Product Description

Father Brown, one of the most quirkily genial and lovable characters to emerge from English detective fiction, first made his appearance in The Innocence of Father Brown in 1911. That first collection of stories established G.K. Chesterton's kindly cleric in the front rank of eccentric sleuths. This complete collection contains all the favourite Father Brown stories, showing a quiet wit and compassion that has endeared him to many, whilst solving his mysteries by a mixture of imagination and a sympathetic worldliness in a totally believable manner.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45120 in Books
• Published on: 1998-01-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Customer Reviews

Delightful reading for mystery and non-mystery fans alike
The Complete Father Brown Stories is a misnomer for the title of this book of mystery stories by G.K. Chesterton. The book actually contains only stories from the first two books in the series: The Innocence of Father Brown, and The Wisdom of Father Brown. Stories from all four Father Brown mysteries (including The Incrudulity of Father Brown and The Secret of Father Brown) can be found in the Wordsworth Classics edition entitled Father Brown and apparantly not available through amazon.com. None of these titles has any particular significance beyond giving a different name to each set of stories. Be that as it may, The Complete Father Brown Stories does give a good sense of these mysteries.

Father Brown is much different from his more illustrious precedessor in British detective fiction, Sherlock Holmes. Brown is short, Holmes is tall, Brown is cherubic, Holmes is rod-thin. Brown is unassuming, Holmes is commanding. The tone of the stories themselves are different. The Father Brown mysteries are more light-hearted with a touch of humor, whereas Holmes is all seriousness.
But Father Brown and Holmes are alike in that they solve seemingly unsolvable crimes and difficult situations by throught processes rather than brute force. Father Brown ponders a case and suddenly has an "aha" moment and comes up with the solution.

The stories are in many ways more enjoyable than the Holmes mysteries. The first story, The Bule Cross, introduces the reader to Flambeau, a master thief turned detective, who shows up in many of the Father Brown stories. Flambeau bears some resemblance to Dr. Watson in that his skills are inferior to those of Father Brown, but he is treated more as an equal than is Dr. Watson. The Paradise of Thieves tells a marvelous tale in which things are never what they seem. The Honour of Israel Gow provides a unique definition of "honour." The Mistake of the Machine is a delightful tale in which there is no crime but shows that love can conquer all if one is clever enough.

All in all this book is delightful reading for mystery and non-mystery fans as well.

The Table of Contents online and the table of contents in the actual book are completely different.
This book was purchased based on the titles in the table of contents. However, this book is 277 pages and not the 800 pages it says. It is NOT the complete Father Brown Mysteries at all. A few of the stories like "The Flying Stars" and "The Absence of Mr.Glass" are not in this book. I am very disappointed since this was a Christmas gift.

Very refreshing examples of crime genre
The mystery story is exemplified by the Sherlock Holmes stories. Those who haven't read them will probably know much about them from the way they have (justly) been added to the public imagination. So a good way of describing the Father Brown stories is to compare the two, as the images of Holmes are probably known to all.

Holmes is a private detective. As such, his main objective is to solve the crime. Father Brown is (obviously) a Catholic priest. His objective is to serve God by trying to better society. These two goals say a lot about how they go about solving crimes. Unlike Holmes, Brown gets close to crimes by accident (yes, that's a big suspension-of-disbelief) - as they happen amongst the families and coworkers of friends. He does not seek to "catch" the crook for the police but rather to find out what happened. At times, he lets the criminal go - and unlike the grumpy Holmes his speech (full of philosophical discussions) and actions reek of a love of humanity.

Holmes solves by logical deduction. Brown solves by a combination of intiution and a deep insight into character and circumstance. As such, the crux of many of the stories is psychological. Others rely on assumptions that people make about, say, people subservient to them. The Brown stories are therefore great satires of the early 20th century London society.

This edition has 18 stories - a quite eclectic collection and very recommended if you haven't encountered Brown before. The first one (the Blue Cross) introduces him marvelously as one of the great detectives.