The Man Who Was Thursday (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading)

by G. K. Chesterton, Bruce F. Murphy (Introduction)

Overview

The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare 1908 is the most renowned and critically acclaimed novel by the prolific G. K. Chesterton. Equal parts mystery, suspense story, allegory, and farce, it is considered a classic of the spy genre while at the same time almost constitutes a genre of its own. Each rereading of The Man Who Was Thursday

The hero, Gabriel Syme, is Chestertons ideal of the virtuous Common Man. He must infiltrate and try to thwart an anarchist cell, whose heart is the mysterious and ambiguous Sunday, man whose powers seem almost godlike. Symes mission lead him through the back ways of Victorian London and on a wild Chase through the French country-side, and adventure at once madcap, surreal, and cosmically important. More than just charming tale of Dickensian characters and a mysterious man who was supposed to be "Thursday," The Man Who Was Thursday asks the dark questions: Will the human race survive? It is a question as relevant at the start of the twenty-first century as it was at the beginning of the twentieth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781411428188
Publisher:	Barnes & Noble
Publication date:	09/01/2009
Series:	Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	181,537
File size:	475 KB
Age Range:	3 Months to 18 Years

About the Author

Perhaps no other writer of his time so deserved the title of man of letters as Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936). Author of literally scores of books and countless articles, he was a playwright, poet, journalist, novelist, mystery writer, and biographer, among other things. His rise to fame during the period from the Boer War to World War I has been described as meteoric. He is best known today for two works of fiction, The Man Who Was Thursday and his series of "Father Brown" detective stories.

Introduction

The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare (1908) is the most renowned and critically acclaimed novel by a very prolific author. Equal parts mystery, suspense story, allegory, and farce, it is considered a classic of the spy genre while at the same time almost constitutes a genre of its own. The Man Who Was Thursday has fascinated readers for nearly a hundred years now, largely because it does something that mysteries rarely do: It repays rereading, each time revealing new meanings and nuances, while its jokes never become stale.

The hero, Gabriel Syme, is Chesterton's ideal of the virtuous Common Man. He must infiltrate and try to thwart an anarchist cell, at whose heart is the mysterious and ambiguous Sunday, a man whose powers seem almost godlike. Syme's mission leads him through the back ways of Victorian London and on a wild chase through the French countryside, an adventure at once madcap, surreal, and cosmically important. More than just a charming tale full of Dickensian characters and a mysterious man who was supposed to be "Thursday," The Man Who Was Thursday asks the darkest question of all in relation to human race: Will we survive? It is a question as relevant at the start of the twenty-first century as it was at the beginning of the twentieth.