G. K. Chesterton at the Wikipedia
Gilbert Keith Chesterton, by Lídia Gàllego
BIOGRAPHY
Gilbert Keith
Chesterton was born in Campden Hill in Kensington in 1874. He was an English
writer, philosopher, lay theologian, and literary and art critic. He has been
referred to as the “prince of paradox”. He wrote around 80 books, several
hundred poems, some 200 short stories, 4,000 essays (mostly newspaper columns),
and several plays. He created the fictional priest-detective Father Brown and
its writings consistently displayed wit and a sense of humour.
Chesterton was a
large man, standing 1.93 m tall and weighing around 130 kg, who became
fascinated with the occult and, along with his brother Cecil, experimented with
Ouija boards. He was educated at St Paul’s School, then attended the Slade
School of Art to become an illustrator. Chesterton also took classes in
literature at University College London, but did not complete a degree in
either subject. He declared himself agnostic in matters of religion.
He married Frances
Blogg in 1901. Chesterton allowed Frances to lead him back to Anglicanism,
though he later considered Anglicanism to be a “pale imitation” of Catholicism.
He entered full communion with the Roman Catholic Church in 1922. The couple never
had children.
In September 1895,
Chesterton began working for the London publisher George Redway. One year
later, he moved to the publishing house T. Fisher Unwin, where he remained
until 1902. During this period, he also undertook his first journalistic work,
as a freelance art and literary critic. Early on, Chesterton showed a great
interest in and talent for art. He had planned to become an artist, and his
writings show a vision that clothed abstract ideas in concrete and memorable
images.
Chesterton was
part of the Detection Club, a society of British mystery authors founded by
Anthony Berkeley in 1928. He was elected as the first president and served from
1930 to 1936.
Chesterton died of
congestive heart failure on the14th June 1936, aged 62. Near the end of
Chesterton’s life, Pope Pius XI invested him as Knight Commander with Star of
the Papal Order of St. Gregory the Great. The Chesterton Society proposed his beatification.
The Three Horsemen
Mr. Pond, a government official and old friend of the author’s father, explains, in a meeting between acquaintances, a case he had to solve a few years ago: Marshal Von Grock, who leads a regiment of Prussian hussars in occupied Poland, considers that Paul Petrowski, a Polish poet and singer, must be executed because his public demonstrations of patriotism are a danger. For this reason and considering that the poet is about to be released, he sends a messenger, Lieutenant Von Hocheimer, with precise orders for his execution shortly before the arrival of the Prince. The Prince knows that this act would have international repercussions, would make Petrowski a martyr and would cause them a lot of trouble, so he decides to send a messenger with a pardon to stop the marshal’s order. Nevertheless, the marshal remains convinced that Petrowski must die for the safety of the Prince and the homeland, so he secretly sends a third messenger, Sergeant Schwartz, to prevent the pardon from arriving. Eventually, no messenger will arrive, and the poet Petrowski will be released. Mr. Pond tells his acquaintances why he thinks it happened so.
QUESTIONS
Talk about the characters:
-Mr Pond
-Paul Petrowsky. Why is he dangerous (for the
Prussians)?
-Marshal Von Grock: physical appearance and
personality.
-Lieutenant Von Hocheimer
-His Highness
-Arnold Von Schacht
-Sergeant Schwartz. Why did Grock choose him for the
mission?
What is a paradox? Can you give some examples?
What in life is a lot but never too much? Why?
The narrator say that Captain Gahagan seems to belong
to a past when being a duellist was more common. What duels in fiction do you
remember the best?
“It was his one compliment to poetry.” What do we have
to understand by this sentence?
Grock says they must serve (different from obey)
His Highness? What does it imply?
What do you know about the Ems telegram (or dispatch)?
So when do you think the story is situated?
What is the meaning of this sentence: “Death is the
fact of all facts”?
What is the relation between Goethe and Weimar?
“The world is changed not by what is said, but by what
is done”, said Grock. Do you agree? Why?
Why does the narrator use this image: “The sergeant
felt vaguely the presence of some primordial slime the was neither solid nor
liquid nor capable of any form”?
What do you know about Rops?
What does that mean: “an act is unanswerable even
when it is indefensible”?
VOCABULARY
creepy, dapper, random, owlishly, abreast, couriers,
laid waste, wilderness, spick and span, baldric, reprieve, asinine, scoff,
thwarts, chargers, Fatherland, overriding, orderly, marksmanship, scum, etcher