Christine puts up a wonderful post about how G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown Mysteries helped Sir Alec Guinness come to the Church.
I happen to be on a bit of a Chesterton kick at the moment. As is becoming my habit during Lent, I just finished rereading Orthodoxy and have now re-plunged into The Dumb Ox.
Reading Christine’s post, it occurred to me that I’ve never read the Father Brown stories. As I noted in comments, I’d never even heard of them when I was younger and by the time I did, I had got it into my head that they were somehow only for Young Persons.
Well, enough of that! I’ve just now nipped over to the devil’s website and scooped up the lot of them. I also picked up Manalive into the bargain, another work I have not yet read.
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March 31, 2009 at 3:54 pm
The Abbot
Let us know what you think of them. I haven’t read them either and am curious if they are any good..
March 31, 2009 at 5:37 pm
The Bovina Bloviator
Right now I’m reading a Belloc novel, “The Man Who Made Gold” (found it at a used bookstore) with illustrations (and captions) by Chesterton. The man got around and knew everybody.
March 31, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Robbo
BB – Aw, now you made me dash back over and pick up Belloc’s book of Catholic essays!
April 1, 2009 at 12:52 am
Monica
My favorite part of Brideshead Revisited (I’ve posted this before, I think) is the reference to Father Brown. Sums the whole novel up, really:
Then she (Cordelia) tells Charles of the one escape possible from a world fallen into the hands of human beings: divine mercy. She reminds him of the evening at Brideshead when her mother read aloud from a detective story written by G. K. Chesterton, and was interrupted by Sebastian making his first drunken appearance. “Father Brown said something like ‘I caught him’ [the thief] with an unseen hook and an invisible line which is long enough to let him wander to the ends of the world and still bring him back with a twitch upon the thread.” Brideshead Revisited, if the author’s intention matters, is a story of some fishes lost in a great sea until they are finally hauled to safety by a jerk of the pole in the hands of the Fisher King.
Taken from this longer essay: http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1321
April 1, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Robbo
Yes, I read somewhere else that Waugh’s use of Father Brown was a tribute to Chesterton.
April 3, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Christine
So glad you’ve picked up the Fr. Brown mysteries. And you have of course seen Sir Alec Guinness’s depiction of Fr. Brown?
BB: Chesterton was close friends with Belloc for many years, and illustrated a number of his books; in fact, Chesterton credits Belloc with his conversion to the faith, as well as his “conversion” to the distributist philosophy. It is said that after Chesterton’s funeral, his longtime friend was seen sitting alone in a pub crying into his beer…