G.K. Chesterton's Books

Biography

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874 – 1936) was one of England’s most prominent literary names. During his career, he wrote about 80 books and 200 short stories, hundreds of poems, and thousands of newspaper articles. He was also a philosopher, lay theologian, art critic and Papal Knight.

Broadcaster

In 1931, the BBC invited him to give a series of radio talks. After his death, a BBC official said: “In another year or so, he would have become the dominating voice from Broadcasting House.” Perhaps a sort of inter-war Terry Wogan.

Crime Writer

Although a religious man, Chesterton had a passion for crime fiction. He and his character Father Brown are credited with creating a whole new genre, the cosy crime. Before Chesterton, crime fiction revolved around: rakish criminals, think Raffles; master detectives, like Sherlock Holmes or Policemen, such as Charles Dickens’s Inspector Bucket. Chesterton’s — and later Christie’s — inoffensive, self-effacing protagonists held sway until the arrival of the hardboiled detectives of the 1950s.

In 1925 Chesterton wrote How to Write a Detective Story, in which he set out his principles for writing crime fiction:

“The first and fundamental principle is that the aim of a mystery story, as of every other story and every other mystery, is not darkness but light. The story is written for the moment when the reader does understand, not merely for the many preliminary moments when he does not understand …

The second great principle is that the soul of detective fiction is not complexity but simplicity. The secret may appear complex, but it must be simple …

Thirdly, it follows that so far as possible, the fact or figure explaining everything should be a familiar fact or figure. The criminal should be in the foreground, not in the capacity of the criminal, but in some other capacity which nevertheless gives him a natural right to be in the foreground…

This I should call the fourth principle… It rests on the fact that in the classification of the arts, mysterious murders belong to the grand and joyful company of the things called jokes. The story is a fancy; an avowedly fictitious fiction. We may say if we like that, it is a very artificial form of art…

Lastly, the principle that the detective story, like every literary form, starts with an idea and does not merely start out to find one… a tale has to be founded on a truth; and though opium may be added to it, it must not merely be an opium dream.”

Most of G.K. Chesterton’s books were collections of short stories. The anthology Thirteen Detectives captures many of his protagonists. The Man Who Was Thursday is arguably the best of his full-length novels.

Theologian

Chesterton was a devout Christian. His plots focus much more on people’s emotions and desires than the cold facts of the crime. They are also very moral, praising good and rebuffing evil. Father Brown is far more worried about hearing a criminal’s confession and saving his soul than sending him to prison.

If you enjoy a moral with your story, Chesterton could be the man for you.