Le Meurtre Des Piliers Blancs: Et Autres Textes

"And the young woman of the house," asked Dr. Hood, with huge and silent amusement, "what does she want?" "Why, she wants to marry him," cried Father Brown, sitting up eagerly. "That is just the awful complication." "It is indeed a hideous enigma," said Dr. Hood. "This young James Todhunter," continued the cleric, "is a very decent man so far as I know; but then nobody knows very much. He is a bright, brownish little fellow, agile like a monkey, clean-shaven like an actor, and obliging like a born courtier. He seems to have quite a pocketful of money, but nobody knows what his trade is. Mrs. MacNab, therefore (being of a pessimistic turn), is quite sure it is something dreadful, and probably connected with dynamite.

La sagesse du père Brown

THE human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children's games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up. And one of the games to which it is most attached is called, "Keep tomorrow dark, " and which is also named (by the rustics in Shropshire, I have no doubt) "Cheat the Prophet." The players listen very carefully and respectfully to all that the clever men have to say about what is to happen in the next generation. The players then wait until all the clever men are dead, and bury them nicely. They then go and do something else. That is all. For a race of simple tastes, however, it is great fun.

The Napoleon of Notting Hill

THE suburb of Saffron Park lay on the sunset side of London, as red and ragged as a cloud of sunset. It was built of a bright brick throughout; its sky-line was fantastic, and even its ground plan was wild. It had been the outburst of a speculative builder, faintly tinged with art, who called its architecture sometimes Elizabethan and sometimes Queen Anne, apparently under the impression that the two sovereigns were identical. It was described with some justice as an artistic colony, though it never in any definable way produced any art. But although its pretensions to be an intellectual centre were a little vague, its pretensions to be a pleasant place were quite indisputable. The stranger who looked for the first time at the quaint red houses could only think how very oddly shaped the people must be who could fit in to them

The Man Who Was Thursday

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was an influential English writer of the early 20th century. His prolific and diverse output included journalism, philosophy, poetry, biography, Christian apologetics, fantasy, and detective fiction. Chesterton has been called the "prince of paradox." He wrote in an off-hand, whimsical prose studded with startling formulations. He is one of the few Christian thinkers who are equally admired and quoted by both liberal and conservative Christians, and indeed by many non-Christians. And in his own words he cast aspersions on the labels saying, "The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected." Chesterton wrote many books among which are: All Things Considered (1908), Alarms and Discursions (1910), The Ballad of the White Horse (1911), The Appetite of Tyranny (1915), The Everlasting Man (1925), The Secret of Father Brown (1927) and The Scandal of Father Brown (1935).

Utopie Des Usurierset Autres Essais

Patrick Dalroy, un jeune Irlandais à la force physique peu commune, rentré au pays après une campagne légendaire contre les Turcs, apprend de la bouche de son meilleur ami, que le tyran du Comté s'apprête, sous l'influence hautement maléfique d'un fanatique musulman, à fermer toutes les vieilles auberges du pays.

On devine la suite : le roman est tissé d'exploits et d'aventures dignes du chevalier à la Triste Figure. Nos amis sont bien décidés à rétablir la loi de la dive bouteille dans leur pays menacé par l'Infidèle de mourir de soif. Le tempérament de Chesterton peut alors se déployer dans tout son éclat, renouant avec la plus belle tradition picaresque anglaise, celle des Sterne, Fielding et autres Smollett.

Livre prophétique, L'Auberge volante, écrit Pierre Boutang, « pourra éveiller et instruire ceux qui, en l'Occident européen, songent encore à relever certains défis, et restent fidèles à leur héritage ».

L'auberge volante

La Croix Bleue est le premier récit que Chesterton consacra à son grand personnage, le père Brown, dont la condition de prêtre catholique, rompu aux confessions du tout-venant, lui assure les meilleures dispositions pour la résolution des affaires criminelles. A la différence d'un Sherlock Holmes, aux méthodes fièrement scientifiques, le père Brown fait preuve d'humilité et d'un raisonnement davantage intuitif, qui lui permet de se glisser "dans la peau" du criminel. Par l'empathie et l'amour du prochain dont son héros fait preuve, Chesterton sait muer les enquêtes du père Brown en de véritables essais sur la nature humaine. A ce titre, Le Secret du père Brown renferme une thèse essentielle : "Nul homme n'est véritablement bon tant qu'il n'a pas compris combien il est mauvais, ou combien il pourrait l'être."

The Blue Cross and The Secret of Father Brown / La Croix Bleue et Le Secret du père Brown

«Si le privilège des poètes est d'exprimer le mystère, ne l'expriment-ils authentiquement qu'ils ne réfutent du même coup l'ordre quotidien des choses comme arbitrairement établi et ne prennent parti pour le "désordre" ? Ou tout au contraire la quotidienneté des choses, soit la "banalité", ne constitue-t-elle pas en soi le mystère trop apparent pour qu'il soit seulement reconnu ?"Le rare, le merveilleux, c'est d'atteindre le but ; le vulgaire, le normal, c'est de le manquer."»

Le Nommé Jeudi : Un Cauchemar

Between the silver ribbon of morning and the green glittering ribbon of sea, the boat touched Harwich and let loose a swarm of folk like flies, among whom the man we must follow was by no means conspicuous-nor wished to be. There was nothing notable about him, except a slight contrast between the holiday gaiety of his clothes and the official gravity of his face. His clothes included a slight, pale grey jacket, a white waistcoat, and a silver straw hat with a grey-blue ribbon. His lean face was dark by contrast, and ended in a curt black beard that looked Spanish and suggested an Elizabethan ruff. He was smoking a cigarette with the seriousness of an idler. There was nothing about him to indicate the fact that the grey jacket covered a loaded revolver, that the white waistcoat covered a police card, or that the straw hat covered one of the most powerful intellects in Europe. For this was Valentin himself, the head of the Paris police and the most famous investigator of the world; and he was coming from Brussels to London to make the greatest arrest of the century.

Le Meurtre Des Piliers Blancs: Et Autres Textes

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