Chargement
Informations sur le livre
Father Brown
Écrit par G.K. Chesterton
Raconté par Bill Wallis
Actions du livre
Commencer à écouterDescription
FATHER BROWN. This wonderful creation by GK Chesterton is a familiar favourite to many as a TV series in the 70s with Kenneth More. Chesterton’s other works include ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much. These four stories test Father Brown in many ways creating headaches a plenty. However Father Brown is nothing if not redoubtable and whilst Chesterton’s stories are, in his own words, “very slight and improbable” his method is all his own. Bill Wallis captures perfectly the mood and tone of Father Brown in this collection.
Actions du livre
Commencer à écouterInformations sur le livre
Father Brown
Écrit par G.K. Chesterton
Raconté par Bill Wallis
Description
FATHER BROWN. This wonderful creation by GK Chesterton is a familiar favourite to many as a TV series in the 70s with Kenneth More. Chesterton’s other works include ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much. These four stories test Father Brown in many ways creating headaches a plenty. However Father Brown is nothing if not redoubtable and whilst Chesterton’s stories are, in his own words, “very slight and improbable” his method is all his own. Bill Wallis captures perfectly the mood and tone of Father Brown in this collection.
À propos de l'auteur
GC![]()
Avis
The art of good art is the most important thing to do
A complete collection of G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories.
Absolutely loved this series of unforgettable characters and events.
The actual title of the Wordsworth Classics edition I have is simply Father Brown and it is 'all the favourite' Father Brown stories rather than a complete collection. For some reason the Librarything link is a misnomer. Even if this isn't an exhaustive collection, there are still plenty of stories, and very delightful they are too.Reading Father Brown is a little bit like turning up a missing volume of Sherlock Holmes - the good Father makes similar brilliant deductions (or would those be inductions?) with his keen powers of observation and logic. Analytical powers aside, though, the two detectives could hardly be more different in character. Father Brown is unprepossessing and usually underestimated by those who do not know him well: 'he had a face as round and dull as a Norfolk dumpling; he had eyes as empty as the North Sea; he had several brown-paper parcels which he was quite incapable of collecting' (page 5). Of course his dumpy appearance is deceiving and criminals who think to take advantage of the priest soon find themselves outwitted....The most appealing characteristic of Father Brown is not his intelligence, however, but his wisdom and compassion for other people in spite of his keen awareness of the flaws in human nature. Without making excuses for criminals he nevertheless extends forgiveness to them. A good part of his powers of 'detection' comes simply from his willingness to see clearly those people whom the rest of society looks through or down on. Catholic or no, one can't help feeling that Father Brown would be a wonderful person with whom to have a long chat.What might be irritating to some (although I found it very interesting) is the way that Chesterton uses Father Brown as a mouthpiece to express his views on tradition, materialism, superstition, and so on - all in quite an orthodox Catholic fashion, of course! It blends so flawlessly with the character, though, that it hardly seems out of place. One of my favourite examples of this is in 'The Oracle of the Dog,' where Father Brown complains: 'It's part of something I've noticed more and more in the modern world... People readily swallow the untested claims of this, that, or the other. It's drowning all your old rationalism and scepticism, it's coming in like a sea; and the name of it is superstition... It's the first effect of not believing in God that you lose your common sense and can't see things as they are.' (page 266) Intriguing stuff! I wish Father Brown had taken some time off saying Mass and solving mysteries to write out a reasoned defense of his theology. That would have been well worth reading too.
I decided to read this because I love the TV show. I was greatly disappointed. The stories were not very engaging, and unlike Sherlock Holmes stories did not leave the reader in suspense, dangling clues. They were short and undeveloped. Great potential, solid writing, poor execution.
-library book
-library book
The stories were very good, not quit up to Sherlock good but close...
What an extraordinary group of arm chair mysteries. These stories were very unusual. The tales had a surreal quality to them. In the first story a French police detective follows two clergymen doing strange things such as changing the salt in the salt-cellar for sugar, throwing food against the restaurant wall, changing place cards at a fruit stand, and paying for a restaurant window before breaking it. In another a gold digging leader of a sun cult convinces a rich spinster she can look into the sun without going blind. In yet another story a group of vacationers are high jacked in an obviously staged scenario.Father Brown’s years of listening to confessions has taught him human nature. He uses his knowledge to understand puzzling tales. He also gives out advice and words of wisdom. If you are bored with the usual detective-uses-his-wits-to-capture-a-criminal-and-send-him-to-jail mystery stories try G. K. Chesterton.
Father Brown, if you haven't heard of him, is a portly priest who always finds himself in the middle of a mystery—usually a murder.As Chesterton's alterego, he solves crimes by understanding the fundamental makeup of the human personality. Never distracted by mystical hocus pocus, Father Brown unassumingly uncovers the details and motives deemed insignificant by others.The Complete Father Brown contains all 51 Father Brown stories written, including five different collections (The Innocence, Wisdom, Incredulity, Secret, and Scandal of Father Brown) as well as a bonus story, "The Vampire of the Village".Reading these stories is like sinking into a comfortable chair. If you try to sneak in a quick story while on break at work, you'll miss the charm of Chesterton's style. Instead, you need to take time to deliberately take in each word in his florid sentences. If you don't rush, his style is quite compelling. Take the first sentence in "The Absence of Mr. Glass" for example."The consulting-rooms of Dr. Orion Hood, the eminent criminologist and specialist in certain moral disorders, lay along the seafront at Scarborough, in a series of very large and well-lighted French windows, which showed the North Sea like one endless outer wall of blue-green marble." (in The Wisdom of Father Brown)For the Christian reader, there are occasional flashes of anthropological brilliance. I stopped to reread a particularly acute observation on more than a few occasions. Take this jewel in "The Sign of the Broken Sword" for example. Here Father Brown explains to his partner Flambeaux why Sir Arthur St. Clare's Bible reading habit doesn't make him innocent."Sir Arthur St. Clare, as I have already said, was a man who read his Bible. That was what was the matter with him. When will people understand that it is useless for a man to read his Bible unless he also reads everybody else’s Bible? A printer reads a Bible for misprints. A Mormon reads his Bible, and finds polygamy; a Christian Scientist reads his, and finds we have no arms and legs." (in The Innocence of Father Brown)I wish I knew a Christian sleuth today with the depth of Father Brown.
Some of the best mysteries ever written. Chesterton's Father Brown is a unique amateur detective who solves crimes because he understands man's sinful nature. Not only do the stories entertain, they challenge you to think as well.
An perfect bedside companion; the stories being short and rather amusing then unsettling one can put the book down when reaching drowsiness to sleep without losing the plot!
Chesterton created one of the great eccentric amateur detectives in Father Brown, spun some surreal plots, and mixed spirituality with detection, law with morality.
I love Chesterton, but the quality of his stories here varies wildly. All of the stories in the first part, "The Innocence of Father Brown", are excellent though-- especially "The Blue Cross" and the unfortunately entitled "Queer Feet".