Showing results by author "G.K Chesterton" in All Categories

Esteemed writer G. K. Chesterton offers a compelling critique of the works of Charles Dickens, sharing his profound admiration and unique insights into Dickens literary genius in his distinct and engaging style. (Summary by Karen Merline)

A dazzling and uplifting biography of the great Saint Francis of Assisi who gained the world by giving up worldly goods to be be independent of all. Less is more at the highest level. Told in a remarkably astute, nuanced, optimistic, uplifting biography by G. K. Chesterton, known as the Prince of Paradox.

Eight adventures in this classic British mystery series featuring Horne Fisher and his trusted friend Harold March. Horne is a natural sleuth, but his inquiries develop moral consequences. Notable for their wit and sense of wonder, these tales offer an evocative portrait of upper crust English society before World War One. Contains eight stories: "The Face in the Target", "The Vanishing Prince", "The Soul of the Schoolboy", "The Bottomless Well", "The Fad of the Fisherman", "The Hole in the Wall", "The Temple of Silence", and "The Vengeance of the Statue."

A thoroughly engaging collection of classic short stories from some of the greatest writers who lived.

From London to Cornwall, then to Italy and France, a short, shabby priest takes on bandits, traitors and killers. Why is he so successful? The reason is that after years spent in the priesthood, Father Brown knows human nature and is not afraid of its dark side. Thus he understands criminal motivation and how to deal with it.

Dive into the world of The Innocence of Father Brown, a collection of riveting mystery tales penned by G.K. Chesterton. Unveil the truth behind each enigma with the unassuming yet astoundingly sharp Roman Catholic priest, Father Brown. Despite his unremarkable exterior, Father Browns insightful deductions consistently outdo the so-called experts, often caught off-guard due to their prejudgments about Christianity. This 1911 classic weaves together enthralling narratives and thought-provoking commentary, making it an irresistible read. (Summary by Brian Roberg)

Chesterton portrays Father Brown as a short, stumpy Roman Catholic priest, with shapeless clothes and a large umbrella, and an uncanny insight into human evil. "How in Tartarus," cried Flambeau, "did you ever hear of the spiked bracelet?" -- "Oh, one's little flock, you know!" said Father Brown, arching his eyebrows rather blankly. "When I was a curate in Hartlepool, there were three of them with spiked bracelets." Not long after he published Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton moved from London to Beaconsfield, and met Father O'Connor.

Diminutive, bespectacled, and endearing, Father Brown only appears unworldly. But the cherubic parish priest is privy to the inner workings of the most surprising of sinners. And as an amateur sleuth, he intuits motives for Essex's unsolvable crimes. One of the most beloved characters in 20th-century detective fiction, the kindly cleric leverages his unrivaled insights into human nature to decipher 12 ingenious mysteries from the witty and clever mind of G. K. Chesterton.

From London to Cornwall, then to Italy and France, a short, shabby priest takes on bandits, traitors, and killers. Why is he so successful? The reason is that after years spent in the priesthood, Father Brown knows human nature and is not afraid of its dark side. Thus he understands criminal motivation and how to deal with it.

A spine-tingling selection of detective stories including contributions from Edgar Wallace, Conan Doyle, and G. K. Chesterton.

This is an essay from the Favorite Essays collection.

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

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

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

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 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 ...

1. "August Heat" by W. F. Harvey 2. "A Madman’s Manuscript" by Charles Dickens 3. "The Hair" by A. J. Alan 4. "My Favourite Murder" by Ambrose Bierce 5. "Cannibalism in the Cars" by Mark Twain 6. "Gabriel-Earnest" by Saki 7. "The Pistol Shot" by Alexander Pushkin 8. "The Mark of the Beast" by Rudyard Kipling 9. "At the Farmhouse" by E. F. Benson 10. "The Parasite" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 11. "The Murder of the Mandarin" by Arnold Bennett 12. "Moon’s Gibbet" by Egerton Castle 13. "Query" by Seamark

A collection of five short stories by G. K. Chesterton including “The Blue Cross,” “The Invisible Man,” “The Three Tools of Death,” “The Flying Stars and The Wrong Shape.”

Christmas, they say, comes but once a year. In these days it seems to also last for much of that year - but this volume is not just for Christmas! For the religious amongst us, this annual celebration of the Birth of Christ must seem bitter sweet: it's acknowledgment by billions of people countered by the pervasive spread of material possessions translating the event to little more than a sales pitch for material wares.

The shadow of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes would inevitably fall across much of the crime fiction that followed that most famous of detectives. However, in 1910, G.K Chesterton's unassuming, devout, and unprepossessing Father Brown made his first appearance and proved no less of a fascinating figure who would stands firmly on his own two ecclesiastical feet. Head Stories presents the first in a series of the complete Father Brown, read by Simon Hester with original music.