E
Elzee
Guest
I’ve seen a lot of quotes from G.K. Chesterton on this forum and would like to start reading his work. Where should I start?
- Status
J
jman507
Guest
Just pick one up, but don’t start with Orthadoxy. Pick that one up after you got past a few books.
But I guess if you must start some where, perhaps do a Father Brown if you like good short stories. St. Francis or St. Thomas is good since you should be somewhat familiar with the subject. Heritics or The Thing are pretty good, they are more apologetics, but with a lot of humor. Or if you really want to check him out now, just Google search him and you should find a few places that has some of his stuff online and check out some of the shorter pieces he wrote. You can kinda get the feel for him there.
But I guess if you must start some where, perhaps do a Father Brown if you like good short stories. St. Francis or St. Thomas is good since you should be somewhat familiar with the subject. Heritics or The Thing are pretty good, they are more apologetics, but with a lot of humor. Or if you really want to check him out now, just Google search him and you should find a few places that has some of his stuff online and check out some of the shorter pieces he wrote. You can kinda get the feel for him there.
T
Tantum_ergo
Guest
I would start with one of his “Father Brown” mystery novels or short stories, just to get a feel for his style. Then start with “Orthodoxy”, or “The Everlasting Man” for nonfiction, and go on.
A
Ambrose
Guest
My guess would be “Orthodoxy” but I’m far from being a Chesterton expert. He’s very deep at least to this simple mind and very profound IMHO. Also I might suggest his Biography “Wisdom and Innocence” by Joseph Pearce as a good read.
I think GK is great ! I wish I had a fraction of his mind and one of my life’s goals is to consistently look on life, creation and the wonder of it all like he did. That is to say marvel at the fact that “things exist because they might not have existed at all.” It’s tough sometimes with modern pressures, job, family ect.
Anyway good luck, you can’t go wrong reading Chesterton !
A
AquinasXVI
Guest
Elzee:
Actually a great book to start with is Chesterton is a book about Chesterton entitled G.K. Chesterton The Apostle of Common Sense. Written by Dale Ahlquist, president of the American Chesterton Society and the host of the EWTN show of the same title that airs Sundays (9pm eastern). In the book, he’ll give you a guided tour of Chesterton’s works which will be helpful. How’s that for a plug?
Orthodoxy would be a good one to start with if you’re going to dive in direct…if you get frustrated with him at first, don’t let it get you down…it takes a while to get broken in to his style of writing. His books get better and better on the 2nd or 3rd read. The first read has a tendency to leave the reader a little bewildered and a little annoyed…but if you stick with it, the surprises are unbelivably astounding. It took me a year and a half to finish The Everlasting Man, and only after the 2nd read did I see the hidden wealth of his writings.
Good luck with GKC.
in XT.
Actually a great book to start with is Chesterton is a book about Chesterton entitled G.K. Chesterton The Apostle of Common Sense. Written by Dale Ahlquist, president of the American Chesterton Society and the host of the EWTN show of the same title that airs Sundays (9pm eastern). In the book, he’ll give you a guided tour of Chesterton’s works which will be helpful. How’s that for a plug?
Orthodoxy would be a good one to start with if you’re going to dive in direct…if you get frustrated with him at first, don’t let it get you down…it takes a while to get broken in to his style of writing. His books get better and better on the 2nd or 3rd read. The first read has a tendency to leave the reader a little bewildered and a little annoyed…but if you stick with it, the surprises are unbelivably astounding. It took me a year and a half to finish The Everlasting Man, and only after the 2nd read did I see the hidden wealth of his writings.
Good luck with GKC.
in XT.
E
Elzee
Guest
Thanks everyone!
H
havemercy
Guest
You speak the truth. Orthodoxy took me a good three reads for me to fully apprehend and appreciate his writing.
If you have some knowledge of St. Francis of Assisi, I recommend his biography, written by Chesterton. It is incredible.
K
Kay_Cee
Guest
I second getting the book by Dale Ahlquist first for a good overview. Then, after that, you can read a lot of Chesterton online:
dur.ac.uk/martin.ward/gkc/books/
dur.ac.uk/martin.ward/gkc/books/
J
jman507
Guest
That biography by Pierce is really good. Personally I’d read a few books to get the feel for Chessterton first, but everyone is different. My feeling is with Chesterton, sometimes it better not to let facts take away from the ideas, especially when the ideas are so eternal and stuff that was good back in the '20s are still relavent today. Once you get the ideas down, then the facts and putting everything in context are all the more illuminating.
Dale’s book is really good to get an overview of some of his work and then you can pick what you want to read from there. I started with St. Francis and Dale’s book.
Dale’s book is really good to get an overview of some of his work and then you can pick what you want to read from there. I started with St. Francis and Dale’s book.
E
EtienneGilson
Guest
Jman, I believe the biography you are refering to is the one by Joseph Pearce amazon.com/gp/product/0898706297/103-5158907-7656623?v=glance&n=283155 who has also written a number of biographies on Catholic literary figures.
Where to start with Chesterton really depends on your background and your interests. Personally I started with St; Thomas Aquinas merely by accident and it took several rereads to fully appreciate the book.
Some people enjoy the Fr. Brown series. I would recommend the Innocence of Fr. Brown annoted by Martin Gardner. Gardner gives some good insights into Chesterton. Also annoted by Gardiner is the Paradoxes of Mr. Pond which I found more interesting than most Fr. Brown stories.
The Flying Inn is good if you like drinking and enjoy George Orwell, Aldus Huxley and Bernard Shaw type stories but with a more optomistic view of humanity. The Man Who Was Thursday is a remarkable story but not a good place to start.
Orthodoxy is a good start to Chesterton though I am glad I read Heretic first, even if I would not suggest reading Heretics first to most people.
Personally I didn’t care for The Everlasting Man because of the emphasis placed on the “missing link” theory. Modern science has moved away from Chesterton’s critique. I also didn’t care for the biography of St. Francis of Assisi thinking the biography of St; Thomas Aquinas: the Dumb Ox was much better…but that is my own spiritual leaning towards the intellect.
The Thing is a defence of his conversion to Catholicism and is interesting but not the greatest work.
ANd interesting introduction to distributionism is in his debate with Shaw called Do We Agree? with Belloc in the Chair. Funny and fair.
Finally, a good place to start is the end, and his Autobiography (simply titled Autobiography) is excellent. Although everything Chesterton wrote is autobiographical, I found the Autobiography an excellent book.
Where to start with Chesterton really depends on your background and your interests. Personally I started with St; Thomas Aquinas merely by accident and it took several rereads to fully appreciate the book.
Some people enjoy the Fr. Brown series. I would recommend the Innocence of Fr. Brown annoted by Martin Gardner. Gardner gives some good insights into Chesterton. Also annoted by Gardiner is the Paradoxes of Mr. Pond which I found more interesting than most Fr. Brown stories.
The Flying Inn is good if you like drinking and enjoy George Orwell, Aldus Huxley and Bernard Shaw type stories but with a more optomistic view of humanity. The Man Who Was Thursday is a remarkable story but not a good place to start.
Orthodoxy is a good start to Chesterton though I am glad I read Heretic first, even if I would not suggest reading Heretics first to most people.
Personally I didn’t care for The Everlasting Man because of the emphasis placed on the “missing link” theory. Modern science has moved away from Chesterton’s critique. I also didn’t care for the biography of St. Francis of Assisi thinking the biography of St; Thomas Aquinas: the Dumb Ox was much better…but that is my own spiritual leaning towards the intellect.
The Thing is a defence of his conversion to Catholicism and is interesting but not the greatest work.
ANd interesting introduction to distributionism is in his debate with Shaw called Do We Agree? with Belloc in the Chair. Funny and fair.
Finally, a good place to start is the end, and his Autobiography (simply titled Autobiography) is excellent. Although everything Chesterton wrote is autobiographical, I found the Autobiography an excellent book.
W
whowantsumadebo
Guest
Well it was a good critique at the time. I did like the Everlasting Man. In many ways, GKC was and still is ahead of his time. In a religious antrhopology class I’m taking, I can compare mondern scholarship to what Chesterton says about ancient “savage” peoples and they produce similar views.
I personally started out small with GKC, very small. I picked up short essays in Generally Speaking. And I suggest the “Blatchford Controversies” for a basic, concise, and swift defense of Christianity. I believe that one can be bought with Orthodoxy and Heretics from Ignatius press. You can’t go wrong there.
S
Sgt_Sweaters
Guest
+JMJ
As a convert, I found it extremely beneficial to start out with his writings on the Church. Vol. 3 of the Collected Works is just that. That’s what sucked me in, and I’ve been reading GKC ever since.
As a convert, I found it extremely beneficial to start out with his writings on the Church. Vol. 3 of the Collected Works is just that. That’s what sucked me in, and I’ve been reading GKC ever since.
- Status