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Title: The Man Who Was Thursday (20Th-Century Classics) by G. K. Chesterton, Kingsley Amis ISBN: 0-14-018388-4 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: August, 1990 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.4 (60 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Weird Masterpiece
Comment: If only all Christian apologists were as eloquent and brilliant as Chesterton. He never hides the fact, he never uses silly rhetorical tricks to try to convince you, "See, you really believe in Christianity!" as so many do. I don't agree with Chesterton on much of anything, but he at least understands his opponent's attitude better than many more simple-minded religious conservatives. (He was, in fact, good friends with George Bernard Shaw.)
The book *is* a "nightmare"; this is what its subtitle states; despite what an earlier reviewer remarked, Chesterton himself, in the book's afterword, insists that it ought to be taken that way; more importantly that's the way the narrative itself appears. All the objects, people, and backgrounds are loaded with wierd supernatural significance. The narrator's fears and desires constantly distort the world he sees around him. Of particular interest is Chesterton's peculiar skill at making everything pregnant with meaning like this. Borges picked up on this skill, and put The Man Who Was Thursday in company with Moby Dick, Vathek, and Robert Louis Stevenson's horror writings. (An example: "It was as though, at the eastern edge of the world, there is a tree that is both more and les than a tree; or, at the western edge of the world, something, perhaps a tower, whose very shape is evil.")
This is only in the loosest sense a detective story; it starts out that way, but if you insist on looking for a "whodunnit" you will be disappointed. By the end it transforms into full-fledged Christian allegory. But it never seems like a easy cop-out, the way, say, the end of C. S. Lewis' Narnia books do. Chesterton's thesis, if one can call it that, is that even a nightmare about atheism, modernity, and anarchists still has some potential to transform itself into something profound and sacred. Whether you like that or not, he gives you an intellectual run for your money. Besides which the book is worth rereading for the prose alone. Chesterton, anti-modernist that he was, was also one of the best stylists of modernist literature.
Rating: 5
Summary: God reconciled with chaos and evil
Comment: The Man Who Was Thursday is an extraordinary work of fiction. It's a comedy, a spy novel, an adventure story and a work of Christian apologetics all at once. It begins with a party in a London garden and ends with the face of God - with a nightmare of chase, horror and keystone cops in between. G. K. Chesterton is always good, but here he outdoes himself.
Set in Edwardian England about 1905, the plot ostensibly revolves around a cabal of anarchists (a turn of the 20th century movement of men who believed that chaos was better than order and used dynamite as their markup language). Our hero, the poet and police inspector Gabriel Syme, penetrates the ruling council of this anarchist ring whose members go by the names of the days of the week. Syme wins a place as Thursday and sets himself against the unholy evil of Sunday. Soon, however, he finds that nothing is what it seems to be and that he himself is the one pursued.
The real novel, beneath all the fun and horror, is a look into a basic mystery of existence: how can a benevolent God be reconciled with the chaos of uncaring nature and monstrous evil?
Chesterton handles these interesting themes with a light, but sure touch. Chesterton believes in good and evil. He's by no means a modern moral relativist. At the same time, however, he's showing us that good and evil are parts of the same dance, part of the same chaotic fervor of nature and that it's not for us to see their clear nature; only God sees through the veil of chaos.
You don't have to be religious to enjoy the book, it's OK even for an atheist to ponder the nature of God (in fact, it's required). Chesterton takes us right to the heart of his.
Rating: 5
Summary: Thought-Provoking Novel
Comment: Chesterton writes a fascinating novel that seems to be about faith in the end, although one would not have suspected that at the beginning. It is very important to remember that the subtitle of the book is "A Nightmare" (missing from most covers) when you read it as this helps to interpret the book. Chesterton added a note to some editions to emphasize this.
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Title: Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton, Ignatius Pr ISBN: 0898705525 Publisher: Ignatius Press Pub. Date: July, 1995 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: The Everlasting Man by G. K. Chesterton ISBN: 0898704448 Publisher: Ignatius Press Pub. Date: April, 1993 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Penguin Complete Father Brown by Gilbert Keith Chesterton ISBN: 014009766X Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: January, 1987 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Manalive by G. K. Chesterton ISBN: 0486414051 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 27 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: What's Wrong With the World by G. K. Chesterton ISBN: 0898704898 Publisher: Ignatius Press Pub. Date: October, 1994 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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