検索キーワード： 著者 "G K" すべてのカテゴリー

Three men of letters give insightful essays on the work of Leo Tolstoy. (Summary by Larry Wilson)

A collection of 35 essays by G.K. Chesterton originally published in his weekly columns in "The Illustrated London News" and the "New Witness". The subjects vary greatly from lamp posts to Jane Austen's Emma, from "On Pigs as Pets" to Mormonism and Christian Science. (Summary by Maria Therese)

“Let me begin my American impressions with two impressions I had before I went to America. One was an incident and the other an idea; and when taken together they illustrate the attitude I mean. The first principle is that nobody should be ashamed of thinking a thing funny because it is foreign; the second is that he should be ashamed of thinking it wrong because it is funny.” (Gilbert Keith Chesterton)

Subtitled by the author as a "Nightmare", this is a fantasy, comic thriller about a plot to end the world by a group of anarchists. Generally regarded as Chesterton's most impressive novel. - Summary by Anthony Ogus

A new series of adventures and mysteries solved by the skill and quick wit of Father Brown, the one detective in English fiction who can compete with Sherlock Holmes. (From a 1927 advertisement)

In the freezing English countryside, Father Brown leads Flambeau to the many monuments and shrines of the great General St. Claire. "Sacred to the Memory of General Sir Arthur St. Clare, Hero and Martyr, who Always Vanquished his Enemies and Always Spared Them, and Was Treacherously Slain by Them At Last. May God in Whom he Trusted both Reward and Revenge him." is the inscription that they read on each of them. Flambeau knows nothing of him but listens to the story of this man as Father Brown tells it. Was St. Claire truly a hero and martyr? What is the mystery behind his last foolish and ...

These eight Father Brown mysteries depart from Chesterton’s two earlier Father Brown collections – The Innocence of Father Brown, and The Wisdom of Father Brown – in that most take place in America and/or centrally feature American characters. Father Brown is a nondescript, shy, poorly clad and clumsy Catholic priest – and an exceptionally talented detective. He shines not despite, but because he is a humble, quiet, commonplace, Catholic priest. Because of his personal attributes he is frequently underrated and even ignored by professionals, by those with higher status or less reticent...

The same pen that wrote the famous Father Brown stories here presents another volume of equally delightful mystery and murder stories with a central figure running through them all. For those who like to go a bit further than plot there is an additional mental exhilaration in store. (Ontario Library Review, 1929)

A short biography (1902) of a famous writer (Carlyle) by another famous writer (Chesterton). The first half exhibits Chesterton’s sly wit as he ruminates upon Carlyle’s work; the second half is straightforward biography. There are a great many pictures and portraits in the physical text. - Summary by David Wales

Saint Francis of Assisi grew up in a wealthy family and his early life was characterized by splendor, riches and a lavish lifestyle. During an illness, he supposedly had a vision, after which he became disillusioned with his lifestyle and began giving everything away to beggars. His conversion was gradual, but after a pilgrimage to Rome, he supposedly hid in a cave to avoid his father's anger and then began to live a life of poverty and contrition. He is forever associated with simplicity and nature. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

For Chesterton, Francis of Assisi is a great paradoxical figure, a man who loved women but vowed himself to chastity; an artist who loved the pleasures of the natural world as few have loved them, but vowed himself to the most austere poverty, stripping himself naked in the public square so all could see that he had renounced his worldly goods; a clown who stood on his head in order to see the world aright. Chesterton gives us Francis in his world-the riotously colorful world of the High Middle Ages, a world with more pageantry and romance than we have seen before or since. Here is the Francis...

This short early twentieth century biography of Robert Louis Stevenson by polymath Chesterton and journalist Nicoll is also sometimes entitled ‘The Characteristics of Robert Louis Stevenson.’ Each author wrote a section of the whole. This recording is of the third edition which differs structurally from the first edition and has some additional material. - Summary by David Wales

This mystery of the unconscious man, far deeper than any mystery of the conscious one, existing as it does in all men, existed peculiarly in Browning, because he was a very ordinary and spontaneous man. The same thing exists to some extent in all history and all affairs. Anything that is deliberate, twisted, created as a trap and a mystery, must be discovered at last; everything that is done naturally remains mysterious. ... [T]here is between making a map of a labyrinth and making a map of a mist. The life of Robert Browning, who combines the greatest brain with the most simple temperament ...

'Madmen do not rebel against logic – they merely use it where it is not applicable.' A brilliantly unique collection of short stories, The Poet and the Lunatics was originally published in Nash's Magazine in 1921. Today, it remains a masterpiece of detective fiction. Gabriel Gale, an eccentric poet, often finds himself acting as detective when he becomes entangled in a series of bizarre and psychologically challenging events.

Part spy novel and part allegory, The Man Who Was Thursday centres on Gabriel Symes, a poet who was recruited by Scotland Yard to secretly infiltrate an anarchist group. During his first meeting with the anarchists, Symes is unexpectedly elected as a new delegate to the central council. Each member is named after a day of the week, and so Syme becomes ‘Thursday’. As he begins to unmask the other council members, he discovers that all is not what it seems: one by one these supposed anarchists are unveiled to be working undercover too. That is until Syme gets to man called ‘Sunday’…

The Return of Don Quixote centres on the character of Michael Herne, a gentle, quiet librarian. When Michael finds himself cast as a king in a medieval play, he reluctantly fulfils the role. But after the play's end, peculiar things start to occur: Michael begins donning armour, adopts chivalric ideals and boldly questions the hypocrisies of modern society. As Michael rallies for a movement that tackles misplaced power and dishonour, it's clear that a new Don Quixote is in town…

The year is 1984. The British government has become impersonal and apathetic, not run by a particular party or corresponding ideology, but by the random selection of a new figurehead each year. When the eccentric Auberon Quin is chosen to lead the country, the nation begins to take a whimsical turn. In an attempt to liven up London, Auberon transforms the city into a mock-medieval town, complete with crests, flags and costumes. Everything is a joke–that is until Adam Wayne, a young man claiming to be the Napoleon of Notting Hill, begins to take it seriously.

Meet Basil Grant — former judge, occasional philosopher, and full-time eccentric — as he stumbles into a secret society unlike any other. In this exclusive club, the only rule of entry is that each member must invent a brand-new profession. The more bizarre, the better. When Basil's skeptical brother and a skeptical ex-detective friend get caught in a series of baffling encounters — including duels in flower gardens, poetry-as-business, and suspiciously polite assassins — they soon uncover a world where the line between genius and madness is dangerously thin.

This epic poem is about Alfred the Great's defense of Christian England against the pagan Viking invaders. The decisive battle is fought in sight of a white horse mark made on a hill, after which the poem is named. As the white horse mark must be continually maintained by weeding to be clearly seen, Chesterton sees it as a symbol of the continual struggle to maintain the Christian culture and values for which Alfred the Great fought. - Summary by Robin Lamb

This is the fourth collection of mysteries featuring the very smart and even more devout catholic priest, Father Brown. (It follows The Innocence of Father Brown, The Wisdom of Father Brown and The Incredulity of Father Brown.) Father Brown is probably the most unconventional detective of fiction: short and dumpy, extremely shy, unvaryingly kind, and utterly unselfconscious. His secret? As a priest he has developed a far-reaching understanding of how we all feel and think. Being profoundly humble, he is able to imagine how he, personally, could be led to commit a given theft, murder or other ...