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Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Fourth Edition

G. K. Chesterton

by Allan Nelson

Other literary forms

G. K. Chesterton was a prolific writer, and in addition to novels he produced works in numerous other genres. Throughout his life he wrote poetry; his first two published books were poetical works. He also produced short fiction, especially detective stories. In addition, he wrote plays, but he was not always comfortable in the medium of drama, as he was at heart an essayist. He published a large number of nonfiction works in such areas as autobiography, biography, essays, history, and literary criticism.

G. K. Chesterton.

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(Library of Congress)

Achievements

Among the primary achievements of G. K. Chesterton’s long writing career are the wide range of subjects he wrote about, the large number of genres he employed, and the sheer volume of publications he produced. Chesterton was primarily a journalist and essayist who wrote articles, book reviews, and essays for newspapers and periodicals. In addition to these pieces, however, he also wrote poetry, biographies, plays, history, and literary criticism as well as novels and short stories.

In his approach to fiction Chesterton rejected the “modern realistic short story” and the realistic novel. Instead, in the first instance, he turned to the detective short story and wrote extensively on its legitimacy as a literary art form. Chesterton himself helped to develop the definition of the detective story; he contended that it was the sole popular literary structure expressing “some sense of the poetry of modern life,” and he helped to popularize detective fiction with his fifty-one Father Brown stories and short novels.

As a novelist, Chesterton argued that “sensational novels are the most moral part of modern fiction.” He liked tales about death, secret groups, theft, adventure, and fantasy. There was no genre in his day that embraced his ideas, and so he crafted his own literary structure, the “fantastic novel.” In his novels Chesterton stressed such themes and issues as family, science versus religion, moral and political integrity, and local patriotism versus empire building. He also introduced such subthemes as the common man, nature, and womanhood. Above all, Chesterton’s novels illustrate his “love of ideas.”

Biography

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born in London on May 29, 1874, to a middle-class family. His father, Edward, was an estate agent who liked literature and art, and his mother, Marie, was the daughter of a Wesleyan lay preacher. Both parents were Unitarians, but they baptized their son in the Anglican Church. Chesterton attended the Colet Court preparatory school and then, in 1887, went to St. Paul’s School. His academic record was not good, but he finally began to demonstrate literary capability as a member of the Junior Debating Club, which he and some of his fellow students established during the summer of 1890. Two years later he won the Milton Prize for his poem “St. Francis Xavier.”

From 1892 to 1895, Chesterton attended the Slade School to study art and took some courses in French, English, and Latin at University College, London. He did not do well, however, except in his English courses, and he left the Slade School in 1895 without taking a degree. For the next six years he worked in publishing houses, reading authors’ manuscripts, and at night he did his own writing. In 1900 his first two books appeared, Greybeards at Play: Literature and Art for Old Gentlemen—Rhymes and Sketches and The Wild Knight, and Other Poems, both works of poetry. The next year he began to submit articles regularly to the Speaker and the Daily News and thus started a career as a journalist that was to last until his death. He became known for his opposition to the Boer War and his support of small nations.

In 1901 Chesterton married Frances Blogg after a courtship of five years. The couple lived first in London, and then in 1909 they moved to Beaconsfield, forty miles outside London. They had no offspring, but they enjoyed the company of the children of their friends, relatives, and neighbors.

In 1904 Chesterton’s first novel, The Napoleon of Notting Hill, was published, and by 1914 he had written five more novels and numerous other works, including biographies (Robert Browning, 1903; Charles Dickens: A Critical Study, 1906), as well as Heretics (1905), which criticized what he saw as the mistakes of some contemporary writers, Orthodoxy (1908), a defense and support of Christianity, and a study of his friend and disputant, George Bernard Shaw (1909). In 1911 the first of his volumes of detective stories appeared, featuring a Catholic priest, Father Brown, as the sleuth.

Chesterton wrote his best work prior to 1914; in November of that year he became gravely ill with a form of dropsy, and it was not until June of the following year that he recovered. During the years after World War I, he traveled, visiting Palestine, the United States, Poland, and Italy. In 1922 he became a Roman Catholic, a faith that had attracted him for some time, as is reflected in his writing. The most notable nonfiction works of his later years are The Everlasting Man (1925) and another biography, St. Thomas Aquinas (1933). Chesterton’s health declined during the first half of 1936, and on June 14 he died in Beaconsfield.

Analysis

Between 1904 and 1927, G. K. Chesterton wrote six full-length novels, not including the long Father Brown mysteries. All of them stressed the sensational, and they illustrated life as a fight and a battle. Chesterton thought that literature should portray life as perilous rather than as something listless. Tales of death, robbery, and secret groups interested him, and he did not think that what he called the “tea table twaddle” type of novels approached the status of significant art. The sensational story “was the moral part of fiction.”

Fantasy was an important part of Chesterton’s novels, and the methodology used in his long fiction emphasized adventure, suspense, fantasy, characterization, satire, narrative technique, and humor. He needed a medium to employ these techniques, so he produced the “fantastic novel.” Fanstasy also involves ideas, and in all Chesterton’s novels ideas are a central, indispensable feature.

Chesterton’s novels served as vehicles for the dissemination of whatever his political and social ideas were at the time, and to this extent they were propagandistic. His critics have had difficulty in deciding the merits of his various writings in terms of separating propaganda from literary art. Often Chesterton used allegory as a device for conveying his controversial ideas. Critic Ian Boyd has called Chesterton’s works of long fiction “political fables, parables, and allegories or more simply and conveniently…novels.”

In Chesterton’s novels, the state of bachelorhood predominates; this situation is appropriate, since this status is a fundamental element of adventure. Moreover, women rarely appear in any significant roles in his long fiction. There is no female character in his first novel, The Napoleon of Notting Hill, and the woman in The Man Who Was Thursday is a passing character. In The Ball and the Cross and The Flying Inn, women are minor figures, but they do play significant roles in Manalive and The Return of Don Quixote, works that are more involved with the family and society.

The weakest of Chesterton’s nondetective novels are perhaps Manalive, published in 1912, and The Return of Don Quixote, which appeared in 1927. In The Return of Don Quixote, Chesterton concludes that the only good future for England involves “a remarriage” of the country with the Catholic Church, as was the case in the Middle Ages. The first three of Chesterton’s novels, published from 1904 to 1909, are widely considered his best.

The Napoleon of Notting Hill

The Napoleon of Notting Hill is Chesterton’s first novel. The first two chapters are distinct from the main plot, the first being an essay on prophecy showing the author working in a genre that was always congenial to him. The next chapter concerns a luncheon discussion among three government clerks and the former president of Nicaragua, Juan del Fuego. The content of their talk brings out one of the main themes of the novel, “the sanctity of small nations,” a concept dear to Chesterton that stemmed from his opposition to the Boer War.

The subsequent death of del Fuego eliminates him from the work, but one of the three clerks, Auberon Quin, a zany individual and joker, is subsequently selected king in the futuristic utopian England of 1984, where a mild political despotism exists. The monarch is chosen by lot. Once crowned as king, Quin reorganizes the sections of London into separate municipalities and thus re-creates the smallness of medieval cities, complete with costumes and heraldry. Quin then encounters Adam Wayne, first as a youth and then as the serious-minded provost of Notting Hill, one of the municipalities; Wayne has embraced the king’s “Charter of Cities” wholeheartedly.

Wayne, however, much to the dismay of the provosts of other London municipalities, refuses to give up a street in his domain, Pump Street, which contains several shops, so that a thoroughfare connecting three boroughs can be built. The result is a war, which Wayne wins by encouraging the patriotism of Pump Street residents and by following excellent strategy, despite being outnumbered by the opposing forces. Quin with his “Charter of Cities” and Wayne in his defense of Notting Hill both illustrate Chesterton’s small-nation theme. The concluding chapters of the novel concern London twenty years later, when the powerful and dominant Notting Hill has become corrupt; the corruption causes a revolt of subject municipalities. Wayne fights in the second war but realizes that there is no longer a noble cause involved. Conflict in the novel lies in the confrontation between Wayne and Quin, the fanatic and the joker. Wayne’s opponents had accused him of being mad, but Quin asserts that the only sane individuals are himself and Wayne. The last chapter is a discussion between the two men, now dead and in the afterlife, in which Wayne argues that in order to be complete both men needed each other, because the joker was without seriousness and the fanatic lacked laughter.

The Man Who Was Thursday

Chesterton’s second novel, The Man Who Was Thursday, has been described by some critics as his best. Ronald Knox called it “an extraordinary book written as if the publisher had commissioned him to write something rather like the Pilgrim’s Progress in the style of the Pickwick Papers.” Chesterton himself called it a protest against the pessimism of the 1880’s, and this protest gives rise to one of two allegories in the novel, a personal one. The other is a public or political allegory concerning an individual’s clash with a world conspiracy that does not really exist. The story concerns a young poet, Gabriel Syme, who, wishing to fight a gigantic conspiracy supposedly being plotted by anarchists, joins the police and becomes a member of an undercover squad of detectives.

As a result of a bit of trickery and luck, he becomes a member of the top anarchist council, called the Council of Seven Days because each member has the name of a day of the week. Syme’s name is Thursday. The council’s leader, named Sunday, is an ambiguous figure. While working to stop a bombing planned for Paris, Thursday discovers that, except for Sunday, all his fellow council members are undercover police detectives. Each had been interviewed by a figure whom nobody saw in a dark room at Scotland Yard. By the conclusion of the novel, it is revealed that Sunday is both the head of the detectives and the leader of the anarchists. Some critics have seemed to think that Chesterton is condoning evil in the novel, but he himself asserted that he is questioning in the novel whether everything is evil and whether one can find good in the pessimism of the age.

The Ball and the Cross

A review published a year after the publication of The Ball and the Cross stated that the novel is about two individuals dueling over “the most vital problem in the world, the truth of Christianity.” This work definitely deals with religion and the nature of good and evil, subjects either ignored or addressed ambiguously in Chesterton’s first two novels. The book opens with Professor Lucifer depositing a captured Bulgarian monk, Michael, from a flying machine atop the cross and ball of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

The plot continues with a confrontation between a Catholic highland Scot, Evan McIan, and another Scot, John Turnbull, an atheist and publisher of works on atheism. The two fight a duel over what McIan perceives as an insult to the Virgin Mary. The duelists are constantly interrupted, however; they go through a series of adventures and ultimately become friends. The book ends with the two men in an insane asylum, which is set on fire by a satanic figure. The inmates are led out by a monk, Michael, who had been a prisoner there. Ultimately Turnbull becomes a Christian. The novel contains much symbolism and many allegories. The ball on St. Paul’s dome, for example, is the rational and independent world, while the cross represents religion. Martin Gardner views the work as reflecting the clash between St. Augustine’s City of God, which in Chesterton’s view is the Catholic Church, and the City of Man, which is dominated by Satan. The novel also attacks modern science and accuses modern culture of being “lukewarm.”

Bibliography

1 

Ahlquist, Dale. G. K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense. San Francisco, Calif.: Ignatius Press, 2003. Provides an introductory overview of Chesterton’s life and work designed for general readers, with analyses of some of Chesterton’s novels, including books in the Father Brown series. Designed to complement a television series of the same title created by Ahlquist, president of the American Chesterton Society.

2 

Bloom, Harold, ed. G. K. Chesterton. New York: Chelsea House, 2006. Collection of essays analyzes various aspects of Chesterton’s work, including the author’s view of the grotesque and “terror and play” in his imagination. Editor’s introduction provides an overview to Chesterton’s life and work.

3 

Boyd, Ian. The Novels of G. K. Chesterton: A Study in Art and Propaganda. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1975. Good study examines Chesterton’s major novels as well as his collections of short stories. Discusses the novels chronologically, with a chapter each about novels in his early years, pre-World War I, postwar, and later years.

4 

Clipper, Lawrence J. G. K. Chesterton. New York: Twayne, 1974. Useful introduction to the works of Chesterton does a fine job of describing the recurring themes in his fictional and nonfictional writings. Includes informative analysis also of Chesterton’s poetry and literary criticism. Contains an excellent annotated bibliography.

5 

Coates, John D. G. K. Chesterton as Controversialist, Essayist, Novelist, and Critic. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2002. Refutes Chesterton’s reputation as a minor writer, maintaining that his detective novels remain important and relevant works. Places Chesterton’s fiction within the context of modernism and the Edwardian novel of ideas.

6 

Conlon, D. J., ed. Chesterton: A Half Century of Views. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. Contains numerous short essays on Chesterton published during the first fifty years after his death. The wide diversity of positive critical reactions shows that not only his popular fiction but also his writings on literature and religion continue to fascinate readers.

7 

Hollis, Christopher. The Mind of Chesterton. Coral Gables, Fla.: University of Miami Press, 1970. Especially thoughtful study explores above all Chesterton’s evolution as a writer before his conversion to Catholicism in 1922. Final chapter, titled “Chesterton and His Survival,” explains why Chesterton’s work continues to fascinate readers who do not share his religious beliefs.

8 

Lauer, Quentin. G. K. Chesterton: Philosopher Without Portfolio. New York: Fordham University Press, 1988. Thought-provoking study addresses Chesterton’s philosophical reflections on the uses and limitations of reason, Christian humanism, religious tolerance, and moral values.

9 

Pearce, Joseph. Wisdom and Innocence: A Life of G. K. Chesterton. San Francisco, Calif.: Ignatius Press, 1996. Scholarly, well-written biography examines Chesterton’s life and provides interesting analysis of many quotations from his works.

10 

Ward, Maisie. Gilbert Keith Chesterton. New York: Sheed & Ward, 1943. Well-researched biography remains the essential resource concerning Chesterton. Ward had full access to Chesterton’s manuscripts and spoke with many people who had known him personally. Reveals much about his evolution as a writer and the importance of friendship in his life.

11 

Wills, Garry. Chesterton. New York: Doubleday, 2001. Biography is an updated edition of Wills’s Chesterton, Man and Mask (1961), with a new introduction. Wills is a Catholic intellectual and best-selling author who has written several books about religion in the United States.

Citation Types

MLA 9th
Nelson, Allan. "G. K. Chesterton." Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Fourth Edition, edited by Carl Rollyson, Salem Press, 2010. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=CSLF_11280140000086.
APA 7th
Nelson, A. (2010). G. K. Chesterton. In C. Rollyson (Ed.), Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Fourth Edition. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Nelson, Allan. "G. K. Chesterton." Edited by Carl Rollyson. Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Fourth Edition. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2010. Accessed September 19, 2026. online.salempress.com.