Questions tagged [g-k-chesterton]
Questions related to the English writer, poet, philosopher and dramatist Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874 – 1936) and his work. His works include The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904), The Man Who Was Thursday (1908) and the Father Brown stories (1910–1935).
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Is there a chronological order for Father Brown stories?
I've read most of the Father Brown stories, and I noticed a bit of time travelling takes place in them (not sci-fi time-travelling, but an ambivalence by the author to the fact that somethings couldn'...
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Why did Valentine become the villain in the very second story of Father Brown?
In the first story of Father Brown, "The Blue Cross", we are introduced to the police chief Valentine, who is supposedly a very good detective. As a reader we might even expect this to be ...
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Is there a common origin to the phrase "the revolution will not be televised / mentioned in the newspaper"
I'm listening in an offhand way to G.K. Chesterton's Tales from the Long Bow audiobook and I heard the phrase:
when the real revolution happens it won't be mentioned in the newspapers
It sounded ...
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Dunedin to Samoa spoke
The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton has an interesting dedicatory poem: "To Edmund Clerihew Bentley".
The author seems to be describing a period of doubt and spiritual bleakness he ...
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In The Blue Cross, what is the mailbag trick?
From the Father Brown story "The Blue Cross":
It was he who had kept up an unaccountable and close correspondence with a young lady whose whole letter-bag was intercepted, by the ...
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What does "at all" mean in "The Vampire of the Village"?
In "The Vampire of the Village" by G. K. Chesterton, Father Brown was talking about an old parson and his son, saying:
‘I mean,’ said Father Brown, ‘that the son still speaks of his father ...
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What does "follow him even in thought" mean in "The Vampire of the Village"?
In "The Vampire of the Village" by G. K. Chesterton, the author was describing Father Brown while visiting some persons, saying:
The conversation of Miss Carstairs-Carew, on whom he called ...
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What's meant by "It would be almost irregular, if the clergyman’s son were quite regular"?
In "The Vampire of the Village" by G. K. Chesterton, Dr. Mulborough was talking to Father Brown about a Great Scandal in their village, while they were going to a village by a train, saying:
...
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What does GKC mean when he says "trees that seemed to take hold upon the stars like a brood of Ygdrasils"?
What does G.K. Chesterton mean when in the beginning of "A Defence of Skeletons" in The Defendant he says:
trees that seemed to take hold upon the stars like a brood of Ygdrasils
I know ...
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What's meant here by "[the heresies] are actually unconscious?
In "The Crime of The Communist" by G. K. Chesterton, there is a conversation between many persons about the communism:
‘Well, you’re all very down on Communism, of course,’ said the Master, ...
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What's meant here by "over the cosier chambers of Humanism ..."?
In "The Crime of The Communist" by G. K. Chesterton, the author was describing three men and the surrounding architecture of Mandeville College, saying:
They themselves, in a curious quiet ...
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Does "entertain about" mean "distract about" or "entertain because"?
In "The Quick One" by G. K. Chesterton, Father Brown was talking to his friend about a murder that happened in the hotel lounge after a very serious altercation between two men because of ...
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What's meant here by "Don't mention it"?
In "The Quick One" by G. K. Chesterton, Father Brown was talking to his friend, saying:
Didn’t you see how that old man, with the heart of a lion, stood up and forgave his enemy as only ...
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What's meant here by "the sort of lunacy allowed in the gentry"?
In "The Quick One" by G. K. Chesterton, the author was describing a man, saying:
John Raggley was generally regarded as a crank. He was the sort of man who writes letters to the newspaper, ...
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Do clergymen usually use spades?
In "The Quick One" in The Scandal of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton, the author was describing two strange men entered a hotel with beach, saying:
Two quaintly assorted figures did, ...
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Does the title of "Marquis" change the name of its holder?
In "The Chief Mourner of Marne" in The Secret of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton, the main character was named James Mair, and his cousin was named Maurice Mair; the author said that after ...
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What's meant here by " his serving as second proves very little about what he thought of the quarrel"?
In "The Chief Mourner of Marne" by G. K. Chesterton, Mr. Outram was talking to Father Brown about an old duel between Mr. James Mair, whose second was Mr. Outram himself, and his cousin ...
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Meaning of "the humility of a charge" in "The Chief Mourner of Marne"?
In "The Chief Mourner of Marne" by G. K. Chesterton, Mr. Mallow went to Father Brown to consult him about very serious problem, but he found him sitting on the floor with a serious ...
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Meaning of "private gentleman" in "The Worst Crime in the World"?
In "The Worst Crime in the World" by G. K. Chesterton, Father Brown and his friend, a lawyer, was talking to a rich old man who has lived alone in a castle for a long time, and who has just ...
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Who are "we" in "The Worst Crime in the World"?
In "The Worst Crime in the World" by G. K. Chesterton, a lawyer was talking to Father Brown:
“I must apologize for everything I said about the Captain,” he said to the priest as they drifted ...
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Who is "the man in Dickens" in "The Worst Crime in the World"?
In "The Worst Crime in the World" by G. K. Chesterton, a solicitor was talking to Father Brown about Captain Musgrave whose old father was living in an old castle:
“This young Musgrave,” he ...
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Meaning of "interrupted spirals, inverted cones and broken cylinders" in "The Worst Crime in the World"?
In "The Worst Crime in the World" by G. K. Chesterton, the author was saying in its beginning:
FATHER BROWN was wandering through a picture gallery with an expression that suggested that he had ...
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How can he be "so shabbily dressed" and "must have been a millionaire"?
In "The Song of the Flying Fish" by G. K. Chesterton, the author was describing a group of neighbours, a collector, a priest, a biologist, a bank manager and a traveller, that usually got together in ...
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Does "think" mean "think about" or "think by" in "The Secret of Father Brown"?
In "The Secret of Father Brown" by G. K. Chesterton, Father Brown was saying that he prefers studying the murder from inside not outside:
I don’t try to get outside the man. I try to get inside ...
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Meaning of "ethical fellowship" in "The Secret of Father Brown"?
In "The Secret of Father Brown" by G. K. Chesterton, Father Brown said:
If you try to talk about a truth that’s merely moral, people always think it’s merely metaphorical. A real live man with two ...
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What connects "dripping with gore" and Buddhism & Christianity in "The Dagger with Wings"?
In "The Dagger with Wings" by G. K. Chesterton, Father Brown was explaining some philosophical aspects of the murderer, saying:
It was his whole game with me to be as idealistic as possible; and ...
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What's meant by "all things return" in "The Dagger with Wings"?
In "The Dagger with Wings" by G. K. Chesterton, Mr Aylmer was talking to Father Brown, trying to convince him by mesmerism
Don’t you feel in your heart that these contradictions do not really ...
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What's meant by "in the symbol of windows and of doors" in "The Dagger with Wings"?
In "The Dagger with Wings" by G. K. Chesterton, the author was describing a situation where Father Brown was sitting in a central room with a staircase leading up from it on one side and a door ...
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What is "negative" and "positive whiteness" in "The Dagger with Wings"?
In "The Dagger with Wings" by G. K. Chesterton, the author was describing the falling of snow,that appeared through a barely opened door, saying:
What he had seen shining through the crack was not ...
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What would Mr Aylmer resent in "The Dagger with Wings"?
In "The Dagger with Wings" by G. K. Chesterton, Father Brown went to someone, Mr Aylmer, who was asking for protection against another one who wants to kill him, but the priest wasn't sure ...
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Why both "noticed" and "thought noticeable" in "The Oracle of the Dog"?
In "The Oracle of the Dog" by G. K. Chesterton, Father Brown was talking about someone, saying:
"To be found with a weapon, let alone a blood-stained weapon, would be fatal in the search that was ...
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Meaning of "vision of the world’s desire" in "The Oracle of the Dog"
(Spoilers for the solution to "The Oracle of the Dog".)
In "The Oracle of the Dog" by G. K. Chesterton, Father Brown was talking about
Brown said (emphasis added),
It is the megalomania of the ...
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What does "after something had really happened" mean in this G. K. Chesterton story?
In "The Oracle of the Dog" by G. K. Chesterton, the author was talking about a secretary of a murdered colonel, who was very active and always doing everybody’s work, saying (emphasis added):
"It ...
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What does "in the way of business" mean in "The Oracle of the Dog" by G. K. Chesterton?
In "The Oracle of the Dog" by G. K. Chesterton, the daughter of a murdered rich colonel was talking about her husband, a nobleman and skilled surgeon, who wanted to challenge the secretary to a duel, ...
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Meaning of "spelt backwards" in "The Oracle of the Dog"
The story "The Oracle of the Dog" by G. K. Chesterton begins like this:
“YES,” said Father Brown, “I always like a dog, so long as he isn’t spelt backwards.”
What is meant by "so long as he isn’t ...
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When was each article of Avowals and Denials written?
Avowals and Denials is a collection of articles by Chesterton first published in 1934. Is it possible to know when each individual article was first published?
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What is the story of the woman who collected valueless things?
In G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown short story, The Blast of the Book, he makes two references to a story (presumably allegoric) about a woman who collected valueless things. The references are not ...
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Which Chesterton story is alluded to in Childhood's End?
In Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End, there is a small allusion to a Chesterton story, when the characters Stormgreen and Van Ryberg discuss their theories about the nature of the Overlords (Chap. 4):...
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What did G. K. Chesterton mean by this sentence from the first chapter of 'The Man Who Knew Too Much'?
Walking in wind and sun in the very landscape of liberty, he was still young enough to remember his politics and not merely try to forget them.
I want to make sure that "the very landscape of ...
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What did G. K. Chesterton mean by these two paragraphs from the first chapter of 'The Man Who Knew Too Much'?
'Jenkins,' he repeated. 'Surely you don't mean Jefferson Jenkins, the social reformer? I mean the man who's fighting for the new cottage-estate scheme. It would be as interesting to meet him as any ...
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Identify Chesterton's story in which a character wants people to be cheerful but ends up committing suicide
An Internet-article (in Russian) refers to
рассказ Честертона, в котором герой, требующий от окружающих постоянно быть весёлыми, не выдержал собственных требований, спился и покончил с собой
the ...
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