Book Description
Here is a special two-in-one book that is both by G.K. Chesterton and about Chesterton. This volume offers an irresistible opportunity to see who this remarkable man really was. Chesterton was one of the most stimulating and well-loved writers of the 20th century. His 100 books, and hundreds of essays and columns on a great variety of themes have made G.K. Chesterton the most widely quoted writers of modern times.

Here is Chesterton in his own words, in a book he preferred not to write, but did so near the end of his life after much insistence by friends and admirers. Critic Sydney Dark wrote after Chesterton died that perhaps the happiest thing that happened in Gilbert Chesterton's extraordinarily happy life was that his autobiography was finished a few weeks before his death. It is a stimulating, exciting, tremendously interesting book. It is a draught - indeed, several draughts one after the other - of human and literary champagne."

Full of Chesterton's wonderful and unique writing, humor, inspiration and humility, with some 40 rare photos, this book will be greatly desired by Chesterton fans, as well as by anyone interested in learning who this colorful and brilliant person was. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A witty, insightful chronicle brimming with wisdom, experience, and more than a few life lessons learned the hard way.
Completed only a few weeks prior to the close of the author's long, successful and happy life, The Autobiography of G.K. Chesterton is the life story of one the modern era's most prolific authors, credited with approximately one hundred books on topics ranging from philosophy, theology, poetry, literature, fiction, and history. Written in an amiable, accessible first-person voice, and illustrated with some forty rare black-and-white photographs, The Autobiography of G.K. Chesterton is a "must-have" for researchers and students of Chesterton's literary work, and highly recommended for college and public library collections. A witty, insightful chronicle brimming with wisdom, experience, and more than a few life lessons learned the hard way.

The Restless Victorian
Like many English majors upon graduation I was sick to death of Enlgish lit and sold my books off at the local used book store. As "classic rock" seems to be whichever moldy oldies a radio station wants to play, so "classic lit" is similarly a mixed bag of whatever gets shoved into the Norton Anthologies.

Much later I found out how politically motivated such anthologies are (especially the non-fiction ones) and as usual, the Oxford Press ones proved to be far better collections. But reading Chesterton's autobio, I realized how little I got out of my one Victorian lit class, and how much more there was to this era than Thomas Hardy and George Eliot.

Being more and more known as a Chesterton fan-atic and having garnered three pages of notes, bon mots and one-liners from this book, why do I give it four stars? Simply because I require Randall P. or some other competent commentator to provide far more copious footnotes of all things Victoriana. A great deal of history and literature (Victorian pop culture)is herein lightly touched on or briefly referred to by G.K.C. as if readers actually knew what he was talking about.

A friend listened to this book on tape and his take on it was that unlike Orthodoxy and other Chesterton works which continually dazzle the reader, this one is concerned more with enlightening them. Rather than quote the whole book, as one may be tempted to do, I'll confine myself to this reflection on World War One, which Chesterton calls the Great War since this book from 1936 falls before WW II:

"What would the Kaiser, with his mailed fist and his boasts of being Atilla and the leader of the Huns, even in time of peace, have been like if he had issued completely victorious out of a universal war?...What has come out of the War?(?) We have come out of the War, and come out alive; England and Europe have come out of the War, with all their sins on their heads, confused, corrupted, degraded, but not dead....The only defensible war is a war of defence. And a war of defence by its very definition and nature, is one from which a man comes back battered and bleeding and only boasting that he is not dead."

Chesterton has done this reader a great service of actually making him interested in the Victorian era, and rekindled something of that spark for reading that being an English major plodding through a Norton Anthology nearly inevitably kills. He's done something more than breathed life into an oft-dismissed and dusty age, in his lust for life he holds out the promise of breathing life even into our own.

I cannot imagine that a better autobiography has ever been written
Let me begin by saying that this is really not so much of an autobiography as the title Autobiography implies that it is.Chesterton, being a very humble man, chose not to talk about himself during good portions of this book.Of course, there is a lot of discussion of himself (otherwise it would not be an autobiography at all), but there is much that is simply about the world at his time and the thoughts that he has.It is almost more like Augustine's Confessions that a real autobiography (by this I mean an autobiography of his ideas rather than his actions).

In this outstanding book, Chesterton gives us his life story, starting with his childhood, leading into his slight involvement in occultism, then to his conversion (when he realized that all the things he thought he had discovered by thinking were what Christians had believed all along), and into his literary career and political activities.Along the way we get his views on materialism, determinism, naturalism, educations, science, Catholocism, evil, art, the common man, ethics, war, politics, truth, writing fiction, optimism and pessimism, nature, human rights, etc.You get the picture.Chesterton talks about just about everything that was a major issue when he wrote this (1936).He finished it right before he died and it was published posthumously.I personally liked it more than Orthodoxy, which I liked very much.This book is almost like an expanded version of Orthodoxy with some of Chesterton's life story mixed in.Definitely worth reading.It is probably one of my ten favorite books that I have ever read.

His discussion of optimism and pessimism near the end of the book was especially good.This was a major issue then, as modernism's Idea of Progress was clashing with the despair following the World War and the Great Depression.He ended up concluding that neither is the correct stance.He states that "The two sins against Hope are presumption and despair."He goes on to say that what we should really be doing is not presuming that things will go right, or despairing that they will go ill, but rather we should be appreciating what we have.Some things are perhaps hard to appreciate, but this book is not one of them.

Overall grade:A+

Chesterton lives what he writes
As always, Chesterton here weighs in with mountains of brilliant insights and poetic experiences. This is a very broad book, covering the whole range of Chesterton's interests, which spanned literature and politics and myth and orthodoxy, among other things. As I progressed from chapter to delightful chapter, I found myself chuckling now and scratching my head again and racing to jot down my thoughts at the end. Few authors I have read carry such a solid understanding of so many areas as Chesterton, and certainly even fewer present it as accurately and as beautifully as Chesterton.

But you can get a lot of this insight in his other books. This book in particular was enjoyable to understand in a small degree how Chesterton lived out what he believed. It was very encouraging to see that all of these wonderful thoughts need not stay bottled up in the head; they must come out in jokes and essays, books and beer. It took Chesterton a number of years to believe in orthodoxy, and he made some blunders and learned many things in a difficult manner. But in the end, Chesterton lived as a manalive, and this was perfectly in keeping with his final philosophy. We would all do good to read this book and take some lessons from the wise man who was Chesterton.

Oh, one minor word of warning. Much of the book deals with rather obscure commentary on even more obscure English events in Chesterton's time. I'm sure all of it is incisive and trenchant material, but many times I couldn't make heads or tails out of what he was talking about. But it was nevertheless fun to read despite the mystery of it all. ... Read more

Book Description
G. K. Chesterton's own selection of his most witty or provocative remarks from 1900 to 1911, with one quote for every day of the year. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Lost in a different generation
I bought this book because I had been enthralled by my, admittedly brief, introduction to some of Chestreton's work.

"Day by Day" provides many pearls of wit and wisdom yet there are many also that are so couched in his time and culture that they are lost to a different generation.

The quotes were selected by Chesterton himself, so they represent what he thought was important.
This book serves two purposes. It is intended to be a daily devotional (like Oswald Chambers "My Utmost For His Highest"), focusing on G. K. Chesterton's wit and wisdom.The quotes were selected by Chesterton himself, so they represent what he thought was important, as opposed to reading another person's second-guessings.

One good point is that it has moveable feasts in an appendix, like Lewis's "The Business of Heaven."A down point is that the book lacks an entry for Leap Day.This is a common mistake made by all devotionals I own, except for Chambers's.If you are smart enough to include the Roman Catholic feast days (which you would expect from Chesterton), then why can't you remember Leap Day?It is beyond me!

The second purpose of the book is an unintentional one. This book serves as a de-facto quote book.I love quote books, since they serve as random sampler for a person's thought.C. S. Lewis said, "The only use of selections is to deter those readers who will never appreciate the original, and thus save them from wasting their time on it, and to send all the others on the original as quickly as possible." (The Quotable Lewis, #447)

This book accomplishes both: it is a wonderful daily devotional, and it whets the appetite for more.

G.K Chesterton
I bought this book for my grandmother and she loves it. It's hard for her to sit and read for a lond piriod of time. This book is nice because it has one little reading for every day. I would highly recomend this book. ... Read more

Book Description
Philosophers list "What is man?" and "What is the purpose of lifeon this earth?" as two of the most important questions that must beasked by everyone in the quest to become a complete human being. Mere Humanity digs into the treasured writings of Chesterton,Lewis, and Tolkien for the answers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Masterful Guide to What it Means to Be Human
In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lucy Pevensie found an interesting book on her friend's bookshelf titled Is Man a Myth? The subject matter makes sense from a world in which no human had been for quite some time. But even in our world questions about what it means to be human are at best unresolved by our culture. In Mere Humanity, Donald T. Williams explores humanity in the work of G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Mere Humanity consists of an introduction, six chapters, concluding thoughts, and two appendices. In between each of these are one-page poetic "interludes" that reflect on various aspects of humanity. Over the six chapters, Dr. Williams analyzes The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton, "On Faerie Stories" and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien, and The Abolition of Man, The Space Trilogy, and The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.

Dr. Williams did an excellent job of analyzing these popular works in light of contemporary philosophies and, most importantly, biblical revelation. He showed how Chesterton, Tolkien, and Lewis each dealt with contrary ideologies in their own ways in order to point their readers to the biblical understanding of what it means to be human. My favorite chapter was "The Abolition of Talking Beasts," as it shows what peril our culture is in by losing its human identity.

It is often said that we stand on the shoulders of giants. Chesterton, Lewis, and Tolkien were three Christian giants who have given people a better perspective of the world. In Mere Humanity, Dr. Williams brings their collective perspectives together to form an insightful and urgent critique of the contemporary popular view of humanity.

Mere Humanity
I have not read this book yet. But I have read one of his other books, Inklings of Reality: Essays Toward a Christian Philosophy of Letters. That was a very good book and I look forward to reading this one as well.

I know Dr. Williams, he was one of my professors, I enjoyed every class that i had with him.

So I was quite suprised to see one of his books at Borders. But I remember him telling me at one point that he was writting a book about C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. So I am glad that I was able to find this and read it.

He is a very thoughtful and inteligent writer and teacher so I expect nothing less from him in this book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Dickens's finest interpreter until after World War II
Written in 1906 and 1911 and bound as this affordable paperback, Chesterton's two volumes of Dickens criticism remain superb, and have seldom been bettered by the academic industry's vast output. Although Chesterton's addiction to paradox can challenge or annoy readers unfamiliar with his style, a brief immersion dispels the difficulty, and further reading yields a mine of insights into Dickens as man and writer unsurpassed even by the publication of J. Hillis Miller's pathbreaking book of 1958. And: whereas Miller enjoyed not only the advantages of time and distance but also his rigorous training in academic criticism and scholarship, Chesterton wrote "simply" as one of those invaluable late Victorian and Edwardian "men of letters." In addition, he took on Dickens during the first fifty years after his death in 1870, when criticizing "The Inimitable" meant jousting with a National Institution. Writing as what we would call an "amateur," Chesterton perceptively celebrates Dickens's virtues with a love unblinded by a shrewd awareness of Dickens's faults. Some readers may find Chesterton's orthodox Catholic world view annoying, particularly when it obtrudes itself occasionallyinto his prose. But as a "simple," lifelong "Bible" Christian, Dickens would almost certainly have considered a relgious point of departure a matter of course -- although he would also almost certainly have deplored Chesterton's occasional narrowness. Those who bear with him for a single chapter will almost certainly be seduced by his penetrating and thought-provoking analyses; amateur and professional Dickensians alike should find this volume a perfect introduction to a deeper understanding of the novels and the man.

You can never go wrong with Chesterton
You can never go wrong with Chesterton. Chesterton can help you think, even if you're not good at it.

A delightful collection... (Vol. X of the series)
Chesterton lovers and lovers of poetry in the classical English forms will enjoy this collection of poems by one of the 20th century's greatest stylists, G.K. Chesterton.

After a section of juvenalia, the poems are arranged by broad subject. My only complaint with the volume is that it is not complete, and that Ignatius Press has not yet released Part 2 of the Collected Poetry.

But you will find many things in this volume in no other collection of Chesterton's poetry, including his poem about Notre Dame football. So if you enjoy Chesterton, or poetry, or both, check out this book. ... Read more

Book Description
Dale Ahlquist, the President of the American Chesterton Society, and author of G. K Chesterton -The Apostle of Common Sense, presents a book of wonderfulinsights onhow to "look at the whole world through the eyes of Chesterton". Since, as he says, "Chesterton wrote about everything", there is an ocean of his material to benefit from GKC's insights on a kaleidoscope of many important topics.Chesterton wrote a hundred books on a variety of themes, thousands of essays for London newspapers, penned epic poetry, delighted in detective fiction, drew illustrations, and made everyone laugh by his keen humor. Everyone who knew Chesterton loved him, even those he debated with. His unique writing style that combines philosophy, spirituality, history, humor, and paradox have made him one of the most widely read authors of modern times.As Ahlquist shows in his engaging volume, this most quoted writer of the 20th century has much to share with us on topics covering politics, art, education, wonder, marriage, fads, poetry, faith, charity and much more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Common sense 101 for non atheists
In the opening chapters Dale Ahlquist gives a vivid and rich description of the captivating character that is G K Chesterton.Ahlquist, an admitted Chesterton fan, provides a guide to the world 'through Chesterton's eyes' with the focus on the question - what is really important in life?There are some hard questions asked and some blunt answers given.Not a book for those who feel wish to remain comfortable with atheist, Darwinian, Marxist, Freudian or even scientific beliefs.If you are happy to challenge your beliefs and are willing to ask questions of yourself and others, Ahlquist and Chesterton offer a wide range of ideas to debate. Easy to read, entertaining and challenging.

Does anyone remember laughter?
At six foot four, weighing in at 300 pounds, Chesterton was certainly the biggest writer of the Victorian/ Edwardian era. But why was he always laughing? "I suppose I enjoy myself more than other people because there's such a lot of me having a good time." If that doesn't make you want to read this book, nothing will. But that's only from the Introduction of this 300 page book, the tip, if you will, of the iceberg.

As with Ahlquist's earlier book, The Apostle of Common Sense, this book is collected from TV shows that played on EWTN. However, the reaction I continually had when watching the first series on video was "Ah! Let me write that down!" The great thing about that book (and this one) is that it is written down. Not only that, the book ends with a biography of all the books by Chesterton, with brief and very helpful annotations (notes) on each book. Most of the Chesterton I've read I found out about either from Dale's other book or his notes on books sent out by the American Chesterton Society, of which he is president.

In between these two bookends, as it were, I expected quotes from GKC, but it's more than that, with our host providing what are likely slightly revised transcripts of the shows. So you get a cornucopia of Chesterton, with footnotes of where it came from so you can track down those books, but also Dale's engaging writing. In my view, he is the Boswell if Chesterton is Johnson. It's as if he were introducing us to a particularly zany uncle or grandfather who afterwards we can not wait to visit.

Rock savvy readers will place my title as a spoken aside from "Stairway to Heaven", but this book gives the answer. "Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly," quipped GKC. For all his poundage, so did he. Ahlquist invites us to that forgotten realm where easy laughter is part and parcel of common sense.

Outstanding.
If there is anyone one the planet qualified to write this book, it is Dale Ahlquist. I have never had the privilege of reading, or seeing on TV, anyone more deeply rooted in Chesterton's thought than Ahlquist. As this book is essentially "Chesterton Updated," Ahlquist is certainly the man to do it. If the academy were not in free fall due to political correctness and liberalism, Ahlquist would be a respected and tenured Chesterton scholar tasked with teaching students Chesterton's works.

What Ahlquist has done here is remarkable. He was taken Chesterton's thoughts, and often his words verbatim, and put them together in one volume that is cohesive and addresses our age. It is an easy, but riveting, read that hooked me right from the beginning. If you are a serious Catholic, rest assured, any thought you have EVER HAD, is likely not original. Chesterton already had it; eighty years ago. He is prophetic, correct, and intimidating. After reading Chesterton you would not be alone if you concluded that no further apologetics for the faith were necessary. If people of good will read Chesterton, they will become Chestertonian Catholics.

This is a great introduction to Chesterton's thought. If one is interested in reading Chesterton, I would start with this book, and Ahlquist's "Apostle of Common Sense." Then, I would dig headlong into the master himself.

The finest introduction to one of the finest thinkers...
"This is not a book about Chesterton," Ahlquist writes. "It is a book about everything else from a Chestertonian perspective. It is an attempt to get inside of him and inhabit him like a large house so that we can see the world through the windows he provides. . . Chesterton wrote about everything. An ocean of words poured out of his pen. . . It is deep, it is dangerous, it is delightful, it is refreshing, it is full of suprises, it is full of life" (9-10).

Dangerous and delightful indeed. In this unusually written but suprisingly well executed book, we see the genius of Chesterton at work on nearly every level. From poetry to capitalism to catholicism Alhquist extracts and applies the Chestertonian "essence" almost as if he were the man himself. He does this through substantial (but not overbearing) excerpts from Chesterton's volumous writing and careful commentary.

Alhquist seemingly pulls off the impossible: He offers a comprehensive introduction to Chesterton, includes enough direct excerpts from Chesterton's writing to effectively convey his wit and stytle, manages to apply his thinking to the present era, and does it all in under 300 pages. A remarkable feat.

Whether you come to Chesterton from his Father Brown fiction or from 'Orthodoxy' there is something for everyone here. I was repeatedly suprised by his timeless wisdom and grace. Of the half-dozen books I've read about Chesterton, Ahlquist's is the most well-rounded and interesting.

Highly recommended.

Obscure gem
This book should be required reading for all people who wish to understand more fully the true nature of the human experience.Ahlquist, the head of the American Chesterton Society and publisher of Gilbert Magazine, does a lovely job of presenting Chesterton to the 21st century reader.Although Chesterton died in 1936, his words are as compelling now as they were then.An excellent primer on Chestertonian wisdom and a refreshing affirmation of the Roman Catholic Church.A splendid read. ... Read more

Book Description
G. K. Chesterton, early twentieth-century essayist, poet,novelist, political campaigner, and theologian, philosophized greatly aboutsociety and the future. A study of his thinking and selected writings, withparticular reference to his status as a precursor of the genre later knownas "science fiction," enriches our understanding of how we came to be wherewe are and how we can advocate a better future.

In this book, Stephen R. L. Clark, a philosopher with a lifelong"addiction" to science fiction, explores Chesterton's ideas and argumentsin their historical context and evaluates them philosophically. Headdresses Chesterton's sense that the way things are is not how they musthave been or need be in the future, and his willingness to face up to theapparent effects of the nihilism he detected in the science and politics ofhis day.

Clark offers a detailed study of some of Chesterton's works that have beenidentified by science fiction writers and critics as seminal influences. Heattempts to deal with some of Chesterton's theories that have been foundoffensive or "positively wicked" by later writers and critics, includinghis arguments against female suffrage and in praise of war, his medievalistleanings, and his contemptuous rejection of Darwinian evolutionary theory.

"Chesterton worked to remind us of the oddity, the wonder, of the world welive in, by pointing up and exaggerating too-familiar features of thatworld," comments Clark. "It is not necessary to agree with him on everyissue to find his work invigorating and enlightening." Chesterton'sapproach to life and the world might be summarized as that of one who"thinks backward" or "looks at the world upside down," acknowledging theoften arbitrary nature of our customs and beliefs and also the underlyingvirtues of humanity. A philosophical analysis of this view provides insightinto our past and the future we can shape. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

the complex outlook and ideas of this English author
A late Victorian-era/early modern age author/thinker, some of whose writings were precursors to science fiction and others which are seen as reactionary and in some cases bigoted and narrow-minded, G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) is impossible to categorize. And Clark doesn't try. Rather than attempt to give a coherent, rational perspective of the prolific English author--an inevitably procrustean effort--Clark critiques many of Chesterton's diverse writings. Not only something of an exegesis of these writings, the critiques also entail putting them in a social context, noting their influence, and explaining what was controversial or provocative about them. Clark does not go so far as to be an apologist, but gives some background for a broader view of Chesterton's seemingly outdated and sometimes offensive opinions and remarks which have been called anti-Semitic, misogynistic, and anti-Darwin. As Clark--an English professor of philosophy--shows, all of Chesterton's writings and ideas, inspiring as well as irksome, grew out of his ingrained, vital, immense optimism. This optimism not only aroused him to be sharply critical of contemporary influences such as nihilism and science and progressive social developments such a women's suffrage and relativism, but also gave him a vision of ideal, desirable conditions for humanity.
... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
G.K. Chesterton, one of the most controversial literary figures of the last hundred years, has excited an enormous range of critical comment since his death in 1936. In this generous collection of essays, D. J. Conlon presents the views of more than fifty writers on the private and public
Chesterton. Writers such as George Orwell, Evelyn Waugh, Kingsley Amis, Anthony Burgess, Graham Greene, V. S. Pritchett, A. N. Wilson and many others show the range and the nature of Chesterton's impact over the last half century.
G. K. Chesterton's output was prodigious, including essays, prefaces, poems, short stories and articles, as well as 115 books.Having made his name in journalism--which he called "the easiest of all professions"--he went on to write novels and to create the best-known detective-priest in English
fiction, Father Brown. He wrote literary criticism, including works on Browning, Dickens and Shaw, and established himself as a Christian apologist and commentator on political and social affairs.His larger-than-life personality and appearance, his wit, and his friendship with Hilaire Belloc all
made an indelible impression on contemporaries, while his writing remains subject to continual reassessment and is currently enjoying a new popularity. This collection will be of specialinterest to all those fascinated by the rich and eccentric era of British Edwardian literature. ... Read more

Book Description
A discerning study of Chesterton the author and the man includes chapters on the essayist, the poet, the playwright, the novelist, the influence of Dickens, Browning and Thackeray, Chesterton on divorce, 'The New Jerusalem,' his home life, his relationship to G. B. Shaw, his place in literature and as historian. ... Read more

Book Description
The Le Bas Prize Essay of 1938 as it was issued in volume form. G. K. Chesterton's life is presented against the early background and influences, his orthodoxy and attachements to the Catholic Church are examined, followed by a summary of his novels, essays and poems and a scrutiny of his style and arguments. ... Read more