" Mere light sophistry is the thing that I happen to despise most of all things, and it is perhaps a wholesome fact that this is the thing of which I am generally accused. 'Orthodoxy.' NEW YEAR'S DAY The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. Unless a man starts on the strange assumption that he has never existed before, it is quite certain that he will never exist afterwards. Unless a man be born again, he shall by no means enter into the Kingdom of Heaven."
This is a collection of quotes selected by Chesterton himself from material the ever--popular Chesterton wrote between 1901 and 1911. Editorial comments have been added to explain details dimmed by the passage of time. A bibliography describes the sources used, and a detailed, 17-page index helps readers locate specific topics and quotes.
"A Year with G.K.Chesterton will be a treasure, both for those who are coming to his wit andwisdom as a fresh discovery, and for those who have known and loved his workfor years. . . . Chesterton's talent for paradox, and his ability to embodyprofound truth in simple images, makes him as compelling now as he was ahundred years ago. . . . He was a prophet in his own time and a prophet forours, speaking out against insidious evils and kindling us all again to acommon love of the common good." --The Reverend Dr. Malcolm Guite, chaplain of Girton College, Cambridge University "This world of ours has some purpose; and if there is apurpose, there is a Person. I had always felt life first as a story: and ifthere is a story, there is a Storyteller." --G. K. Chesterton A Year with G. K. Chesterton daily brings this truth to life. And we areheir to the winsome, arresting, utterly original outpouring of Chesterton'sreasons for hope. During his lifetime, a host of perspectives clamored for hisattention, but he saw nothing as vital and alive as Christianity. Readers ofthis book will find their faith strengthened and enriched, even as they see themany reasons why George Bernard Shaw called Chesterton "a colossal genius." A true anthology, the best of Chesterton's many works are presented in concise, memorableselections. From New Year's Day to New Year's Eve, each page contains a passageof Scripture and myriad moments for reflection, appreciation, and laughter. "Chesterton once aday? Well, that's a start. It is good to see that someone is finallyrecognizing the need for a daily minimum requirement of mirth and meditationfrom GKC." --Dale Ahlquist, President, AmericanChesterton Society "Kevin Belmonte writes in the preface to this excellent bookthat his editing of it has been a gift. As an author who has written regularlyon Chesterton I can understand his sense of gratitude at having been able tospend so much time with a genius as genial as the great GKC. Thanks toBelmonte's labor of love we can all spend a few moments of every day of the yearin Chesterton's inimitable company. All admirers of Chesterton and theChristian truth he explicates so sublimely will be grateful to Kevin Belmontefor this gem of a gift." --Joseph Pearce, author of Wisdom and Innocence: A Life of G. K.Chesterton "Who could not be grateful for a year spent with GKC?The great subverter of everything taken for granted, he stretches and deepensus with his insights, shakes us with his startling paradoxes and delights uswith his wit. Thank God there is no getting to the end of Chesterton." --Os Guinness, author of A Free People's Suicide
G. K. Chesterton is remembered as a brilliant creator of nonsense and satirical verse, author of the Father Brown stories and the innovative novel, The Man who was Thursday, and yet today he is not counted among the major English novelists and poets. However, this major new biography argues that Chesterton should be seen as the successor of the great Victorian prose writers, Carlyle, Arnold, Ruskin, and above all Newman. Chesterton's achievement as one of the great English literary critics has not hitherto been fully recognized, perhaps because his best literary criticism is of prose rather than poetry. Ian Ker remedies this neglect, paying particular attention to Chesterton's writings on the Victorians, especially Dickens. As a social and political thinker, Chesterton is contrasted here with contemporary intellectuals like Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells in his championing of democracy and the masses. Pre-eminently a controversialist, as revealed in his prolific journalistic output, he became a formidable apologist for Christianity and Catholicism, as well as a powerful satirist of anti-Catholicism. This full-length life of G. K. Chesterton is the first comprehensive biography of both the man and the writer. It draws on many unpublished letters and papers to evoke Chesterton's joyful humour, his humility and affinity to the common man, and his love of the ordinary things of life.
Widely considered as Chesterton's masterpiece, The Man Who Was Thursday (1908) defies classification. Subtitled `A Nightmare' by Chesterton, on one level it is a fast-moving and surreal detective story. This critical edition includes several short related pieces, `A Picture of Tuesday', `The Book of Job', and `The Diabolist', as well as a map of Edwardian London and detailed explanatory notes. - ;Widely considered as Chesterton's masterpiece, The Man Who Was Thursday (1908) defies classification. Subtitled `A Nightmare' by Chesterton, on one level it is a fast-moving and surreal detective story. Drawing on contemporary fears of anarchist conspiracies and bomb outrages, The Man Who Was Thursday is firmly rooted in its time and place - turn of the century London - but it also defies temporal boundaries. Police detective Syme finds himself drawn into a world that seems to have gone beyond humanity when he is elected `Thursday', one of the members of the Central European Council of seven anarchs. Dreamlike, prophetic, and frequently funny, the novel attacks fin-de-si--egrave--;cle pessimism and, through a surreal series of pursuits and unmaskings, returns Syme - and us - to earth more aware of its beauty, promise, and creative potential. This critical edition includes several short related pieces, `A Picture of Tuesday', `Introduction to the Book of Job', and `The Diabolist', as well as a map of contemporary London and detailed explanatory notes. -
