Favorite Father Brown Stories

G. K. Chesterton created more than fifty entertaining Father Brown stories. This Dover Thrift Edition offers six delightful short stories illustrating the deductive genius of this quiet, amusing, slightly eccentric, contemporary of Sherlock Holmes. Written in the early 1900s, these short stories move more slowly than many modern mysteries. Chesterton may even sidetrack to explore a moral issue or moral ambiguity. But beware. Father Brown, a man of the church, is not entirely naïve and innocent. Like Sherlock Holmes, he is a keen observer. The reader will need to remain alert to keep pace with his remarkable deductions.The first two stories, The Blue Cross and The Sins of Prince Saradine, come from the first twelve Father Brown stories, published as The Innocence of Father Brown (1911). The earliest stories often feature Flambeau as a dazzling, brilliant arch criminal. Later, Flambeau abandons his risky career and becomes a constant companion to Chesterton's remarkable cleric.The last four stories are taken from the second Father Brown collection, The Wisdom of Father Brown (1914). The Sign of the Broken Sword reveals a startling crime. The Man in the Passage offers a surprising and amusing solution to conflicting testimony. The Perishing of the Pendragons provides mayhem and danger in an unlikely setting. Hopefully, The Salad of Colonel Cray will not be found in most cookbooks.I highly recommend this little Dover edition to anyone new to Father Brown. Once acquainted, the reader can then look elsewhere for larger collections.

Six classic tales featuring the priest-sleuth, Father Brown. Excellent tales, they are engaging and addictive, and will leave you looking for more!

These stories by G.K. Chesterton were very enjoyable reading. Father Brown is an endearing character, and his intellect is impressive (but then again, what literary detective's isn't?). His companion Flambeau is equally enjoyable. I was disappointed with one thing: I had the impression that Father Brown was a detective in the sense that he solved crimes for the police, like Sherlock Holmes. Actually, this was only the case in a couple of the stories. Instead, he put his mind to solving mysteries that weren't necessarily crimes.

After reading The Hammer of God, one of the Father Brown stories, I found myself both perplexed and enlightened. Chesterton is one of the few short story authors I have encountered that can consolidate a global message into a short parable. In the Father Brown stories, he uses his superb wit and literary elegance to send readers through innumerable epiphanies, usually with the aid of some very potent metaphors. One quotation that I will always remember from this story is "humility is the mother of giants; one sees great things from the valley, only small things from the peak." For me, G.K. Chesterton has always been able to manipulate landscape and concrete images into a meaningful, and lucid, metaphor. The Hammer of God, in particular, is inundated with these powerful metaphors that tackle the essence of man's struggle with his outside world, and with himself. I found many of the other stories to be very stimulating, although the Hammer of God was clearly my favorite. If you seek literay merit and powerful lessons, but have neither the time nor the inclination to read a novel or anything else over one hundred pages, G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories are perfect for you.