G. K. Chesterton

Nearly a century after his death, G. K. Chesterton comes out with a new book . . . about himself!

Renowned Chesterton scholar Dale Ahlquist presents a unique retelling of Chesterton's life in Chesterton's own words, drawn from hundreds of sources--including material that has not been seen for over a hundred years--and edited into a narrative. Ahlquist has used bits and pieces, sentences and paragraphs, even poems, to allow the Prince of Paradox, while talking about something else, to give many revealing glimpses of himself. Although Chesterton penned an autobiography at the end of his life, he mostly wrote about other people. Here, finally, is the person he neglected to tell us about: G. K. Chesterton.

Ahlquist's careful compilation yields a new, intimate look at the most interesting character in Chesterton's story: the man holding the pen. We learn about his youth, his beginnings as a writer, his rise as a literary star, his family and friends and foes, his travels, his struggles and temptations, his controversies, his sorting out the mystery of life, and his conversion to the Catholic faith.

For many readers, even those familiar with Chesterton, much of the material in this book will be completely new. Ahlquist also provides an extensive timeline of Chesterton's life, which is itself a compact biography.

This edition of Chesterton's masterpiece and most famous novel, The Man Who Was Thursday, explicates and enriches the complete text with extensive footnotes, together with an introductory essay on the metaphysical meaning of Chesterton's profound allegory. Martin Gardner sees the novel's anarchists as symbols of our God-given free will, and the mysterious Sunday as representing Nature, with its strange mixture of good and evil when considered as distinct from God, as a mask hiding the transcendental face of the creator. The book also includes a bibliography listing the novel's many earlier editions and stage dramatizations, as well as numerous illustrations that further illuminate the text. Illustrated

A pagan at only 12 and totally agnostic by 16, Chesterton had the remarkable experience of developing a personal, positive philosophy that turned out to be orthodox Christianity. Orthodoxy, his account of it all, has not lost its force as a timeless argument for the simple plausibility of traditional Christianity. C.S. Lewis and many other emerging Christian thinkers have found this book a pivotal step in their adoption of a credible Christian faith. This intellectual and spiritual autobiography of the leading 20th century essayist combines simplicity with subtlety in a model apologetic that appeals to today's generations of readers who face the same materialism and antisupernaturalism as did the "man at war with his times."

Of the numerous works that Chesterton wrote, the most scintillating synthesis of his philosophy and deeply religious faith was manifested in his masterpiece, Orthodoxy, written when he was only thirty-four and which tells, in his inimitable, soaring prose, of his earth-shaking discovery that orthodoxy is the only satisfactory answer to the perplexing riddle of the universe. Orthodoxy is perhaps the most outstanding example of the originality of his style and the brilliance of his thought.

This edition offers all of G. K. Chesterton's insight, humor, and wit as he uncovers the real meaning of the life of the world's most popular saint. All Francis's life was a series of plunges and scampers, darting after the beggar, dashing naked into the woods, tossing himself into the strange ship, and hurling himself into the Sultan's tent. In appearance he must have been like a thin brown skeleton autumn leaf dancing eternally before the wind; but in truth it was he that was the wind.