The Man Who Was Thursday, a Nightmare

Wildside Press
The Man Who Was Thursday, a Nightmare
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Like most of Chesterton's fiction, the story includes some Christian allegory. Chesterton, a Protestant at this time (he joined the Roman Catholic Church about 15 years later), suffered from a brief bout of depression during his college days, and claimed afterwards he wrote this book as an unusual affirmation that goodness and right were at the heart of every aspect of the world. However, he insisted: "The book ... was not intended to describe the real world as it was, or as I thought it was, even when my thoughts were considerably less settled than they are now. It was intended to describe the world of wild doubt and despair which the pessimists were generally describing at that date; with just a gleam of hope in some double meaning of the doubt, which even the pessimists felt in some fitful fashion." A WILD, MAD, HILARIOUS AND PROFOUNDLY MOVING TALE: It is very difficult to classify _The Man Who was Thursday._ It is possible to say that it is a gripping adventure story of murderous criminals and brilliant policemen; but it was to be expected that the author of the Father Brown stories should tell a detective story like no one else. On this level, therefore, _The Man Who was Thursday_ succeeds superbly; if nothing else, it is a magnificent tour-de-force of suspense-writing. However, the reader will soon discover that it is much more than that. Carried along on the boisterous rush of the narrative by Chesterton's wonderful high-spirited style, he will soon see that he is being carried into much deeper waters than he had planned on; and the totally unforeseeable denouement will prove for the modern reader, as it has for thousands of others since 1908 when the book was first published, an inevitable and moving experience, as the investigators finally discover who Sunday is.

Publisher: Wildside Press

Published: United States, 1 March 2004

Format: Paperback, 176 pages

Other Information: black & white illustrations

Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.2 x 1 centimeters (0.27 kg)

Writer: G K Chesterton

About the Author

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874 - 1936), better known as G. K. Chesterton, was an English writer, poet, philosopher, dramatist, journalist, orator, lay theologian, biographer and literary and art critic. Chesterton is often referred to as the prince of paradox. Time magazine has observed of his writing style: Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories-first carefully turning them inside out.