G. K. Chesterton

The "Prince of Paradox" is at his witty best in this collection of 20 essays and articles. Focusing on "heretics" — those who pride themselves in their superiority to conservative views — Chesterton appraises prominent figures from the literary and art worlds who fall into that category, including Kipling, Shaw, Wells, and Whistler.

Heretics

Todd Luallen

Chesterton loves to use references to current authors and themes in his books. Unfortunately for those of us that are reading his books well after his time and in a different culture, these references are extremely difficult to understand. I think I mentioned this in one of my previous reviews of his work, but I had forgotten my critique and started reading another of his books only to discover I really dislike that aspect of Chesterton's writing. He also loves to use these seemingly contradictory quotes, and I really didn't find it enlightening at all. To give an example, he frequently writes things like "The only thing whiter than white, is black." Or "The only person more humorous than a comedian, is the stoic." And often times those quotes are not of generic terms like "white, black, comedian, and stoic, but instead cultural references like "Weatherly" or "Bart." What that means for the reader, is that you really should be familiar with many of the philosophers and writers of his time, or you will find much of his commentary elusive. 

But I did find many things in this book memorable. And I don't think any conscious reader could truthfully consume this book without having to contemplate some deep and challenging topics. Chesterton writes with a sincere passion that is evident from chapter one on through the end. He is desperate to convey the need for our culture to wrestle and debate the issues that matter. He starts off the book by decrying that Orthodoxy has become something "wrong" in his time, when it used to be considered the very definition of what is right. And he finishes the book off by stating that nothing else really matters if we aren't debating the world views and philosophies of the day. 

Unfortunately I didn't really enjoy the book, but I do think that a certain type of reader might really enjoy this. Chesterton is definitely an amazing writer, but he always tends to be a very "heady" read.

Ipek

Genevieve Poist

Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 - 14 June 1936) was an influential English writer of the early 20th century. His prolific and diverse output included journalism, philosophy, poetry, biography, Christian apologetics, fantasy and detective fiction.

Emily Delventhal-Sali

G.K. Chesterton

What Is the Modern Meaning of Heresy? “A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.” - G.K. Chesterton, Heretics With his unique brilliance, G.K. Chesterton is on a mission in Heretics to disband the trends of the early 20th century. He dismisses the notion of ‘art for art’s sake’ and gives his opinion on many religious matters. He also covers at length the ‘heretics’ of his time like Rudyard Kipling, Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells. Is anybody safe from Chesterton’s scrutiny? ,This book has been professionally formatted for e-readers and contains a bonus book club leadership guide and discussion questions. We hope you’ll share this book with your friends, neighbors and colleagues and can’t wait to hear what you have to say about it.

Heretics

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