The Innocence of Father Brown

( 21 )

Overview

Shortly after the publication of ORTHODOXY, G. K. Chesterton moved from London to Beaconsfield, where he met Father O'Connor. It was the combination of Father O'Connor's shrewd insights to the darker side of man's nature together with his mild appearance that suggested to Chesterton a character that became the unassuming, pudding-faced Father Brown.

Numerous short stories followed. All of them featuring this priest who appeared to know nothing yet in fact knew more about ...

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The Innocence of Father Brown

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More About This Book

Overview

Shortly after the publication of ORTHODOXY, G. K. Chesterton moved from London to Beaconsfield, where he met Father O'Connor. It was the combination of Father O'Connor's shrewd insights to the darker side of man's nature together with his mild appearance that suggested to Chesterton a character that became the unassuming, pudding-faced Father Brown.

Numerous short stories followed. All of them featuring this priest who appeared to know nothing yet in fact knew more about criminals than they knew about themselves. THE INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN is the first collection of these stories.

"Father Brown is a direct challenge to the conventional detective and in many ways he is more amusing and ingenious." (Saturday Review)

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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781447467991
  • Publisher: Read Books Design
  • Publication date: 11/30/2012
  • Pages: 302
  • Sales rank: 664,549
  • Product dimensions: 5.50 (w) x 8.50 (h) x 0.68 (d)

Meet the Author

G. K. Chesterton - (1874-1936), English essayist and poet
Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born in London, England on the 29th of May, 1874. Though he considered himself a mere "rollicking journalist," he was actually a prolific and gifted writer in virtually every area of literature. A man of strong opinions and enormously talented at defending them, his exuberant personality nevertheless allowed him to maintain warm friendships with people--such as George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells--with whom he vehemently disagreed.

Chesterton had no difficulty standing up for what he believed. He was one of the few journalists to oppose the Boer War. His 1922 Eugenics and Other Evils attacked what was at that time the most progressive of all ideas, the idea that the human race could and should breed a superior version of itself. In the Nazi experience, history demonstrated the wisdom of his once "reactionary" views. His poetry runs the gamut from the comic The Logical Vegetarian to dark and serious ballads.

Though not written for a scholarly audience, his biographies of authors and historical figures like Charles Dickens and St. Francis of Assisi often contain brilliant insights into their subjects. His "Father Brown" mystery stories, written between 1911 and 1936, are still being read and adapted for television.

His politics fitted with his deep distrust of concentrated wealth and power of any sort. Along with his friend Hilaire Belloc and in books like the 1910 What's Wrong with the World he advocated a view called "Distributism" that is best summed up by his expression that every man ought to be allowed to own "three acres and a cow." Though not known as a political thinker, his political influence has circled the world. Some see in him the father of the "small is beautiful" movement and a newspaper article by him is credited with provoking Gandhi to seek a "genuine" nationalism for India. Orthodoxy belongs to yet another area of literature at which Chesterton excelled. A fun-loving and gregarious man, he was nevertheless troubled in his adolescence by thoughts of suicide. In Christianity he found the answers to the dilemmas and paradoxes he saw in life.

Chesterton died on the 14th of June, 1936 in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. During his life he published 69 books and at least another ten have been published after his death. Many of those books are still in print.
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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 3.5
( 21 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(4)

4 Star

(7)

3 Star

(4)

2 Star

(4)

1 Star

(2)

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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 21 Customer Reviews

  • Posted October 18, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    A mixed bag: some witty, some bland, some mean

    Take Sherlock Holmes, lower his intelligence by half (leaving him as still smarter than average) and turn him into a bland Roman Catholic priest who happens to solve a lot of mysteries and you get Father Brown. Some of the mysteries he solves are complex, and the third person narration is occasionally witty (even sarcastic), but I would much rather read Sherlock Holmes or Dupin any day. The author's frequent pot-shots at Protestants/Protestantism are annoying too; some are witty but mostly they just come off as mean-spirited.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted November 21, 2011

    Missing parts

    This version seems to be missing the endings to some chapters.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted December 26, 2012

    Poorly transcribed

    Too many typos

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  • Posted December 24, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    A witty narrator and a bland protagonist

    Take Sherlock Holmes, lower his intelligence by half (leaving him as still smarter than average) and turn him into a bland (but observant) Roman Catholic priest who happens to solve a lot of mysteries and you get Father Brown. Some of the mysteries he solves are complex, and the third person narration is occasionally witty (even sarcastic). However, the mild-mannered Father Brown is, frankly, a bit boring. I would much rather read about the arrogant Sherlock Holmes or Dupin any day. The author's frequent pot-shots at Protestants/Protestantism are annoying too...some are witty but mostly they just come off as mean-spirited.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted August 21, 2011

    Good stories, poor layout

    Chesterton's Father Brown stories are not as complex as those of Christie or Doyle, but they are easy reads on a summer afternoon. It's nice to have a collection of them in one ebook. However, the layout on this ebook is terrible. The lines consistently wrap in odd places on my Nook Color. The font looks like one of the old monospaced typewriter fonts.

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 1, 2010

    Interesting Writing

    This book has some good points. I like the fact that the main character is more like the priests I have known-- not perfect by any means, but certainly not the current fad of portraying them all as hypocritical dogmatists. The brevity of the stories is also welcome. They can each be easily read in one sitting. Generally entertaining in themselves, I found them also to be not unlike fables (parables?) in that each had a small moral to it (even if the moral was as simple as "Be good").

    On the negative side, some of the stories are a bit bland. All in all, though, I would recommend the book.

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 6, 2009

    Captivating!

    Of course the great writing of Chesterton cannot be outdone! The superb dramatic interpretation of Mr. O'Brien puts the rightful polish on Chesterton's great work. He moves from character to character so convincingly that they clearly come alive in the listener's mind. Superbly entertaining!

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    Posted February 1, 2010

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