GK Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday

Quite a few people had, it seems, already read The Man Who Was Thursday and told Gabriel that his name was remarkably similar to that of the main character, Gabriel Syme, before I. This is merely one of the many reasons why you should read this book.

I was intrigued the moment I picked it up in Oxfam in Oxford – the title alone propelling it past many into pole position on my big pile called ‘books-to-read’. It intrigued me all the way through, and I’m still intrigued by it, and keep going back to the apocalyptic ending – there are only a few books I’ve ever read that I’ll read again, and this is one of them.

Many consider this to be G K Chesterton’s best writing, and using a dynamic elegance and gentle but exuberant mastery of language he creates a world and draws you in, then forward at a rapid pace – time is not an issue with this book. The plot appears to revolve around a secret anarchist plot and nefarious criminal activity, but this is itself a sub-plot… there is a mystery to be solved, but it’s a metaphysical one.

G K Chesterton also wrote non-fiction as a radical democrat, as a revered literary critic and as a catholic apologeticist-isizer-er, where he defended Christian orthodoxy and traditional morality. But in most of this work, politics, literature and faith are not separate, but integrated into a single worldview. This was a reaffirmation of Thomas Aquinas’ philosophy; that the most radical feature of the universe is that it exists; this existence must have a cause; and that we owe allegiance to the Creator.

So too in The Man Who Was Thursday – his world is expressed as a nightmare, formed from an assimilation of his entire worldview superimposed onto a mysterious paradox… It is symbolic, it is allegorical, and yes it is Christian apologetics, but also apologetics for common sense and humanity, so like the book of Revelation, we should be careful in our interpretation of his iconology and iconography but nonetheless there is so much we can get out of it.

It was first published in 1908, but like all truly great writing, it is still very fresh and an amazing read. I have a copy to lend, but you can also read the book absolutely free online at http://www.bartleby.com/158/ , which is marvellous.