>It was one of those chilly and empty afternoons in early winter, when the daylight is silver rather than gold and pewter rather than silver. If it was dreary in a hundred bleak offices and yawning drawing-rooms, it was drearier still along the edges of the flat Essex coast, where the monotony was the more inhuman for being broken at very long intervals by a lamp-post that looked less civilized than a tree, or a tree that looked more ugly than a lamp-post. A light fall of snow had half-melted into a few strips, also looking leaden rather than silver, when it had been fixed again by the seal of frost; no fresh snow had fallen, but a ribbon of the old snow ran along the very margin of the coast, so as to parallel the pale ribbon of the foam.>The line of the sea looked frozen in the very vividness of its violet-blue, like the vein of a frozen finger. For miles and miles, forward and back, there was no breathing soul, save two pedestrians, walking at a brisk pace, though one had much longer legs and took much longer strides than the other.>It did not seem a very appropriate place or time for a holiday, but Father Brown had few holidays, and had to take them when he could, and he always preferred, if possible, to take them in company with his old friend Flambeau, ex-criminal and ex-detective. Quote from "The God of the gongs", The Wisdom of Father Brown. A month ago I went to a used bookstore and bought "The man who was thursday". The owner asked me if I had read anything else by Chesterton and I said I had read some Father Brown stories. He recommended me some other Chesterton books that, according to him, are "underrated" like "Four Faultless Felons".What is your experience reading his fiction?
>>25329206>when the daylight is silver rather than gold and pewter rather than silver.garrison keiller looker mf
>>25329206Chestertonne... gluttony's a sin don't you know?
>>25329206I really enjoy his fiction, especially his earlier works.
>>25329216>Thomas Aquinas writes about the importance of temperance >Weighs around 300lbs>Had to write on a custom made table because his belly was so bigBloody hypocrites
>>25329229>>25329213Hmmm...
>>25329206He may be a fatty, but my God can he write
>>25329206Chesterton is the antidote to every modern disease.The man saw that the problem with modernity is not that it's too rational but that it's not rational enough. It abandons reason precisely where reason gets uncomfortable. The modern mind says: "I'll follow the evidence wherever it leads, unless it leads to a cross. Then I'll stop."His Father Brown stories are theology disguised as detective fiction. The priest solves crimes not because he's smarter than the police but because he understands sin. He knows what men are capable of because he's heard their confessions. The detective looks for clues. The priest looks for the soul.Chesterton converted to Catholicism in 1922. When asked why, he said: "To get rid of my sins. There is no other religious reason." That's the whole thing, compressed into two sentences. No abstraction. No theory. Just the actual problem and the actual solution.The world needs Chesterton now more than ever. Keep posting.
his fiction is great napoleon of notting hill and thursday are the two that have stuck with me the most I think. His non fiction is great as well here is a samplehttps://www.online-literature.com/chesterton/alarms-and-discursions/1/https://www.online-literature.com/chesterton/alarms-and-discursions/21/of two standaloen essays but all his non fiction works are great, orthodoxy is a popular one but still probably the place to start. He is a fantastic writer, one of my favorite bits from heretics:> Suppose that a great commotion arises in the street about something, let us say a lamp-post, which many influential persons desire to pull down. A grey-clad monk, who is the spirit of the Middle Ages, is approached upon the matter, and begins to say, in the arid manner of the Schoolmen, “Let us first of all consider, my brethren, the value of Light. If Light be in itself good—” At this point he is somewhat excusably knocked down. All the people make a rush for the lamp-post, the lamp-post is down in ten minutes, and they go about congratulating each other on their unmediaeval practicality. But as things go on they do not work out so easily. Some people have pulled the lamp-post down because they wanted the electric light; some because they wanted old iron; some because they wanted darkness, because their deeds were evil. Some thought it not enough of a lamp-post, some too much; some acted because they wanted to smash municipal machinery; some because they wanted to smash something. And there is war in the night, no man knowing whom he strikes. So, gradually and inevitably, to-day, to-morrow, or the next day, there comes back the conviction that the monk was right after all, and that all depends on what is the philosophy of Light. Only what we might have discussed under the gas-lamp, we now must discuss in the dark.
>>25329499Recommend me some of his works, please.
>>25329206I have read 4 of his novels, and did not finish the Flying Inn. The Ball and Cross is one of my all time favourites, would recommend.
>>25329499This is a LLM post>>25330445nta obviously but I never liked the novels, the father brown stories are tons of fun, the essays are wildly entertaining in small doses, the whole catholic shit is pretty shoddy reasoning by honest standards but astounding verbal performance. The essays are my favorite, but you can't read them all at once. Chesterton is a man of one trick>Some people say X, therefore Y.>Well I say Y, therefore X!>ohohohohoho Jesus ohohohoho Catholicismand he's very, very good at that trick but it's a lot of the same one trick. Very brisk, snappy, lithe writer, you imagine him making very fine gestures around your head with the tip of his walking cane as a cigar bobs in his mouth. My favorite essay easily is A Piece Of Chalk https://www.chesterton.org/a-piece-of-chalk/
Is there a difference between The Man Who was Thursday vs The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare?Different versions or editions?
>>25330791There is only one novel. The subtitle of the novel was always "a nightmare". I suppose some editions just omit it, but I don't think they should. Such a great book
bump
About to start this one. The Wisdom of Father Brown.
chestie has slick prose he's in the realm of conan doyle and machen and lads of that era he's an anglo-mystic btw and a catholic larper
>>25329206who?
>>25329206My favorite episode is that one where Father Brown impersonates a chinese and gets labeled as racist by the whole island.
