The Secret of Father Brown
G. K. Chesterton’s celebrity priest-detective returns in The Secret of Father Brown (1927), the fourth of five collections of short stories featuring Father Brown. Through his uncanny ability to anticipate the actions of others and his profound understanding of human nature, Father Brown uncovers the truth behind perplexing murders, elaborate robberies, and other acts of maleficence. Flambeau, once the most famous burglar in France and now a detective in England, makes a reappearance as Father Brown’s reformed friend and colleague in the two stories that frame the eight detective mysteries in this volume. Father Brown’s investigations involve such varied characters as the celebrated poet Osric Orm, the Robin Hood-like criminal Michael Moonshine, the goldfish-obsessed Peregrine Smart, the haggard theatre manager Mundon Mandeville, and the eccentric Lady Mounteagle. This collection includes “The Vanishing of Vaudrey,” one of Chesterton’s most memorable and startling stories, and “The Chief Mourner of Marne,” a story that vies with “The Sign of the Broken Sword” for the position of Chesterton’s masterpiece.
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G. K. Chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936), was an English writer, poet, philosopher, dramatist, journalist, orator, lay theologian, biographer, and literary and art critic. Chesterton is often referred to as the "prince of paradox". Time magazine has observed of his writing style: "Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories - first carefully turning them inside out."
Chesterton is well known for his fictional priest-detective Father Brown, and for his reasoned apologetics. Even some of those who disagree with him have recognised the wide appeal of such works as Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man. Chesterton routinely referred to himself as an "orthodox" Christian, and came to identify this position more and more with Catholicism, eventually converting to Catholicism from High Church Anglicanism. George Bernard Shaw, his "friendly enemy", said of him, "He was a man of colossal genius." Biographers have identified him as a successor to such Victorian authors as Matthew Arnold, Thomas Carlyle, Cardinal John Henry Newman, and John Ruskin.
Father Brown Collection
Father Brown Collection consists of five books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
