Gilbert Keith Chesterton Popular Books

Gilbert Keith Chesterton Biography & Facts

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was an English writer, philosopher, Christian apologist, and literary and art critic. Chesterton created the fictional priest-detective Father Brown, and wrote on apologetics. Even some of those who disagree with him have recognised the wide appeal of such works as Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man. Chesterton routinely referred to himself as an orthodox Christian, and came to identify this position more and more with Catholicism, eventually converting from high church Anglicanism. Biographers have identified him as a successor to such Victorian authors as Matthew Arnold, Thomas Carlyle, John Henry Newman and John Ruskin.He has been referred to as the "prince of paradox". Of his writing style, Time observed: "Whenever possible, Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories—first carefully turning them inside out." His writings were an influence on Jorge Luis Borges, who compared his work with that of Edgar Allan Poe. Biography Early life Chesterton was born in Campden Hill in Kensington, London, the son of Edward Chesterton (1841–1922), an estate agent, and Marie Louise, née Grosjean, of Swiss French origin. Chesterton was baptised at the age of one month into the Church of England, though his family themselves were irregularly practising Unitarians. According to his autobiography, as a young man he became fascinated with the occult and, along with his brother Cecil, experimented with Ouija boards. He was educated at St Paul's School, then attended the Slade School of Art to become an illustrator. The Slade is a department of University College London, where Chesterton also took classes in literature, but he did not complete a degree in either subject. He married Frances Blogg in 1901; the marriage lasted the rest of his life. Chesterton credited Frances with leading him back to Anglicanism, though he later considered Anglicanism to be a "pale imitation". He entered in full communion with the Catholic Church in 1922. The couple were unable to have children.A friend from schooldays was Edmund Clerihew Bentley, inventor of the clerihew, a whimsical four-line biographical poem. Chesterton himself wrote clerihews and illustrated his friend's first published collection of poetry, Biography for Beginners (1905), which popularised the clerihew form. He became godfather to Bentley's son, Nicolas, and opened his novel The Man Who Was Thursday with a poem written to Bentley. Career In September 1895, Chesterton began working for the London publisher George Redway, where he remained for just over a year. In October 1896, he moved to the publishing house T. Fisher Unwin, where he remained until 1902. During this period he also undertook his first journalistic work, as a freelance art and literary critic. In 1902, The Daily News gave him a weekly opinion column, followed in 1905 by a weekly column in The Illustrated London News, for which he continued to write for the next thirty years. Early on Chesterton showed a great interest in and talent for art. He had planned to become an artist, and his writing shows a vision that clothed abstract ideas in concrete and memorable images. Father Brown is perpetually correcting the incorrect vision of the bewildered folks at the scene of the crime and wandering off at the end with the criminal to exercise his priestly role of recognition, repentance and reconciliation. For example, in the story "The Flying Stars", Father Brown entreats the character Flambeau to give up his life of crime: "There is still youth and honour and humour in you; don't fancy they will last in that trade. Men may keep a sort of level of good, but no man has ever been able to keep on one level of evil. That road goes down and down. The kind man drinks and turns cruel; the frank man kills and lies about it. Many a man I've known started like you to be an honest outlaw, a merry robber of the rich, and ended stamped into slime." Chesterton loved to debate, often engaging in friendly public disputes with such men as George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Bertrand Russell and Clarence Darrow. According to his autobiography, he and Shaw played cowboys in a silent film that was never released. On 7 January 1914 Chesterton (along with his brother Cecil and future sister-in-law Ada) took part in the mock-trial of John Jasper for the murder of Edwin Drood. Chesterton was Judge and George Bernard Shaw played the role of foreman of the jury.Chesterton was a large man, standing 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) tall and weighing around 20 stone 6 pounds (130 kg; 286 lb). His girth gave rise to an anecdote during the First World War, when a lady in London asked why he was not "out at the Front"; he replied, "If you go round to the side, you will see that I am." On another occasion he remarked to his friend George Bernard Shaw, "To look at you, anyone would think a famine had struck England." Shaw retorted, "To look at you, anyone would think you had caused it." P. G. Wodehouse once described a very loud crash as "a sound like G. K. Chesterton falling onto a sheet of tin". Chesterton usually wore a cape and a crumpled hat, with a swordstick in hand, and a cigar hanging out of his mouth. He had a tendency to forget where he was supposed to be going and miss the train that was supposed to take him there. It is reported that on several occasions he sent a telegram to his wife Frances from an incorrect location, writing such things as "Am in Market Harborough. Where ought I to be?" to which she would reply, "Home". Chesterton himself told this story, omitting, however, his wife's alleged reply, in his autobiography.In 1931, the BBC invited Chesterton to give a series of radio talks. He accepted, tentatively at first. He was allowed (and encouraged) to improvise on the scripts. This allowed his talks to maintain an intimate character, as did the decision to allow his wife and secretary to sit with him during his broadcasts. The talks were very popular. A BBC official remarked, after Chesterton's death, that "in another year or so, he would have become the dominating voice from Broadcasting House." Chesterton was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1935.Chesterton was part of the Detection Club, a society of British mystery authors founded by Anthony Berkeley in 1928. He was elected as the first president and served from 1930 to 1936 till he was succeeded by E. C. Bentley. Death Chesterton died of congestive heart failure on 14 June 1936, aged 62, at his home in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. His last words were a greeting of good morning spoken to his wife Frances. The sermon at Chesterton's Requiem Mass in Westminster Cathedral, London, was delivered by Ronald Knox on 27 June 1936. Knox said, "All of this generation has grown up under Chesterton's influence so completely that we do not even know when we are thinking Chesterton." He is buried in Beaconsfield in the Catholic Cemetery. Chesterton's estate w.... Discover the Gilbert Keith Chesterton popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Gilbert Keith Chesterton books.

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  • Gilbert Keith Chesterton synopsis, comments

    Gilbert Keith Chesterton

    Maisie Ward

    GILBERT KEITH CHESTERTON was born on May 29, 1874 at a house in Sheffield Terrace, Campden Hill, just below the great tower of the Waterworks which so much impressed his childish i...

  • Quella cara vecchia pipa synopsis, comments

    Quella cara vecchia pipa

    Fabio Trevisan

    “Quella cara vecchia pipa” è una canzone che Chesterton udì e meditò a lungo: “Forse la pipa è una reliquia, oltre che un ninnolo”. Essa è l’emblema del giusto rapporto con le cose...

  • Gilbert Keith Chesterton synopsis, comments

    Gilbert Keith Chesterton

    Jean-Baptiste Baronian, Maxime Lamiroy & Hugues Hausman

    Une cliente me demande si nous avons les livres de Van In. Le nom du commissaire de Pieter Aspe a supplanté celui de son créateur. Elle est incapable de me citer un seul titre. Les...

  • 30 Suspense and Thriller Masterpieces you have to read before you die synopsis, comments

    30 Suspense and Thriller Masterpieces you have to read before you die

    Marcel Allain, Grant Allen, John Buchan, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Wilkie Collins, Arthur Griffiths, Edward Phillips Oppenheim, Edgar Wallace, Thomas Hardy, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Louis Joseph Vance, Fred Merrick White, Henry Rider Haggard, G.K. Chesterton, Anthony Hope, William Andrew Johnston, Frederic Arnold Kummer, William Le Queux & Frank Norris

    This book contains the following works arranged alphabetically by authors last names A Royal Prisoner [Marcel Allain] The Thames Valley Catastrophe [Grant Allen] Mr Standfast [Joh...

  • Der Skorpion synopsis, comments

    Der Skorpion

    Louis Weinert-Wilton

    Bevor das Sternbild des Skorpions die Gemüter des weiten Gebiets von London derart beschäftigte, daß die Straßenjugend der äußersten Vororte diese Figur der fernen südlichen Himmel...

  • The Hope of the Gospel synopsis, comments

    The Hope of the Gospel

    George MacDonald

    This nonfictional book written by George MacDonald is one of the most potent collections of Christian apologetics. Author's religious reflections and theological views are comp...

  • Der Mann, der Donnerstag war synopsis, comments

    Der Mann, der Donnerstag war

    G. K. Chesterton

    Der Roman The Man Who Was Thursday von 1908 (dt. 1910 als Der Mann, der Donnerstag war) ist eine politische Satire, die der Phantastischen Literatur zugerechnet werden kann: Ein Ko...

  • Gilbert Keith Chesterton synopsis, comments

    Gilbert Keith Chesterton

    Patrick Braybrooke

    This book gives a biography of the great English author.

  • Der Mann, der Donnerstag war - Ein Komplott anarchistischer Terroristen synopsis, comments

    Der Mann, der Donnerstag war - Ein Komplott anarchistischer Terroristen

    G. K. Chesterton

    Dieses eBook: "Der Mann, der Donnerstag war Ein Komplott anarchistischer Terroristen" ist mit einem detaillierten und dynamischen Inhaltsverzeichnis versehen und wurde sor...

  • Gilbert Keith Chesterton synopsis, comments

    Gilbert Keith Chesterton

    Maisie Ward

    Maisie Ward''s biography of Gilbert Keith Chesterton has long been a cornerstone in Chesterton studies, as well as in the publishing house she and her husband, Frank Sheed, founded...

  • The Innocence of Father Brown synopsis, comments

    The Innocence of Father Brown

    Gilbert Keith Chesterton

    Twelve mysteries featuring Father Brown, the short, stumpy Catholic priest with "uncanny insight into human evil."

  • The Plots of Father Brown Stories of Gilbert Keith Chesterton synopsis, comments

    The Plots of Father Brown Stories of Gilbert Keith Chesterton

    Daniel Zimmermann

    This ebook treats eleven Father Brown mysteries, including "The Hammer of God," "The Blue Cross," "The Three Tools of Death," "The Wrong Shape," "The Secret Garden," etc. Father Br...

  • Gilbert Keith Chesterton synopsis, comments

    Gilbert Keith Chesterton

    Maisie Ward

    Maisie Ward's biography of Gilbert Keith Chesterton has long been a cornerstone in Chesterton studies, as well as in the publishing house she and her husband, Frank Sheed, founded ...

  • Gilbert Keith Chesterton synopsis, comments

    Gilbert Keith Chesterton

    Maisie Ward

    Maisie Ward's biography of Gilbert Keith Chesterton has long been a cornerstone in Chesterton studies, as well as in the publishing house she and her husband, Frank Sheed, founded ...

  • Gilbert Keith Chesterton synopsis, comments

    Gilbert Keith Chesterton

    Patrick Braybrooke

    This book is the outcome of many and repeated requests to the author to write it. The book aims to be a popular study of the Writer and the Man. Orthodoxy' is, I think, one of the ...

  • Pater Brown Geschichten synopsis, comments

    Pater Brown Geschichten

    Gilbert Keith Chesterton

    Niemand käme wohl auf die Idee Monsieur Dupin oder Sherlock Holmes zu unterschätzen. Chestertons Father Brown hingegen ist unscheinbar, sieht sogar etwas einfältig aus was ihm imm...

  • The Club of Queer Trades synopsis, comments

    The Club of Queer Trades

    Gilbert Keith Chesterton

    A collection of related short stories by British author G. K. Chesterton. Each story is centered on a person who is making his living by some novel and extraordinary means (a "quee...

  • Works of Gilbert Keith Chesterton synopsis, comments

    Works of Gilbert Keith Chesterton

    G. K. Chesterton

    Table of Contents List of Works by Genre and Title List of Works in Alphabetical Order List of Works in Chronological Order Gilbert Keith Chesterton Biography Fiction :: Nonfiction...

  • Gilbert Keith Chesterton synopsis, comments

    Gilbert Keith Chesterton

    Gilbert Keith Chesterton

    Diese Sammlung der Werke von Gilbert Keith Chesterton, des berühmten englischen Buchautoren, Journalisten und Schöpfers des Father Brown (Pater Brown) enthält u. a.:Gilbert Keith C...

  • The Man Who Knew Too Much synopsis, comments

    The Man Who Knew Too Much

    Gilbert Keith Chesterton

    This contains the first 8 of the 12 stories in the published book The Man Who Knew Too Much and Other Stories. In these 8 detective thrillers, the main protagonist is Horne Fisher....

  • Der Mann, der Donnerstag war synopsis, comments

    Der Mann, der Donnerstag war

    Gilbert Keith Chesterton

    Vorzüglich ums Abendwerden und den Einbruch der Nacht überfiel Saffron Park diese reizende Unwirklichkeit: wenn die Extravaganz der Dächer verschwamm im Nachtglühen und das ganze v...

  • Gilbert Keith Chesterton synopsis, comments

    Gilbert Keith Chesterton

    Maisie Ward

    Gilbert Keith Chesterton or G. K. Chesterton, was an English writer, poet, philosopher, dramatist, journalist, orator, lay theologian, biographer, and literary and art critic. Ches...