book for atheists and believers, and very funny too!

One of the funniest, most intelligent novels on Christianity and Atheism.
This is a hilarious story of how an unyielding Catholic who demands a duel with an ardent atheist -however they end up being forced to work together and play together. Chesterton systematically critiques popular delusions of educated thinking as the book unfolds. The atheist and the Catholic grow closer together through their duel, and realize that they understand each other better than the other characters understand either of them. Chesterton's wit is second to none and if you like C.S. Lewis, you will love this book.Now, even if you are an atheist and know that Chesterton is not going to let the atheist win by the end of the book, I can guarantee you will STILL love this book, it's very good, and I won't spoil the ending.

Chesterton at his best
Evan MacIan and James Turnbull. Once you have read this novel, they are part of you: their thoughts are yours; their blood flows through you. But it is not just the two incredible protagonists that stay with you for ever. Father Michael, Professor Lucifer (like it or not): you begin to see the world through all of their eyes, and your own sight is all the clearer for it. This is Chesterton at his best.

Whatever your doctrine, whatever your mind, your spiritual life will be transformed by this book. Chesterton's "Orthodoxy," while wonderful, can be quite inaccessible, as well as being often uninteresting to the non-Catholic mind. But in "The Ball and The Cross," Chesterton's views cannot help but reach you and transform you, whatever you believe. In MacIan's fervent and eloquent speeches on Christianity; in Turnbull's short and terse explanations of atheism; and especially in the old drunk beggar's words of wisdom, Chesterton brings eternal truths into his work with eloquence and style. This book is worth having and treasuring.

Religious and Philosophical Inquiry- and Whimsy Too.
The Ball and the Cross, (1906), G. K. Chesterton's second novel, both entertains and intellectually challenges the reader. Early in the story two diametrically opposed protagonists, Evan MacIan, a devout Catholic and James Turnbull, a passionate atheist, are interrupted by the secular authorities before they are able to carryout a traditional duel by swords.They escape with their swords, but become subjects of a countrywide manhunt and the center of media attention.

Chesterton's absurd plot thinly disguises a witty, profound, and provocative religious and philosophical inquiry, one that resonates with today's readers as well as it did with readers a century ago. (I suspect that not that much has really changed. In our contemporary context non-believers still distrust sincere believers, perhaps even more so given the growth in Moslem extremism, the Arab-Jewish conflict, and Christian activism in American politics.)

The duel is continually postponed due either to the untimely appearance of police, or to unexpected encounters with an eclectic mix of characters, all apparently allegorical representations of one type or another. As the story proceeds, we readers find that the two duelists are more alike than different, as they both hold firm beliefs, in contrast to the secular world around them which has largely embraced relativism and more passive religious convictions.

I suggest that you also visit the other reader reviews as they offer nsightful and interesting perspectives.Chesterton brings out the best in a reader. His stories encourage us, even prod us, to consider and reflect upon profound issues and matters - although he does so in a witty, amusing, even whimsical context. Perhaps Chesterton is saying that religious and philosophical inquiry is simply too serious not to enjoy. ... Read more

Product Description
From The Man Who Was Thursday "Moderate strength is shown in violence; supreme strength is shown in levity." "The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all." "There is your precious order, that lean, iron lamp, ugly and barren; and there is anarchy, rich, living, reproducing itself - there is anarchy, splendid in green and gold." "I don't often have the luck to have a dream like this. It is new to me for a nightmare to lead to a lobster. It is commonly the other way."Amazon.com Review
In an article published the day before his death, G.K. Chesterton calledThe Man Who Was Thursday "a very melodramatic sort of moonshine."Set in a phantasmagoric London where policemen are poets and anarchistscamouflage themselves as, well, anarchists, his 1907 novel offers up onehighly colored enigma after another. If that weren't enough, the authoralso throws in an elephant chase and a hot-air-balloon pursuit in which thepursuers suffer from "the persistent refusal of the balloon to follow theroads, and the still more persistent refusal of the cabmen to follow theballoon."

But Chesterton is also concerned with more serious questions of honor andtruth (and less serious ones, perhaps, of duels and dualism). Our hero isGabriel Syme, a policeman who cannot reveal that his fellow poet LucianGregory is an anarchist. In Chesterton's agile, antic hands, Syme is thevirtual embodiment of paradox:

He came of a family of cranks, in which all the oldest people had all thenewest notions. One of his uncles always walked about without a hat, andanother had made an unsuccessful attempt to walk about with a hat andnothing else. His father cultivated art and self-realization; his motherwent in for simplicity and hygiene. Hence the child, during his tendereryears, was wholly unacquainted with any drink between the extremes ofabsinthe and cocoa, of both of which he had a healthy dislike.... Beingsurrounded with every conceivable kind of revolt from infancy, Gabriel hadto revolt into something, so he revolted into the only thing left--sanity.

Customer Reviews (150)

Absolutely brilliant. Endlessly entertaining...
Chesterton may just become one of my favorite authors - even if this is the only work by him that I'll ever bother to read. Why? Because I don't want to encounter another work by him that may not live up to my impression of The Man Who Was Thursday.

This novel is a tremendous piece of literary writing.

I would lay down every possible memory from the book which I enjoyed or which intrigued me. But that would be long winding.

Suffice to say, Chesterton's wit is a sinister thing. It crops up at the most unexpected junctures and never fails to catch me by surprise.

(I don't really like pasting quotes `coz it eats up space, but in this instance I do believe proof is called for:

"Why is it," he asked vaguely, "that I think you are quite a decent fellow? Why do I positively like you, Gregory?" He paused a moment, and then added with a sort of fresh curiosity, "Is it because you are such an ass?"

---

"I'm a policeman deprived of the help of the police. You, my poor fellow, are an anarchist deprived of the help of that law and organisation which is so essential to anarchy. The one solitary difference is in your favour. You are not surrounded by inquisitive policemen; I am surrounded by inquisitive anarchists.")

In a sense, this is a madcap tale of how `the man who was [called] Thursday' pursues an anarchist group's leader, the terrifying and mysterious man called `Sunday' with the help of several other characters who help make the story more and more bizarre.

Chock-full of twists - sometimes benignly predictable and sometimes too ludicrous for words - this novel is a rare treat. Even the Catholic allegorical bent is hardly something that fazed me, cynical git that I am.

Chesterton's narrative is at turns lyrical and wistful, sharp and witty. It is optimism couched in pessimistic premise. Reconciliation and resolution without the formulaic happy ending. A tumble down the rabbit hole without ever seeing where the hole gaped open.

They do say that a classic is one that everyone knows but hardly anyone reads (or something like that). And I admit that I was skeptical about this before turning the first page. By the second chapter however, I knew that this little piece of writing is one that unequivocally demands to be read.

Was this published in a basement?
The book itself is great. This edition is terrible. Every aspect of it says amateur. The print and line spacing is way too small, making reading extremely tedious. No one wants to see that many words on a page. There are countless typos. The page numbers are enumerated in the bottom center. There is no writing on the spine, making it bad shelf material. The back is a promotion of the book, which is stylistically horrendous. Go for another publisher.

Mysteriious and entertaining
I liked this novel well enough, and would recommend it, but I nevertheless liked Chesterton's other masterpiece, The Napoleon of Notting Hill, better. This is a strange and mysterious story, with the battle against the anarchists being largely intellectual. I didn't understand the last chapter very well.

very interesting
Chesterton's tale is an interesting work which will make the intelligent reader question and think about the world we live in. Enjoyable!

Days of the Week
The first thing I want to say about Chesterton is that he was the first author in a long time that has had me look through a dictionary to determine the meaning of words.By Wednesday I got the drift of the story, although the denouement held a little surprise.Chesterton is an old master and it is difficult to be surprised by someone so often imitated, but as a wordsmith, his art is difficult to imitate.Defnitely worth reading. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (5)

The Man Who Knew Too Much
This was a wonderful series of short mystery stories.In an age when we have become accustomed to fanciful plot twists the purely logical solutions to these cases seem new and refreshing.This book is perfect for a short bit of reading on a stormy autumn night, or anytime for that matter.

Cynical patriot who knows too much...but isn't telling
If you think you're a cynic about politics (or more precisely, about politicians) you've got nothing on GK Chesterton. This is another of his episodic novels in which a series of short stories that stand alone end up making up one single story with the last one bringing all of the threads together and raising them to a climax and resolution.

The eponymous man who knew too much is Horne Fisher. And what he knows is all of the key people of the ruling class in England, the tawdry secrets of their personal lives, and the odd and indirect ways that these deform the laws, policies, and administration of justice in the realm. Hypocrisy and gentlemanly corruption are the air they breathe. He knows that most of what you read in the papers is nonsense. In his own words, he knows "everything that isn't worth knowing."

In these eight stories of mystery and crime, Fisher's peculiar knowledge allows him to discover who committed each crime and why. Often enough the criminal must go unpunished lest worse things follow. Sometimes the victim is in fact more guilty than the criminal. The other main character is an honest but naive reporter, Harold March, whom Fisher meets and befriends in the first story. March plays Dr. Watson to Fisher's Sherlock Holmes in all eight stories. Until the redemptive climax, Fisher is a sort of tragic figure, upright, honest and unwilling to participate in the wrongdoing, but also unwilling, seemingly unable, to expose his family and their plutocratic circle.

I doubt whether England was quite as rotten in 1922 as Chesterton believed. I'm quite sure that America in 2010 is not. But then perhaps that just makes me the man who knows too little.

One way or the other, this is a delightful book and highly recommended.

"I know too much.... and all the wrong things."
G.K. Chesterton was happy to do some spoofery of the deductive detective genre -- his detectives seemed to depend more on the knowledge of human nature. One good example is Horne Fisher, the star character who solves bizarre little mysteries because he "knows too much... and all the wrong things."

The first story opens with a reknowned book critic stumbling across a dead man with his head bashed on. Fortunately Fisher is fishing nearby, and is able to deduce who killed the poor man, when, and cleverly figures out the best (and most theatrical) way to get results.

In each story, Horne deals with another strange mystery -- the framing of an Irish "prince" freedom fighter, the vanishing of a priceless coin, a man killed off in the Middle East, an eccentric rich man dies during an obsessive fishing trip, another vanishes during an ice skate, a bizarre dispute over an estate, and most shockingly, a statue crushing his own uncle...

Chesterton was a good mystery writer. He could spin up bizarre little crimes (murder, theft, treachery) for a variety of colourful reasons, from the political to purely psychological. "The Man Who Knew Too Much" is a good example of that, and it shows Chesterton veering into more politically-charged territory than in his other mysteries, with the Irish-English conflict, spies and impending war.

But these mysteries also have Chesterton the philosopher/theologian/thinker. He writes in colourful, poetic prose ("as if the world were steeped in wine rather than blood"), and has brief moments where Horn muses on human nature.

"Patriotism is not the first virtue. Patriotism rots into Prussianism when you pretend it is the first virtue," he remarks at one point, as an example. Through him, Chestertongives us brief little insights into what he knows too much of -- a worldview remarkably simple, but very insightful.

"The Man Who Knew Too Much" is an odd kind of detective -- instead of the quirky detectives or deep thinkers, Horn is rather melancholy and plaintive, almost tormented by his own knowledge. This comes to a peak in the bittersweet final story, where Horne finds himself in a wretched situation, with shocking results.

"The Man Who Knew Too Much" is a solid collection of detective stories, but underlying the mysteries are Chesterton's deeper looks at human nature. Excellent reading.

GK Chesterton is great!
Man needs spiritual growth and Chesterton is the best to do this in a great style.

Similar to the Father Brown books
The Man Who Knew Too Much is a collection of eight short mystery stories which reminded me greatly of Chesterton's Father Brown stories, except these were not quite as good.I dislike mystery stories where the main character solves the mystery with the aid of a clue that the reader did not have access too.That was one of the reasons why I really like Chesterton's Father Brown mysteries, because if you pay close enough attention and think enough, you can come to the correct conclusion yourself before the answer is announced.Unfortunately, Chesterton does not write all of these stories in that way (though a few of the eight are), and it makes them not as much fun to read, though they are still very good.

In terms of content, Chesterton does a fabulous job of bring up moral issues (for example, do we tell the public the truth about murder if it will be harmful to the public?) in these mysteries, and they really make you think.As always, Chesterton has also intersperced the stories with witty yet deep phrases which also make you think, and if you are an underliner you will find many things to underline.

In conclusion, this is a good book, but if I were you, I'd read his Father Brown stories before I read these.

Overall grade:B+ ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Indispensible volume
You must get this book, whether you are a Chesterton fan or simply a lover of poetry.Even if you don't like poetry, this gold mine may convert you.The power and beauty of some of Chesterton's poetry is unsurpassed, and even his lesser stuff is generally very good.

This book would be worth itfor the Ballad of the White Horse alone; Charles Williams (whose opinionsare not to be sniffed at) has said that the Ballad may possibly be the bestwar poetry since Homer, and that many passages are in fact better thanportions of the Iliad.The characters are also very well-developed andmemorable (I plan on naming one of my children Colan, if/when I havechildren).

This is, of course, a dificult volume to find; Amazon isdefinitely the best route, in my opinion.I spent [my money] to get a ratherbeat-up copy, and it has been my most satisfying online purchase ever.Doget this one.

Gilbert Chesterton Was Really Quite a Talented Poet
GKC's poems are certainly beautiful, as language is capable of being (you know, rhyme and meter--the way each syllable feels in the mouth or on the ear), but what strikes me about them is not the mere sound or configurationof the words (although they indeed sound wonderful); rather, it is thepowerful and often startling insights which they convey (Insight, Isuppose, is what we have come to expect from Mr. Chesterton).Iwholeheartedly commend this collection to you (particularly The LastMasquerade, A Certain Evening, and The Convert).Good luck finding a copy. ... Read more

Product Description
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free.This is an OCR edition with typos.Excerpt from book:The Fallacy of Success © © ©rF"HERE has appeared in our time a particular class of books and articles which I sincerely and solemnly think may be called the silliest ever known among men. They are much more wild than the wildest romances of chivalry and much more dull than the dullest religious tract. Moreover, the romances of chivalry were at least about chivalry; the religious tracts are about religion. But these things are about nothing ; they are about what is called Success. On every bookstall, in every magazine, you may find works telling people how to succeed. They are books showing men how to succeed in everything; they are written by men who cannot even succeed in writing books. To begin with, of course, there is no such thing as Success. Or, if you like to put it so, there is nothing that is not successful. That a thing is successful merely means that it is; a millionaire is successful in being a millionaire and a donkey in being a donkey. Any live manhas succeeded in living; any dead man may have succeeded in committing suicide. But, passing over the bad logic and bad philosophy in the phrase, we may take it, as these writers do, in the ordinary sense of success in obtaining money or worldly position. These writers profess to tell the ordinary man how he may succeed in his trade or speculation—how, if he is a builder, he may succeed as a builder; how, if he is a stockbroker, he may succeed as a stockbroker. They profess to show him how, if he is a grocer, he may become a sporting yachtsman; how, if he is a tenth-rate journalist, he may become a peer; and how, if he is a German Jew, he may become an Anglo-Saxon. This is a definite and business-like proposal, and I really think that the people who buy these books (if any people do buy them) have a moral, if not a ... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Wonderful book!Lovely edition!
This book is a great collection of wonderful newspaper stories of Chesterton, and as reverent today as when written!Enjoy!

This book is perfect!
First, this book is in perfect shape - I think some reviews were of a different edition.

But more important, is this wonderful book!This is a collection of various newspaper columns by Chesterton - thus ``All Things Considered`` - what is also fascinating is the fact that while one expects the wit, charm, humor and intelligence to last the years, (and it does), the issues of the day, while different on the surface, are no different than those in Rome 2000 years ago, or the USA 100 years later, (today).

If you like Chesterton, you`ll love reading one of these columns each night!

This is a great book and PERFECT copy!
I bought this with out looking at the reviews (generally they liked the book and did not like the edition), anyway, I wanted to report back that somehow this has been fixed, as this edition is perfect in every way!Fell good to get it, and read GK's views on everything, as he considers 'all things'.Ok, I'm not witty, but I know a good book when I read it!This is it!

This edition is perfect!
This edition is perfect!For those who were wondering if they would get a poorlymade book based on the only 1 star review, let me assure you that you will not, I received this book without any mistakes, or missing pages, etc.Its a charming and complete edition.

I see that the release date for this edition is after the date the 1 star review was made.

This book has been well reviewed already, and all I can add is this is a real treat for anyone who loves intelligent argument, wit and written brilliance!

Shoddy
All Things Considered

First time I can recall seeing an advertisement masquerading as an "Editorial Review." I cannot abide Kessinger and its mission to re-appropriate books (often mere pamphlets) in the public domain and republish them in shoddy overpriced editions. Wankers. ... Read more

Product Description
The "enlightened" pursuit of "progressive" philosophy, science, technology, politics and culture have fed an institutional worldview that continues to unravel what's left of the historic unifier in Western civilization - what G.K. Chesterton called the "idea of wonder"in Christianity. This worldview, devoid of the Creator and Savior, splinters and re-imagines the plain text of Scripture and the teachings of the Church in a Byzantine effort to replace good and evil with "It could be better" and "It's not so bad." "The human race," Chesterton writes in Heretics, "fell once and, in falling, gained knowledge of good and of evil. Now we have fallen a second time, and only the knowledge of evil remains to us." Heretics reminds people how to measure their conduct on the basis of good and evil, the light and the dark. ... Read more

Product Description

Navigate easily to any novel from Table of Contents or search for the words or phrases. FREE author’s biography and stories in the trial version.

Customer Reviews (7)

Perfect format for the Kindle!
Perfect format for the Kindle!

I've purchased over 10 of these complete author collections from this publisher. These collections work superbly on the Kindle. Take Mark Twain collection. The collection includes huge number of Mark Twain's works all in one place, searchable and well-organized. If I would have purchased all these books separately, searching for `The Gilded Age' among hundreds of other books on my Kindle would be a nightmare. With Mobile Reference collections, I simply click `Works of Mark Twain', then click Novels> `The Gilded Age'. I can also click `List of works in alphabetical order' > `G' > `Gilded Age'. If I forget the book title but remember that `The Gilded Age' was written by Mark Twain early in his career, I can click on `List of works in chronological order' > (1873) `The Gilded Age'.

If I want another author, say, Charles Dickens, I click `Home' > `Works of Charles Dickens'. If I want Dostoevsky, I click `Works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky'. I think this format is perfect for organizing books on the Kindle.

Inside collections, each book has links to chapters and footnotes. The text is nicely formatted and seems to be complete and accurate - something that cannot always be said about inexpensive ebooks. I think these collections are great bargains both in terms of saved money, time, and book organization!

Define "not complete"
I am not sure what this collection lacks but it is comprehensive and HUGE. I may finish it all in this lifetime. Some much Chesterton for so little money, I started to feel a little guilty but I did PAY for it, for crying out loud.

Chesterton is the one of the brightest, wittiest, concise, and truthful writers that most people do not know. This collection boasts all his greats, including his poetry and is the modern Christian's handbook for answering everything wrong with the world today.

All in one place
Chesterton's works are all in the public domain and I think you could search the Internet and find all of these for free. But, it's nice having them all together on one place with hypertext contents and chapter divisions. And spending less than $5 for that is a pretty good deal. Get this. Chesterton is always fun to read.

You can never go wrong with Chesterton
Works of Gilbert Keith Chesterton.(400+ Works) Includes the Complete Father Brown, The Man Who Was Thursday, Orthodoxy, The Everlasting Man, Heretics, ... & more. Published by MobileReference (mobi)

You can never go wrong with Chesterton. Chesterton can help you think, even if you're not good at it.

Excellent. Excellent. Excellent.
I could not be more happy with this ebook. Chesterton is brilliantly insightful and joyfully witty. This HUGE collection contains his famous works and many that are lesser known. An active table of contents lets you navigate through the works easily. Treat yourself to this great collection! ... Read more

Product Description
2010 Reprint of 1925 edition. The Everlasting Man is a two-part history of mankind, Christ, and Christianity, by G. K. Chesterton. Published in 1925, it is to some extent a deliberate rebuttal of H. G. Wells' Outline of History, which embraced the evolutionary origins of humanity and denied the divinity of Jesus. Whereas Orthodoxy detailed Chesterton's own spiritual journey, in this book he tries to illustrate the spiritual journey of humanity, or at least of Western civilization.C. S. Lewis credited The Everlasting Man with "baptising" his intellect, much as George MacDonald's writings had baptised his imagination, so as to make him more than half-converted well before he could bring himself to embrace Christianity. The book was also cited in a list of 10 books that "most shaped his vocational attitude and philosophy of life".Amazon.com Review
What, if anything, is it that makes the human uniquely human? This, inpart, is the question that G.K. Chesterton starts with in this classicexploration of human history. Responding to the evolutionary materialismof his contemporary (and antagonist) H.G. Wells, Chesterton in this workaffirms human uniqueness and the unique message of the Christian faith.Writing in a time when social Darwinism was rampant, Chesterton insteadargued that the idea that society has been steadily progressing from astate of primitivism and barbarity towards civilization is simply andflatly inaccurate. "Barbarism and civilization were not successive stagesin the progress of the world," he affirms, with arguments drawn from thehistories of both Egypt and Babylon.

As always with Chesterton, there is in this analysis something (as he saidof Blake) "very plain and emphatic."He sees in Christianity a rareblending of philosophy and mythology, or reason and story, which satisfiesboth the mind and the heart. On both levels it rings true. As he puts it,"in answer to the historical query of why it was accepted, and is accepted,I answer for millions of others in my reply; because it fits the lock;because it is like life." Here, as so often in Chesterton, we sense alived, awakened faith. All that he writes derives from a keenintellect guided by the heart's own knowledge. --Doug Thorpe ... Read more

Customer Reviews (103)

Excellent book (thus far), but did anybody proofread this edition??
Admittedly I haven't advanced very far in the book yet, but I'm really enjoying it thus far. However, this book has typos and misspelled words all over the place! I've had to double-take many times because the book says "bad" instead of "had", and other easy-to-catch mistakes such as these. I've even run into one instance with a question mark in the middle of a word! At first I assumed it was possible Chesterton missed a word or two as he wrote the book, but question marks in the middle of a word? It's looking as though this edition was rushed and not proofread thoroughly. Too bad - it's the only knock I have on an otherwise fascinating book. I'm curious to see if other editions have these same errors. Don't let my nitpicking stop you from reading this book. You just might want to check out another edition from a different publisher if possible.

I should have read the reviews first!
Having read this book before, I felt no need to read the reviews before purchasing it.BIG MISTAKE!I returned it the day after I received it.The work itself is a masterpiece, but (as others have said) this edition has so many typographical errors and portions of missing text due to poor editing, that it makes it virtually unreadable and incomprehensible.For example, just click on the 'look inside' and notice that the preface is not only incomplete, but ends mid-sentence with a question mark.I finally gave up when I was reading and came across a question mark in the middle of a word.By all means, read the book, but not from this publisher.

Amazing book, but don't buy it from this publisher.
I love Chesterton's work.This is a great book.However, this particular version is riddled with typographical errors such as missing punctuation, misspelled words, and words that were simply transcribed incorrectly from the original, e.g. "illogically" appears when "illogicality" should appear.

I have been reading this book with some friends in a sort of discussion group, and some of the others have versions from a different publisher in which none of these errors appear.I regret purchasing this version, and will probably end up ordering a different one.Chesterton is such a joy to read, and it is a shame to have to mentally correct typos while reading him.

This book is too good to be treated so poorly
This "publication" of Chesterton's classic work is a painful and lamentable thing. Its relentless typos render a real injustice to the tight, bright, aphoristic signature of G.K.'s writing style, not to mention a crime against the compelling content of his case. Perhaps this private basement scan-and-print operation had the good intentions of distributing Chesterton's masterpiece to more masses for less money. But I have my ungenerous suspicions that this slovenly reproduction of a most unslovenly book may be almost entirely a business interest. I don't know any better explanation for such an obviously and shamelessly horrendous printing than to suppose that whoever printed it had utterly no concern for what is written in it. A few more dollars spent for the Ignatius edition of The Everlasting Man (or Dale Ahlquist's reading of it) will save readers the constant frustration of plodding through a butchered text and have the added effects of both honoring publishing integrity and justly presenting this Chestertonian gem in all of its original coruscating cogency and genius. This book's too good to be treated so poorly.

[Thankfully, Amazon makes the returns process quick and painless].

Wilder Publishing is horrid!
Wilder publications ruined this classic.The 2008 Wilder edition of Chesterton's work is riddled with type-o's that leave you dumbfounded.Of course, my first inclination that something was amiss was the asinine disclaimer on the publication page, "This book is a product of its time and does not reflect the same values as it would if it were written today.Parents might wish to discuss with their children how views on race have changed before allowing them to read this classic work." Yeah, ok.

Avoid this one and go with the Ignatius Press copy.You'll be doing yourself a favor and perhaps sending a message to Wilder to get some better editors and give up the disclaimers (see their Constitution of the USA for another example of this 'service' they offer). ... Read more

Product Description
The Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton, Vol. 1, contains three of Chesterton s most influential works. In Heretics Chesterton sets forth one of the most telling critiques of contemporary religious notions ever. The Blatchford Controversies are the spirited public debate which led to the writing of Heretics. Then, in Orthodoxy, Chesterton accepts the challenge of his opponents and sets forth his own reasons for accepting the Christian Faith. Author: G. K. Chesteron Contents: Heretics, The Blatchford Controversies, Orthodoxy Format: 397 pages, paperback Publisher: Ignatius Press ISBN: 9780898700794 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Worth the Price for Orthodoxy Alone
If you're Christian, interested in Christianity, or even an intellectually honest atheist, you should not go through your entire life without reading this book. Heretics is a good warm-up, where Chesterton takes on the Rationalists and "Free-Thinkers" of a hundred years ago one chapter at time - some more entertainingly than others.

But Orthodoxy is where the meat really hits the grill in this volume.Why so?Well, it's best to let Chesterton do the talking.Sink your teeth into this:

"That a good man may have his back to the wall is no more than we knew already; but that God could have his back to the wall is a boast for all insurgents for ever. Christianity is the only religion on earth that has felt that omnipotence made God incomplete. Christianity alone has felt that God, to be wholly God, must have been a rebel as well as a king. Alone of all creeds, Christianity has added courage to the virtues of the Creator. For the only courage worth calling courage must necessarily mean that the soul passes a breaking point--and does not break.

[I]n that terrific tale of the Passion there is a distinct emotional suggestion that the author of all things (in some unthinkable way) went not only through agony, but through doubt. It is written, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." No; but the Lord thy God may tempt Himself; and it seems as if this was what happened in Gethsemane. In a garden Satan tempted man: and in a garden God tempted God. He passed in some superhuman manner through our human horror of pessimism. When the world shook and the sun was wiped out of heaven, it was not at the crucifixion, but at the cry from the cross: the cry which confessed that God was forsaken of God. And now let the revolutionists choose a creed from all the creeds and a god from all the gods of the world, carefully weighing all the gods of inevitable recurrence and of unalterable power. They will not find another god who has himself been in revolt. Nay, (the matter grows too difficult for human speech,) but let the atheists themselves choose a god. They will find only one divinity who ever uttered their isolation; only one religion in which God seemed for an instant to be an atheist."

There are stretches of exposition where Chesterton has to set up passages like those above, but they are necessary, and well worth the time to get to something as good as this.

I'm a very big C.S. Lewis fan, and it's obvious that Lewis absorbed Orthodoxy, and put his own special brand of apologetic touch on "Mere Christianity."

If you like having to go back and read a paragraph over because the language and the content were *that* good, you will enjoy this volume.

Chesterton Fan
This book is a must for anyone who is a Chesterton fan, or interested in Christian apologetics. "Orthodoxy" outlines
GKC's own spiritual development in a number of well reasoned arguments. "Heretics" is the thought provoking prelude to "Orthodoxy" and the "Blatchford Controversies" are the famous spiritual duel which occurred in the London newspapers between Blatchford and GKC.

Where is the Chesterton of today?
A hundred years ago in England, religion was under attack for being an obsolescence, an obstruction to the realization of human potential, the province of the unenlightened.

Along came Chesterton, irrepressible optimist and genial adversary (foes GB Shaw and HG Wells were counted among his many friends) who masterfully - some would say dizzyingly - used paradox to stand the arguments of the anti-religious on their heads.

This particular volume of GKC's invaluable work has much to recommend: 1) a collection of material that nicely encapsulates the controversy (HERETICS, wherein he points out the short-sightedness of his adversaries' positions, the unmatched ORTHODOXY, which set forth his own philosophy, and BLATCHFORD, a resource containing the seeds of the foregoing two books), 2) a wonderful introduction by David Dooley that describes the context and milieu of post-Victorian England, and 3) a high-quality sewn soft-cloth binding.

The drawback to Chesterton is that, as a journalist, his work does have a noticeable connection with the time of its original publication (in this case, 1904-1908)*. What is striking is how glaringly relevant the underlying issues he addresses are to our own time.

*For those who find this distracting, there are Annotated Editions of both Orthodoxy and Heretics available through Amazon.com

Circle Talk at its Best
This book is both dull and magnificent. Chesterton's writing style is brilliant even though often his writing is pointless. Like a trial lawyer engaged in circle talk he says a mouthful but at the same time, although eloquent, it is a mouthful of nothing. Much like a gorgeous flower it is best to view it than ingest it. So this book too is better lightly read than seriously studied.

Chesterton's most famous work, and some oft-forgotten gems
This volume, the first in Ignatius Press's _Collected Works_ of Chesterton series, contains what is probably G. K. Chesterton's most famous work, _Orthodoxy_.

What many people do not know is that Orthodoxy was written only at the end of a long debate in the British press. Chesterton had been making a name for himself in English journalism for attacking the Spirit of the Age in turn-of-the-century England; his critics (rather justly) claimed that it was unfair for Chesterton to attack others' beliefs without stating what he himself believed. _Orthodoxy_ was the result.

This volume allows the reader to trace the story from the beginning, in the so-called "Blatchford Controversies", through the critique of Chesterton's contemporaries in _Heretics_ to its culmination in _Orthodoxy_. _Orthodoxy_ is definitely the star of the volume, but there are treasures to be found in the other works as well. Knowing something about the figures mentioned in _Heretics_ does help, but is not strictly necessary, as their heresies are alas still with us.

In my opinion, this volume is the perfect entre into Chesterton's thought, and would make a valuable edition for anyone concerned about clear thinking in regards to life, the universe, and everything. ... Read more

Product Description
Heretics/Orthodoxy written by legendary author G. K. Chesterton is widely considered to be two of the best books of all time. The combination of these two great classics will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, Heretics/Orthodoxy is required reading for various courses and curriculums. And for others who simply enjoy reading timeless pieces of classic literature, these two gems by G. K. Chesterton are highly recommended. Published by Classic Books America and beautifully produced, Heretics/Orthodoxy would make an ideal gift and it should be a part of everyone's personal library. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Another perspective
Chesterton, as the last representitive of a certain type of Englishman, is constantly at odds with the mores and assumptions of this modern world. For this reason he is probably more worth reading than any of his contemporaries, even Shaw and Wells, because whereas we have largely inherited their ideas, in Chesterton you find that which would never have occurred to you. His writings on the subject of Democracy should be required reading: our society is almost completely ignorant on that subject, to its tremendous detriment. Nearly every essay in _Heretics_ is a revelation, and _Orthodoxy_ is practically a study in how subtle and surprising good sense can be.

Widsom, Variety, and Humour
There are good, and not so good, reviews of Orthodoxy already, none for Heretics. So I will deal with the latter, only.I have the John Lane edition, 1905.

Heretics is somewhat neglected in Chesterton's oeuvre,possibly because it is an early work (1905), and many of the writersdiscussed are out of fashion now.Yet, I believe Heretics contains notonly his best writing, but it already establishes the main themes of hislife's work.

Technically, it is a book of literary criticism, but from anunusual point of view, that of his subjects' philosophy.

"I am notconcerned with Shaw as one of the most brilliant and one of the most honestmen alive; I am concerned with him as a heretic--that is to say, a manwhose philosophy is solid, quite coherent, and quite wrong." (p.22)

Brilliant though he was, Shaw expected reality to conform to aninhuman ideal:

"He has all the time been silently comparing humanitywith something that was not human, with a monster from Mars, with the WiseMan of the Stoics, with the Economic Man of the Fabians, with JuliusCaesar, with Siegfried, with Superman.Now, to have this inner andmerciless standard may be a very good thing, or a very bad one, it may beexcellent or unfortunate. but it is not seeing things as they are."(pp. 62-63)

This is excellent writing, whether we entirely agree or not. It may be a little unfair to Shaw, but it is fair to life.

Chesterton isoften called an optimist.But he knew the other side, as anyone readingAlzina Stone Dale's life, The Outline of Sanity, can find out.Joy inliving, good beer, conversation, balance, sanity, these were achievements,not just nature.

I have never read, or even found, the books of Mr.George Moore who wrote an autobiography. Chesterton attacks his egoism, theinterest in the world as related to his own temperament:

"We shouldreally be much more interested in Mr. Moore if he were not quite sointerested in himself. We feel as if we were being shown through a galleryof really fine pictures, into each of which, by some useless and discordantconvention, the artist had represented the same figure in the sameattitude. 'The Grand Canal with a distant view of Mr. Moore,""Effect of Mr. Moore through a Scotch Mist,' 'Mr. Moore by Firelight,''Ruins of Mr. Moore by Moonlight,' and so on seems to be the endlessseries." (pp. 131-132)

That has to be one of the funniest sentencesever written, and I could barely type it for laughing. A bit later on thepage, Chesterton gives his vision of originality:

"Thinking abouthimself will lead to trying to be the universe; trying to be the universewill lead to ceasing to be anything.If, on the other hand, a man issensible enough to think only about the universe; he will think about it inhis own way. He will keep virgin the secret of God; he will see the grassas no other man can see it, and look at a sun that no man has everknown."

There is no space to mention all the wonderful writing inHeretics.I will mention his often expressed view of the narrowness of thelarger world, where one can choose one's companions, as opposed to thenation, the neighborhood or the family, where one has to take people theway they are, with all their foibles.

"The best way that a man couldtest his readiness to encounter the common variety of mankind would be toclimb down a chimney into any house at random, and get on as well aspossible with the people inside.And that is essentially what each one ofus did on the day he was born." (p. 190)

As always, Chesterton'sideas are eminently discussable! No commentary of mine could do justice tothe variety, wisdom, and good humour in this book.The best thing would beto find a copy and read it. ... Read more

Product Description
The Collected Works Of G. K. Chesterton, Vol. V is the second volumedevoted to Chesterton s political, sociological and economic writings.Throughout his life Chesterton defended the interests of the commonman, democratic principles, individual freedom, property holders andsmall businessmen. He was convinced that capitalism and socialism wereoligarchies that would suffocate the individual. Alsoin this volume, Dr. John McCarthy examines and edits Chesterton spolemical volumes and pamphlets published during World War I, includinga posthumous volume entitled The End of the Armistice. Chesterton recognized the evil of Nazism, and prophesied that Hitler was bent on destroying the Jews and Poland. Author: G. K. Chesterton Contents: The Outline of Sanity, The End of The Armistice, The Appetite of Tyranny, Utopia of Usurers, and more Format: 663 pages, paperback Publisher: Ignatius Press ISBN: 9780898701708 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

More Brilliance from GKC
One thing for sure: GK was no fan of Prussia.Volume V of"Collected Works" contains political essays mainly dealing with events surrounding WWI.One of my favorite selections is "The Crimes of England', a candid confession of his homeland's crimes against humanity.GK lays much of the blame on Prussia, or more precisely, on England's government for cozying up to Prussia beginning with the William Pitt government around 1800.In GK's view, England should have stood with France, as inheritors of Roman/Christian values, in opposition to barbarian Prussia.Instead, England created a monster by propping up the Prussian regime, to the peril of all nations--particularly France, Poland, and Belgium.Moreover, barbaric Prussian values crept into English political and intellectual life as a result of this unholy association.English fascination with German social efficiency and scientific determinism hastened England's decline from a pastoral country to one overwhelmed by an ugly, dehumanizing urban capitalism. These are common themes in GK's writing, but I think never more fully fleshed out than here, as he traces all these developments from Pitt forward.It's a pity Chesterton does not show up more on reading lists for Western college courses in history.

Rare Chesterton works once more available
This volume of Chesterton's Collected Works brings back into print The End of the Armistice, the last book GKC wrote.I have always thought this was one of his finest pieces of non-fiction. It is thoughtful and articulate,as he always was. It shows how clearly he saw Hitler and the Nazis for whatthey were, at a time when an embarrassing number of English and Europeanswho should have known better admired Nazi Germany. Finally, it connectsChesterton's abhorrence of the Third Reich with his religious convictions,making GKC in retrospect immensely more admirable as a Roman Catholic thanPius XII.The End of the Armistice is by itself worth the price of thisbook. ... Read more

Product Description
St. Francis biography is considered by many critics Chesterton's best one. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good and Brief...Twice as Good!
This biography of St. Francis lets the reader enter into aspects neglected by many other writers (G. K. C. sees things that very few else realise) and does so with great charm and wit. Undoubtly this book is a master piece of literature and a source of spirituality. What an insight into the figure of St. Francis, MARAVELOUS!

Lots of Chesterton, not a lot of Francis.
Antiquated period piece, rambling exercise in out-dated - not to mention heavily biassed - history.Sample before you buy.Even at only a buck I wish I had. ... Read more

Product Description
Manalive is a book by G. K. Chesterton detailing a popular theme both in his own philosophy, and in Christianity, of the 'holy fool', such as in Dostoevsky's The Idiot and Cervantes' Don Quixote.

Perhaps the most light-hearted of all Chesterton's "serious" works, Manalive pits a group of disillusioned young people against Mr. Innocent Smith, a bubbly, high-spirited gentleman who literally falls into their midst. Accused of murder and denounced for repeatedly marrying his wife and attempting to live in various houses (all of which turn out to be his own), Smith prompts his newfound acquaintances to recognize an important idea: that life is worth living. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (25)

Great book, horrible edition
This is one of my favorite novels, so I bought it for my brother-in-law as a graduation present. This edition is awful: tacky cover, horrible layout, each page has the little blips that come from being scanned. Buy a different edition.

Manalive!
I really enjoyed this book. It is, like all Chesterton books, a little tough to get through if you are not accustomed to his writing style and language. The story itself is riveting. As someone who sometimes gets to focused on the end result, it was a good reminder to live.

fist pumping good
I'm a huge Chesterton fan- at used bookstores I'll pick up everything by him they have, just so that I can give them away to friends, family, and interested strangers.

This is the work of Chesterton's I've read the most.I'll pick this up at least once a year for a re-read. It is packed full of humor, wisdom, insights into society, and all wrapped up in a darn good plot.

There are ideas in here that shook me, as Chesterton often does, with his counter-intuitive insights.The early passage on how the more exciting and important a thing is, the more likely that rules are to be built around it out of sheer exuberance utterly destroys the common argument against Christianity that the "Man Made Rules of the Church" destroyed the "Message of Jesus."

I don't know if Chuck Palahniuk read this book, but there is a scene from Fight Club that appears to have been inspired by manalive, where "life is fired from the end of a gun."

If you're new to Chesterton, and want to know where to start, start here.This is always the book I recommend be read first- even if you're looking to Chesterton for his Christian apologetics.Read this before you read Orthodoxy.

Love it, love it, love it.

don't dig his fiction... read his non fiction
though filled with a few awesome quotes the story as a whole is BORING! I couldn't finish. I love the monologues if Mr Smith. There are many great quotes on life an such, but getting through the dumb story bits was a bit much... this was my first chesterton book, so i didn't pick up another one by him for long time afterward, but i read "the everlasting man" (which was a big factor in C.S.Lewis' conversion) and couldn't put it down, and followed with "orthodoxy" which again i couldn't put down. about to read "heretics" ... i strongly recommend chesterton, but your time is better spent reading his other works, save this one when you have nothing else to read.

Beware This Edition!
Although not labeled as such, this is a print-on-demand book (the telltale sign is an output date on the last page). The odd dimensions (7.5" x 9.25") and the abundance of errors in typographymake it difficult to read. There is also the added concern that since there is absolutely no front matter supplied not even as to the source edition scanned that this may be an altered or abridged version. Find yourself a better edition. ... Read more

Product Description
The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton, Volume 2, contains three of Chesterton s greatest classics on Catholic philosophy and spirituality. It includes The Everlasting Man, which gives an Incarnational view of world history, and biographies of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Francis of Assisi. Author: G. K. Chesterton Contents: The Everlasting Man, St. Francis of Assisi, St Thomas Aquinas Format: 550 pages, paperback Publisher: Ignatius Press ISBN: 9780898701173 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

The Strangest Story in the World
"Nobody has written...a real moral history of the Greeks... [t]he wisest men in the world set out to be natural; and the most unnatural thing in the world was the very first thing they did. The immediate effect of saluting the sun and the sunny sanity of nature was a perversion spreading like a pestilence. The greatest and even the purest philosophers could not apparently avoid this low sort of lunacy." - from St Francis of Assisi

There is no one better at explaining the world we live in and how it got way than G.K. Chesterton; and while some authors are good at placing historical figures in their time, Chesterton describes them in a way that transcends time. The portrait he paints in the first chapters of St. Francis of Assisi of the world Francis entered turns any pre-conceived notions one may have had of the medieval period on its head. He also rescues the great saint from those who have tried to turn him into some kind of nature-worshiping 1960's flower child.

The Everlasting Man is a sort of history of religion in that it is a history of man. Chesterton defines what religion is, and proves how Christianity is unique from all the other philosophies that have ever been dreamed. Up until I read this book, I thought Plato owned the motif of the cave in literature: no more. The beautiful balance of the Man in the Cave in Part 1 and the God in the Cave in Part 2 is nothing short of brilliant:

"This sketch of the human story began in a cave; the cave which popular science associates with the cave-man and in which practical discovery has really found archaic drawings of animals. The second half of human history, which was like a new creation of the world, also begins in a cave. There is even a shadow of such a fancy in the fact that animals were again present ... it was here that a homeless couple had crept underground with the cattle when the doors of the crowded caravanserai had been shut in their faces; and it was here ... that Jesus Christ was born. God also was a Cave-Man, and had also traced strange shapes of creatures, curiously coloured, upon the wall of the world; but the pictures that he made had come to life."

It's difficult to highlight a single chapter in a book that's full of highlights, but I'll say that I found "The War of the Gods and Demons" very interesting. It describes the pivotal struggle between Carthage and Rome; and though I knew the basic facts of the Punic wars, there were some particulars that don't turn up in popular histories - like Hannibal's name meaning "The Grace of Baal" in his own tongue. When you couple that with other horrifying facts - or rather when Chesterton does - a whole new meaning is attached to the Latin victory over their rivals.The gods really had "risen again, and the demons had been defeated after all."

In the last book of the collection, we meet St. Thomas Aquinas; and there is a tinge of sadness as we read in the last chapter how this 'distant human mountain' was overshadowed by the Protestant theology of Martin Luther, 'a thing that no modern Protestant would be seen dead in a field with':

"It is said that the great Reformer publicly burned the Summa Theologica and the works of Aquinas.. all the close-packed definitions that excluded so many errors and extremes; all the broad and balanced judgments upon the clash of loyalties or the choice of evils; all the liberal speculations upon the limits of government or the proper conditions of justice; ... all the allowances for human weakness and all the provisions for human health; all this mass of medieval humanism shriveled and curled up in smoke before the eyes of its enemy; and that great passionate peasant rejoiced darkly, because the day of the Intellect was over. Sentence by sentence it burned, and syllogism by syllogism; and the golden maxims turned to golden flames in that last and dying glory of all that had once been the great wisdom of the Greeks. The great central Synthesis of history, that was to have linked the ancient with the modern world, went up in smoke and, for half the world, was forgotten like a vapour."

Ignatius Press has done a fantastic job in assembling these collected works. Before reading this second volume, I'd recommend anyone new to Chesterton to begin with Vol. 1: Heretics, Orthodoxy, the Blatchford Controversies.

Humans don't think like this any more.
The physical book itself is a high-quality paperback product. The editing, proofreading, and general quality control is excellent. The content as written by Chesterton rather makes me wonder whether we as a species aren't devolving rather than evolving, since most of the humans I know are only barely able to read this or anything serious written 50 years ago or more.

I myself, after years of reading newspapers, the internet, and popular fiction find that I have to concentrate to understand the point of just one of his sentences, and then I have to think back continually to the sense of a sequence of sentences to determine the larger point. I'm not challenged that way in normal reading, but I find that it's well worth it and would recommend it to anyone anywhere on the spectrum of belief in evolution and related topics.

First Rate Apologetics
Chesterton is one of those rare intellects who says things which actually change your perception of the world and alters the way you think. The Everlasting Man is a great book in so many ways. First, as in all books in this volume, TEM is great apologetics. Chesterton challenges arguments in favor of evolution and atheism. He is a tremendously gifted arguer. He has the ability to control an argument, direct where it's going, and reserve his judgment and wisdom until the very last sentence in such a way whereas the reader is more or less at his mercy. Many times, Chesterton was so convincing playing the devil's advocate I found myself acknowledging how legitimate the other side's points were...until Chesterton turned everything on its head and showed their opinions as misguided argument or unsound thinking.

The book on Thomas Aquinas is invaluable as well. While only the surface of some of Aquinas' arguments are covered, the ones which are covered are the most powerful and relevant. Also, this serves as a simple, yet very thorough, biography of Aquinas' life.

Chesterton is a deep thinker, but he is also very practical and common sensical. No one can ever accuse him of bringing up irrelevant points or creating unclear argument. He says everything he means to say, nothing more or less.

If you are interested in apologetics and in reading a book which has influenced C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, and not to mention countless other thinkers and writers, you should buy this book. And it's a great deal too.

powerful and passionate apologetics
If you're a Catholic Christian and want to appreciate your faith more, these books will serve you well. If you're not Catholic or Christian and wish to encounter the most persuasive apologetics, this is an excellent place to start.

Chesterton is a wonderful writer. A poet by nature, Chesterton focuses on the material and concrete in ways that seems both paradoxical and wondrous. In "Saint Francis of Assisi," Chesterton takes the most popular saint, and presents all those details that really make us modern secularists most uncomfortable with him. In another book here, he links St. Thomas Aquinas to Francis, showing that, despite their vast differences in temperament, they both strove to save and present the goodness of creation and nature and to rebuke (in word or action) those who would hold the bodily in disdain.

In a sense, the biographies here are more than biographies. They're filled with diversions, and those diversions all point in the direction of the remaining book, "The Everlasting Man," which is presented between the other two. The central point here is that the Incarnation is the central event of human history; it allows us to joyously celebrate the good of creation and nature, as God has blessed matter with His very being.

Also, Chesterton is a real pleasure to read, as this passage shows: "One of my first journalistic adventures, or misadventures, concerned a comment on Grant Allen, who had written a book about the Evolution of the Idea of God. I happened to remark that it would be much more interesting if God wrote a book about the evolution of the idea of Grant Allen."

His wit shines in the conclusion of this anecdote. To his bemusement, his editor castigates *him* for being blasphemous. "In that hour I learned many things, including the fact that there is something purely acoustic in much of that agnostic sort of reverence. The editor had not seen the point, because in the title of the book the long word came at the beginning and the short word at the end; whereas in my comments the short word came at the beginning and gave him a sort of shock. I have noticed that if you put a word like God into the same sentence with a word like dog, these abrupt and angular words affect people like pistol-shots. Whether you say that God made the dog or the dog made God does not seem to matter; that is only one of the sterile disputations of the too subtle theologians. But so long as you begin with a long word like evolution the rest will roll harmlessly past; very probably the editor had not read the whole of the title, for it is rather a long title and he was rather a busy man."

Chesterton's most important works
This volume contains the most important works of G. K. Chesterton, his study of St. Francis, his study of St. Thomas Aquinas, and _The Everlasting Man_.

I have chosen the word "study" rather than biography deliberately. Readers looking to find a strict chronological account of St. Francis or St. Thomas according to the modern or postmodern canons of historiography should look elsewhere. What Chesterton does is get you at the heart of these two saints. He tells you what they were all about. He is somehow able to convey to his readers the very air that these saints breathed.

And then there is _The Everlasting Man_. While it is hard to characterize, this is Chesterton's best work. Period. Written as an answer to H. G. Wells's _Outline of History_, Chesterton gets at what is most important in human history: the fact that God became Man in Jesus Christ. It really is an incredible book.

Chesterton had an amazing knack to cut to the heart of the matter. If you want to see what St. Francis or St. Thomas were all about, or to appreciate more the Lord who inspired these saints, I would highly recommend this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Volume XVI of The Collected Works Of G. K. Chesterton is Chesterton s autobiography. One of modern Catholicism s most famousand prolific authors, Chesterton was a great defender of the commonman, the family, and the Catholic faith. He wrote on many importantsubjects religion, politics, history, literature, art, economics,philosophy, and sociology. This book includes 37 rare photos ofChesterton. Author: G. K. Chesterton Contents: The Autobiography of G. K. Chesterton Format: 341 pages, paperback Publisher: Ignatius Press ISBN: 9780898701999 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Collected Works by G. K. Chesterton
I got this book sometime ago and I am Just now (March 10, 2007) getting to read it. The late Mr. Chersterton writes with a style that will hold you from wanting to stop reading. I look forward to the next "visit" with him when I open the cover of his tale. You shall enjoy an evening with Mr. Chesterton.

William P. McNamara
Jacksonville, Fl.

One of the best!
Chesterton's _Autobiography_ is one of the best Christian autobiographies that are out there.Follow Chesterton on his journey out of the insanity of the early 20th century and into the freeing sanity of the Catholic Church.

Chesterton's insights into various figures and movements of the early 20th century are a great joy to read, and still are important today in combatting various contemporary insanities.If you want to understand more about one of the greatest English authors of the 20th century, this book is a must have. ... Read more

Product Description
G. K. Chesterton was one of the most well-known and beloved writers of his time. Yet he has been strangely neglected today. This book is the perfect introduction to Chesterton. Ahlquist is an able guide who takes the reader through twelve of Chesterton’s most important books as well as the famous Father Brown stories.

One of the problems with approaching Chesterton is that he was so prolific that the reader is simply overwhelmed. But Ahlquist makes the literary giant accessible, highlighting Chesterton’s amazing reach, keen insight, and marvelous wit. Each chapter is liberally spiced with Chesterton’s striking quotations.

There is something special that runs throughout Chesterton’s books that sets him apart from the confusing philosophies of the modern world. That common thread in Chesterton’s writings is common sense. It is instantly recognizable and utterly refreshing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

My Chesterton adventure
I selected this book to begin my adventure with G K Chesterton.It is my introduction following the TV program that got me interested.I recommend it as a starting place for getting to know this remarkable man.The book is well written.I have spot checked some of the quotes and they are accurate.I have concluded that Chesterton is a MUST read and I highly recommend this book as a start in understanding his insights and philosophy.The negative, if there is one, will be the reader's heightened awareness of just how much trouble American society now faces and desperate has become the hour.But then Chesterton would say "change it."

G. K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense
Great for anyone who is wondering where all the common sense has disappeared to in our politically correct society and who enjoys a few chuckles while reading.
Absolutely delightful and a wonderful introduction to Chesterton.

Mediocre
This book makes for a good introduction to the world of Chesterton. However any person who is even partially familiar with his works will garner little information from this book.

While Dale Alquist is a great scholar, I find his commentary to be one sided at best. I believe (a phrase never used by Mister Alquist) that Chesterton can stand on his own, without commentary.

Viewing Deep Wells from the Heights
Ahlquist's introductory text to Chesterton was a delightful, witty, and quick read which set me afire once again to read an author whom the contemporary world has lamentably forgotten - and not accidentally.I have before fallen in love with Chesterton and hope to continue to fall in love with this humble intellectual giant, the apostle of the people, of "common sense" as Ahlquist says. This text functions very well to whet anyone's appetite for Chesterton.

One of the marks of a great mind is a unity in thought, particularly over time - even when time realizes various conversions, like the life of Chesterton.In Ahlquist's bird's-eye view of Chesterton's major works, the general theme of Chesterton's levity and love for the obvious, simple paradoxes of life shines forth as a glorious beacon to the majestic thoughts of this man.The text on the whole is a delightful, yet not too serious, admixture of the author's musing with quotes of varied length from Chesterton.It is a joy to leap from subject to subject in this short overview, for that was the way that the physically massive writer would write, like the most free of angels, floating humbly above the fray of grave intellectuals.I highly recommend this text to all, from the complete Chesterton novice, to the junior who perhaps needs a re-expansion of his Chestertonian horizons, to the scholar of Chesterton who too can only benefit from stepping back to look at the great masterpiece that is collected works and mind of Chesterton.

A Zealot's Take On A Zealot's Writings
No one will accuse Dale Ahlquist of being detached and objective about Chesterton's work.I don't think there is a serious word of critique in this whole volume, so if you are looking for a broad view of Chesterton, with perhaps even some suggestions that he might be lacking in some regard, then this book is not where you will find it.What Ahlquist does very well is bring the essential arguments that Chesterton makes across the spectrum of his writings together in a concise, accessible and enjoyable book.

This is a book you can pick up and peruse, read a chapter, put it down, pick it up a month later and begin again.The title says it all.Chesterton is presented as the Apostle of Common Sense so the things that you read sound like common sense whenever you read them.You don't have to remember a sustained argument that has gone before.

As a convinced Calvinist I flinch when Chesterton (and Ahlquist) oversimplify significant positions on free will, God's sovereignty and ultimately the quality of life associated with those who hold to different views on it.I don't get upset though because the principles that Chesterton is ultimately arguing for are actually inherent within Calvinism also.What he really says are basic principles of Christianity, not Catholicism, though Chesterton and Ahlquist equate them.

Chesterton's work is worth reading for his arguments on the family and distributive social economy alone.These are words our society needs to hear and we really ought to pay attention.

So, read the book - enjoy the wit and the superb command of the language that truly great intellect can muster - and learn. ... Read more