THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => ENJOY => Topic started by: de_la_Nae on 28 Jun 2013, 00:36
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Just got done rereading The Man Who Was Thursday.
Now mind you the only stuff I've read from this author is this and some of the Father Brown stories, but more often than not I'm impressed. The writing itself tends to be put together with beauty and charm, and I tend to find the subject matter amusing and engaging. Doesn't hurt that I feel it's usually head and shoulders over what I find to be the general tripe in fiction that tackles Christian themes.
On a side note it strikes me that, reading makes me think of David Wong's This Book Is Full Of Spiders, for a few different reasons.
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I actually meant to put this question in: anyone here have anything by him that they'd recommend?
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Isn't he the guy that co-wrote that Iron Maiden song?
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oh shit someone replied.
But...what?
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Anyway, his other major fiction is the Father Brown short stories - not bad, but I don't get very excited over them.
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I *really* like some of them, and some of them have been a little 'eh'. Only have one of the collections, though.
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oh shit someone replied.
But...what?
The first verse of this song: [url]http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/books/a-hymn.html[/lurl] was used at the beginning of Iron Maiden's Revelations.
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Chesterton is arguably my favourite author, though it's difficult to compare him to say, Tolkien or Rothfuss as I enjoy them for vastly different reasons.
That said, there's a lot more out there worth reading than just TMWWT and Father Brown. My top three recommendations would be Manalive (http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/books/manalive/man_toc.html), Tales of the Longbow (http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/books/longbow2.txt), and The Poet and the Lunatics (http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/books/Poet_and_Lunatics.html).
The Napoleon of Notting Hill gets recommended a lot, but I wasn't impressed as much by it as by some of his other works (same with TMWWT). Four Faultless Felons and Club of Queer Trades were also good reads, though they didn't manage to rank as highly as the three above. Really the same can be said for most of his stuff, it's worth reading but it doesn't all stand out as exceptional.
Several more books/short story collections are listed here:
http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/books/#FICTION
As well, look at his non-fiction essays, which I would also recommend, as he keeps up the same entertaining, and thought-provoking, style as in his fiction. Of course, I also agree with most of his basic philosophies, so YMMV on his non-fic.
And since that site's organization leaves something to be desired:
"Novels"
(usually collections of short stories centering around a single character and originally published as serials, though some are proper novels)
The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904)
The Club of Queer Trades (1905)
The Man Who Was Thursday (1908)
The Ball and the Cross (1909)
Manalive (1912)
The Flying Inn (1914)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1922)
The Trees of Pride (1922)
Tales of the Long Bow (1925)
The Return of Don Quixote (1926)
The Poet and the Lunatics (1929)
Four Faultless Felons (1930)
The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond (1937)
The Complete Father Brown, which includes:
The Innocence of Father Brown
The Wisdom of Father Brown
The Incredulity of Father Brown
The Secret of Father Brown
The Scandal of Father Brown
I left out the poetry, plays, and individual short stories.
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I just noticed that this was replied to again.
Thank you very much, if you ever see this, Wlerin. I'll definitely look into this.
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See, now I'm curious because I fucking love 'John Dies at the End' and 'This Book is Full of Spiders'. How is it similar?