GILBERT KEITH CHESTERTON

1900 – 1936

100 booksHe wrote on philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction

HIS LIFE29 MAY 1874

Campden Hill in

KensigntonLondon

His childhood

Memory problems Clumsy

Developmental Dyspraxia

Physical appeareance

•standing 6 feet 4 inches (1.93)•weighting around 21 stone (130) •Chesterton wore a cape and a crumpled hat, with a swordstick in hand, and a cigar hanging out of his mouth

Chesterton: “ Look at you, anyone would think a famine had struck England". Shaw retorted,:“Look at you, anyone

would think you have caused it".

HIS ADOLESCENCE

SCKEPTICISM AND DEPRESSION

DIABOLISM AND THE OCULT

Slade School of Art

Department of University

College London

1896 London publisher Redway, and T. Fisher Unwin

St. Paul School

1901- Frances Blogg

She helped him to pull

himself out of his spiritual

crisis

In 1909 he

moved to

Beaconsfield with

his wife

How Far Is It To Bethlehem? – Frances Chesterton ( 1917)“How far is it to Bethlehem?Not very far.Shall we find the stable roomLit by a star?

Can we see the little Child?Is He within?If we lift the wooden latchMay we go in?May we stroke the creatures thereOx, ass, or sheep?May we peep like them and seeJesus asleep?

May we stroke the creatures thereOx, ass, or sheep?May we peep like them and seeJesus asleep

If we touch His tiny handWill He awake?Will He know we’ve come so farJust for His sake? (…)”

VIDEO

His ideas Chesterton had no

difficulty standing up for what he believed.

A man of strong opinions and

enormously talented at defending them

Chesterton explored the evils of racism,

euthanasia and abortion

Leader of the Distributist movement promoting the idea that private property

should be divided into smallest possible freeholds

and then distributed throughout society.

Distributism

Chesterton died of congestive heart failure in 14 June

1936 at his home in Beaconsfield

Dale Ahlquist

AMERICAN CHESTERTON SOCIETY

He explores the life and work of the great 20th Century English writer

INFLUENCESCHARLES DICKENS

Charles Dickens, Chesterton’s 1906

biography of the great Victorian novelist, was

responsible for sparking a revival of interest in

Dickens’ works

OTHERSThomas AquinasRobert BrowningGeorge MacDonaldHilaire BellocWalter Pater

INFLUENCED

GEORGE ORWELL

Orwell’s first work ever to be published in the English language was an article that Chesterton , as editor of his own paper G.K.’s Weekly, published in 1928.

ORSON WELLES

A great admirer of Chesterton's

writings

In 1938 produced a radio dramatization of GKC's novel The

Man Who Was Thursday

RAY BRADBURYBradbury described

Chesterton as one of his

literary heroes.

Wrote a long story-poem about

his heroes, mentioning

Chesterton in the title itself,

entitled: "The R.B., G.K.C., and G.B.S. Forever

Orient Express"

F. Scott Fitzgerald

He was a GKC fan as well

“I want to be one of the new school of

American novelists — the Wells- Shaw-

Chesterton-Mackenzie

combination” (Scott Fitzgerald)

Ernest Hemingway

He paid tribute to Chesterton through two characters in

the short story "The Three-Day Blow",

which appeared in

his book In Our Time.

OTHERSAgatha Christie

Alfred Hitchcock

J.K. Rowling

His works

NOVELS The Napoleon of Notting Hill The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare.The Ball and the CrossManaliveThe Flying Inn The Return of Don QuixoteBasil Howe (1894)

SHORT STORIES

•Tales of the Long Bow•The Perishing of the Pendragons •Man Who Knew Too Much and Other Stories•The Club of Queer Trades

Plays

•MAGIC: A Fantastic Comedy in a Prelude and Three Acts (1913)

•The Judgment of Dr. Johnson (1927)

•The Surprise (1952)

The Turkey and the Turk

NON -FICTION

•Eugenics and other evils (1917)•The Everlasting Man (1925)•Heretics•Orthodoxy•a Short History of England

BIOGRAPHIES

•St. Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox (1933)•William Blake •Charles Dickens (1906)•Autobiography (Chesterton) (1936) •George Bernard Shaw (1910)

POETRY

• The wild Knight and Other poems (1900)• The Ballad of the White Horse (1911)• Poems(1915)• Wine, Water and Song(1915)• The Ballad of St Barbara and Other Poems (1922)•The Queen Of Seven Swords

ESSAYS

•As I Was Saying (1936) •Generally Speaking (1928)•The Glass Walking-Stick •Come to Think of It (1930)•The Common Man (1950)

FATHER BROWN

FACTS Father Brown is a fictional character

created by English novelist G. K. Chesterton.

Chesterton based the character on Father John O'Connor (1870–1952), a parish priest in Bradford who was involved in Chesterton's conversion to Catholicism in 1922.

CHARACTER Father Brown is a short, stumpy Catholic priest, with shapeless clothes and a large umbrella, and an uncanny insight into human evil.

He is characteristically humble, and is usually rather quiet; when he does talk, he almost always says something profound.

INTERPRETATIONS AND CRITISCISM

Father Brown was the perfect vehicle for conveying Chesterton's view of the world.

COMPILATION BOOKSThe innocence of Father Brown (1911)The wisdom of Father Brown (1914)The incredulity of Father Brown (1926)The secret of Father Brown (1927)The scandal of Father Brown (1935)

FATHER BROWN – 2013 TV SERIES

Father Brown is a British television period drama which began airing on BBC One on 14 January 2013.

The series is based on the character of Father Brown created by G. K. Chesterton, using new stories written for the program.

It features Mark Williams as the eponymous crime solving Roman Catholic priest.

SOURCES https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjfwYwFK

ar4 http://www.online-literature.com/chesterton/ http://www.ccel.org/ccel/chesterton http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton http://www.chesterton.org/discover-chesterton

/other-resources/frances-chesterton/ http://www.ctlibrary.com/ch/2002/issue75/14.2

.html http://www.chesterton.excerptsofinri.com http://www.chestertonacademy.org/ http://www.chesterton.org