Father Brown Stories In Order

The Complete Father Brown Stories

The complete adventures of the well-loved clerical sleuth, collected in one brilliant volume. Shabby and lumbering, with a face like a Norfolk dumpling, Father Brown makes for an improbable super-sleuth. But his innocence is the secret of his success: refusing the scientific method of detection, he adopts instead an approach of simple sympathy, interpreting each crime as a work of art, and each criminal as a man no worse than himself. This complete edition brings together all of the Father Brown stories, including two not previously available in Penguin: 'The Donnington Affair', in which Chesterton rises to the challenge of solving a murder-mystery half written by someone else (Max Pemberton), and 'The Mask of Midas', which was found in Chesterton's papers after his death. It also includes an introduction and notes by Michael D. Hurley. G.K. Chesteron was born in 1874. He attended the Slade School of Art, where he appears to have suffered a nervous breakdown, before turning his hand to journalism. A prolific writer throughout his life, his best-known books include The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904), The Man Who Knew Too Much(1922), The Man Who Was Thursday (1908) and the Father Brown stories. Chesterton converted to Roman Catholicism in 1922 and died in 1938. Michael D. Hurley is a Lecturer in English at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of St Catharine's College. He has written widely on English literature from the nineteenth century to the present day, with an emphasis on poetry and poetics. His book on G. K. Chesterton was published in 2011.

Selected Stories

Father Brown

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was an English writer who lived at the turn of the 20th century. His works explored a number of subjects such as philosophy, poetry, journalism, lectures, criticism, and theatrical plays. However, his best-known stories feature the character of an English priest and detective named Father Brown. While the character was based on a real priest who was involved in Chesterton's own conversion of faith, the adventures and mysteries that Father Brown solves are purely fictional. Included in the collection "Father Brown: The Essential Tales" are "The Blue Cross," "The Invisible Man," "The Strange Crime of John Boulnois," and twelve other thrilling stories. What is interesting about Father Brown is that he does not rely on deductive reasoning like other famous detectives, namely Sherlock Holmes. Instead, Father Brown relies on intuition. He puts himself into the mind of the perpetrator and figures out the criminal's steps along the way. Part of what makes him a great detective is that Father Brown is never shocked by the atrocities that he sees. As a priest, he says that he has already heard about all the awful things people do and think; nothing surprises him anymore. He also refuses to believe in any supernatural explanations and instead focuses on a case's reasonable explanation. Anyone wanting a fun and entertaining read with a great character to lead the way should add "Father Brown: The Essential Tales" to their reading list.