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 special interest to all those fascinated by the rich and eccentric era of British Edwardian literature.