Product Description

This edition of Chesterton's masterpiece and most famous novel, The Man Who Was Thursday, explicates and enriches the complete text with extensive footnotes, together with an introductory essay on the metaphysical meaning of Chesterton's profound allegory. Martin Gardner sees the novel's anarchists as symbols of our God-given free will, and the mysterious Sunday as representing Nature, with its strange mixture of good and evil when considered as distinct from God, as a mask hiding the transcendental face of the creator. The book also includes a bibliography listing the novel's many earlier editions and stage dramatizations, as well as numerous illustrations that further illuminate the text. Illustrated

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #163468 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 289 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781586170424
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Customer Reviews

Welcome to GKC's nightmare
"It remains the most thrilling book I've read," wrote novelist Kingsley Amis about The Man Who Was Thursday. The story is nearly 100 years old, having first appeared in 1907, and since it's now in the public domain, exists in numerous editions. G. K. Chesterton, or G.K.C., is best known as the author of the Father Brown detective stories and for his "slovenly autobiography," Orthodoxy. This novel, part detective story, sort of a metaphysical thriller, kind of a melodrama, maybe surrealistic, slice-of-life, dream/ vision has dazzled numerous readers with its unclassifiable, gripping, hallucinatory style. There is no one like Chesterton, and this novel, along with The Ball and The Cross and Manalive, and The Flying Inn, and maybe The Club of Queer Trades and Four Faultless Felons, with some Father Brown thrown in, remains in the handful of his best.

Some years back, Ignatius Press launched an ambitious project to reprint all of Chesterton's prolific output, in which they are still fruitfully engaged. "Thursday" appeared in a volume dedicated to his novels, and then in an edition matching the Collected Chesterton editions. Finally it's gotten out on its own to the general reading public, and a good thing, too, for this is a very special edition.

I was an avid reader of Martin Gardner when he wrote the "Mathematical Games" column in Scientific American, always coming up with some brain teaser or logical conundrum, and one of the most read features of the magazine. Little did I know it was his latent detective tendency which led him on the trail of all sorts of alleged psychic phenomenon and New Age oddities, the most famous being his report on the pedigree of the Urantia Book, unmasking quite a few hoaxes and charlatans along the way.

But, as in a Chesterton novel, now the strands get all interconnected. Gardner's dual interest in literature and logic found a natural outlook in his Annotated Alice edition of fellow polymath Lewis Carroll's "Alice Through the Looking Glass." He also produced for Oxford Press, The Annotated Innocence of Father Brown by G.K.C.. Chesterton's famous sleuth, it turns out, was also about debunking so-called psychic phenomena, as fake seances were a growth industry in the early 1900s.

His annotated edition of Thursday was originally released as a sort of study version for those who'd already encountered one of the many editions of the novel and wanted to probe deeper with a trusty guide. Now that it's out at large, however, this edition serves not only as a deluxe follow-up for seasoned GKC addicts, but is also ideal for the new reader. How annotated is it? After Martin Gardner's (MG) introduction, there's a fascimile of Chesterton's hand-lettered faceplate of the first edition followed by GKC's dedication poem, nearly never reprinted in its entirety. The text is peppered with notes, art by GKC and period photos and drawings of GKC's London. There's also a bibliography of various editions of "Thursday," including the weirdest of them all, in the March, 1944 issue of the pulp mystery magazine, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, with a reproduction of its sensationalist cover.

The new reader is advised to read the novel first, before the MG intro (which gives away the game) and, if possible, without reading the back cover notes, reviews, or any other later opinions. Most readers get hooked and keep rereading it, and these naturally make up the audience for this edition. Like the film, Twelve Monkeys, GKC keeps you puzzling and pondering over this novel, but not so much for what happened as to for what it meant. Enter fellow detective Gardner (who starts his introduction with a quote from Sherlock Holmes creator, Conan Doyle, and points out that GKC was himself the founder of the Detection Club for mystery writers (Dorothy L. Sayers was the next president), and it's elementary, Watson, why this is your best guide.

On Thursday...
For a book that's as short as this one is, "The Man Who Was Thursday" is pretty packed.

G.K. Chesterton's classic novella tackles anarchy, social order, God, peace, war, religion, human nature, and a few dozen other weight concepts. And somehow he manages to mash it all together into a delightful satire, full of tongue-in-cheek commentary that is still relevant today.

As the book opens, Gabriel Symes is debating with a soapbox anarchist. The two men impress each other enough that the anarchist introduces Symes to a seven-man council of anarchists, all named after days of the week. In short order, they elect Symes their newest member -- Thursday.

But they don't know that he's also been recruited by an anti-anarchy organization. And soon Symes finds out that he's not the only person on the council who is not what he seems. There are other spies and double-agents, working for the same cause. But who -- and what -- is the jovial, powerful Mr. Sunday, the head of the organization?

Hot air balloons, elaborate disguises, duels and police chases -- Chesterton certainly knew how to keep this novel interesting. Though written almost a century ago, "The Man Who Was Thursday" still feels very fresh. That's partly because of Chesterton's cheery writing... and partly because it's such an intelligent book.

He doesn't avoid some timeless topics that make some people squirm. Humanity (good and bad), anarchy, religion and its place in human nature, and creation versus destruction all get tackled here -- disguised as a comic police investigation. And unlike most satires, it isn't dated; the topics are reflections of humanity and religion, so they're as relevant now as they were in 1908.

But the story isn't pedantic or boring; Chesterton keeps things lively by having his characters act like real people, rather than mouthpieces. From Symes to the Colonel to the mysterious Sunday himself, they all have a sort of friendly, energetic quality. "We're all spies! Come and have a drink!" one of the characters announces cheerfully near the end.

And of course, once the madcap police investigations are finished, there's still a mystery. Who is Sunday? What are his goals? And for that matter, WHAT is Sunday -- genius, force of nature, villain or god? The answer is a bit of a surprise, and as a reflection of Chesterton's beliefs, it's a delicate, intelligent piece of work.

"The Man Who Was Thursday" is a wacky little satire that will both amuse and educate you. Not bad for a book often subtitled "A Nightmare."

Good book, terribly annotated
This was a pretty good book, as others have attested. My beef is with the worthless annotations. Actually, they are less than worthless because they contain major plot spoilers. As far as I can tell, the notes break down as follows:

40% Numerous descriptions of London streets, neighborhoods that have absolutely no bearing on the plot and can easily be obtained on the Web by anyone who really cares about things like exactly where Charing Cross is and what kinds of shops it has in it.

35% Irrelevant literary cross-references that have no bearing on the work's plot or themes. These are most likely to occur when the annotator is reminded of some poem from the same period from another one of his books, and wants to speculate on whether Chesterton might have read it.

17% Corrections of Chesterton's own quotes and allusions, which apparently he did mostly from memory and so misses a word or two here and there

3% plot spoilers.

5% I guess were sort of useful, though the annotater is so pretentious it's hard to admit. But you should avoid reading them, because you never know which ones might be plot spoilers.

I would also comments that most of the cultural references that actually caused me to pause and question the text were not footnoted.

In his defense, I will say that the annotator provides a fairly good introduction. But don't read it until after you've read the book (more spoilers).