Sign-In
Cart
The Man Who Was Thursday
Paperback
Series: Dover Literature: Crime/Mystery/Thriller
Mystery & ThrillerClassic Fiction
Publisher Price: $9.95
Please select the version of book you would like to purchase.
ISBN10: 0486251217
ISBN13: 9780486251219
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: Jul 1 1986
Pages: 144
Weight: 0.33
Height: 0.31 Width: 5.41 Depth: 8.46
Language: English
ISBN13: 9780486251219
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: Jul 1 1986
Pages: 144
Weight: 0.33
Height: 0.31 Width: 5.41 Depth: 8.46
Language: English
... An extraordinary book, written as if the publisher had commissioned him to write something rather like The Pilgrim's Progress in the style of The Pickwick Papers.--Msgr. Ronald Knox
Perhaps best known to the general public as creator of the Father Brown detective stories, G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was especially renowned for his wit, rhetorical brilliance and talent for ingenious and revealing paradox. Those qualities are richly abundant in the present volume, a hilarious, fast-paced tale about a club of anarchists in turn-of-the- century London.
Perhaps best known to the general public as creator of the Father Brown detective stories, G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was especially renowned for his wit, rhetorical brilliance and talent for ingenious and revealing paradox. Those qualities are richly abundant in the present volume, a hilarious, fast-paced tale about a club of anarchists in turn-of-the- century London.
The story begins when Gabriel Syme, a poet and member of a special group of philosophical policemen, attends a secret meeting of anarchists, whose leaders are named for the days of the week, and all of whom are sworn to destroy the world. Their chief is the mysterious Sunday--huge, boisterous, full of vitality, a wild personage who may be a Chestertonian vision of God or nature or both. When Syme, actually an undercover detective, is unexpectedly elected to fill a vacancy on the Anarchists' Central Council, the plot takes the first of many surprising twists and turns.
The poet/sleuth is soon caught up in a deadly scheme to bomb a meeting in Paris of the Czar and the President of the French Republic. The story grows steadily more bizarre, at the same time serving as a vehicle for Chesterton's philosophical, political and religious speculations, cloaked in cheerful irreverence, and pointed wit: You've got that eternal idiotic idea that if anarchy came it would come from the poor. Why should it? The poor have been rebels, but they have never been anarchists; they have more interest than anyone else in there being some decent government. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.
Such perceptions, expressed with profound good humor, add a delightful dimension of interest to this inventive and readable allegorical puzzle. In Dover's inexpensive paperbound edition, completely reset in new type for easier reading, The Man Who Was Thursday will delight any reader who relishes clever plotting, delicious irony and rousing adventure in a novel in which...the wisdom flashes out in star-showers: (Baker and Packman, A Guide to the Best Fiction).
The poet/sleuth is soon caught up in a deadly scheme to bomb a meeting in Paris of the Czar and the President of the French Republic. The story grows steadily more bizarre, at the same time serving as a vehicle for Chesterton's philosophical, political and religious speculations, cloaked in cheerful irreverence, and pointed wit: You've got that eternal idiotic idea that if anarchy came it would come from the poor. Why should it? The poor have been rebels, but they have never been anarchists; they have more interest than anyone else in there being some decent government. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.
Such perceptions, expressed with profound good humor, add a delightful dimension of interest to this inventive and readable allegorical puzzle. In Dover's inexpensive paperbound edition, completely reset in new type for easier reading, The Man Who Was Thursday will delight any reader who relishes clever plotting, delicious irony and rousing adventure in a novel in which...the wisdom flashes out in star-showers: (Baker and Packman, A Guide to the Best Fiction).
41 different editions
Also available
Also in
Classic Fiction
The Torrents of Spring: A Romantic Novel in Honor of the Passing of a Great Race
Hemingway, Ernest
Hardcover
From $5.69
The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of the Lord of the Rings
Tolkien, J. R. R.
Paperback
From $10.99
The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure
Goldman, William
Paperback
$17.09
The Lord of the Rings Illustrated by the Author: Illustrated by J.R.R. Tolkien
Tolkien, J. R. R.
Hardcover
$81.00
The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure
Goldman, William
Hardcover
$38.00
Frankenstein, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Stoker, Bram
Shelley, Mary
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Paperback
$8.50
The Fellowship of the Ring Collector's Edition: Being the First Part of the Lord of the Rings
Tolkien, J. R. R.
Hardcover
$31.50
Frank Herbert's Dune Saga 3-Book Boxed Set: Dune, Dune Messiah, and Children of Dune
Herbert, Frank
Paperback
$29.42
Cien Años de Soledad (Edición de Regalo) / One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gift Edition)
García Márquez, Gabriel
Hardcover
$33.25
The Two Towers Collector's Edition: Being the Second Part of the Lord of the Rings
Tolkien, J. R. R.
Hardcover
$31.50