Chesterton's Novels

During his lifetime G. K. Chesterton published six novels: The Napoleon of Notting Hill, The Man Who Was Thursday, The Ball and the Cross, Manalive, The Flying Inn, and The Return of Don Quixote. Years later, long after Chesterton left this world, the manuscript of an unpublished novel written when he was just 19 was discovered: Basil Howe: A Story Young Love. 

Of the published novels I have read the first five. I do have a copy of The Return of Don Quixote, and will likely give it a read at some point. 

As for the previously unpublished novel, first, the name was just one given to it after it was discovered. We don't know what Chesterton would have given it if he had chosen to try to publish it. It is also hard to find, so there's a good chance I never will get a chance to read it. 

Of the novels I have read, I liked Napoleon the best, despite the fact that most critics and readers  consider Thursday his best novel. I rank it my second favorite. Ironically on the Chesterton blog to which I contribute I am "Thursday."

My Ranking:

The Napoleon of Notting Hill, 

The Man Who Was Thursday

Manalive

The Ball and the Cross

The Flying Inn,

I've also read all the Father Brown stories, but there are a number of his short story collections to read. Indeed, my reading list for this year includes The Poet and the Lunatics. 

Given how much Chesterton wrote, I could spend the rest of my life reading just his published essays, poems, plays, and fiction, and probably not get to them all.

 

Pax et bonum

Murder in the Lincoln White House by C. M. Gleason

I decided to read some Civil War-era mysteries because of my interest in that conflict and that time period, because I like mysteries, and because I have an idea in the back of my mind about a mystery story of my own set in that period and I wanted to see how other writers handled it. Combining research and pleasure.

I'd seen the Civil War mystery series of C. M. Gleason praised on some mystery lists, so I got a couple of them from the library. Murder in the Lincoln White House is the first in the series, and the one I read first.

Overall assessment: Good period mystery. There are some interesting characters, the writing is competent, the plot works, the historical details were obviously researched. Worth reading, and enough to inspire me to read more in her series.

It's set at the time of Lincoln's Inauguration in 1861, with the Civil War about to break out. The novel deals with those tensions, and they play into the murder mystery, though they are not the only reason for the killer's action.

A couple of quibbles, though.

As I was reading, I noted:

The protagonist, ruggedly handsome and moral and upright, has a disability.

The protagonist was also an orphan and a frontiersman.

He studied tracking and hunting techniques under a wise Native American mentor.

He enlists the aide of a Black doctor who is skilled at autopsies. (In 1861?)

He encounters a female journalist who disguises herself as a man and who becomes another ally and potential romantic interest. (Yes, I know there are stories of women disguising themselves to be, for example, soldiers.)

He recruits an Irish immigrant boy as a messenger and spy.

He meets up with an 1861 Smithsonian version of the Lone Gunmen to help in his investigation.

He meets a beautiful, willful Southern Belle who provides insights, and serves as a possible romantic rival for the journalist.

I kept wondering what box was going to get checked next.

Our protagonist keeps trying to figure out the real identity of the journalist. But at one point the protagonist seems to know her name - chapters before he actually discovers it. Hmmm. Did an editor miss that one?

One other observation - though it is not a quibble.

I had no idea who C. M. Gleason was before I started reading. But as I read, I began getting the feeling Gleason has to be a woman given some of the character descriptions, the way the protagonist thinks, and certain details about fashion and setting. That the protagonist was tall, well-built, ruggedly handsome, with a cleft chin ... well.

When I finished, I looked up Gleason. Sure enough, a woman.

Maybe I should be a detective!

Pax et bonum

Sayers Goal Met!

I just finished Have His Carcase by Dorothy Sayers. I have now read all of her Lord Peter Wimsey mystery novels. My goal for this year was to read the last two that I had not yet read, this one, and The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club.

To be honest, it was not my favorite of her books. I have found the romance ones involving Wimsey and Harriet Vane like this one among the least satisfying. I like the focus being on just Wimsey, which was one of the strengths of the Unpleasantness. Moreover, this one involves a cipher, and pages of solving it. I've never been a fan of ciphers. Finally, I found the ending unsatisfying and a little too contrived. 

Whatever, I have now met one of my reading goals.

More mysteries await!

Pax et bonum

The Catholic Church Helps the World

Pax et bonum

Reading Reflection: Tears in Rain

When I retired midway through 2020 one of my plans was to read books/works I had always wanted to read, or reread books/works that were particularly important or that I had not read in years (sometimes decades!). Those works included not only novels, but plays, collections (poetry, essays, stories), encyclicals, histories, biographies, and so on. There are literary and spiritual classics, mysteries, and some contemporary works. 

I keep a count for each year. 

2020 - 55 

2021 - 85

2022 - 66

2023 - 69

2024 - 72

There were also some mini goals, focusing on works I had not yet read by authors I liked. So in the past five years I have finished all of Shakespeare's plays, the poetry of Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost, the Navajo mysteries of Tony Hillerman, the Divine Comedy, and the Father Brown mysteries of G. K. Chesterton.

I did not always finish works I set out to read. I tried to read Don Quixote, but gave up 100 pages in. I tried to read all the poetry of Walt Whitman, but got tired of his style.

I'm getting to the point where I'm running out of good works to read! I like classic mysteries, for example, but contemporary ones are often not to my taste.

And as the years advance and mortality looms I have increasingly begun to think that when I go all this will be lost. I think of that scene in Blade Runner as Roy Batty is "dying":

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."

It's not time for me to die, yet. At least I think it's not!

I still have some goals to meet. I want to read all the Dickens novels have not yet read, for example. Still a few to go. And I'll soon be done with all the Lord Peter Wimsey mystery novels. I've set goals for this year.

And even if all I've read will be "lost" the memories of me will live on, and those works will have shaped who I am, the impressions I have left with people, and even the poems, plays and stories I've written. Hopefully after I'm gone some of my creations will still be read, and might inspire at least a smile or two.

So ... Onward!

Pax et bonum

Some Nature Pictures

Pax et bonum

A Pleasant Unpleasantness

One of my reading goals for this year is to read the two Dorothy Sayers Lord Peter Wimsey novels that I had not yet read.

I started The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club just before New Year's Day, but I finished it on New Year's Day, so it becomes the first book of 2025, and gets me closer to my goal. 

I really enjoyed this one. More of Wimsey comes through, and the book has none of the Harriet Vane romance I've found tiresome in some of the other Wimsey books.

Good mystery. Interesting characters.

One quibble, though. Something I've noted in British mysteries is the acceptance of suicide as an "honorable" way out for for guilty parties facing trial for murder. I don't like that. 

Other than that, I only have praise for this book.

One more Wimsey to go! 

Pax et bonum