I am generally not a lover of classics. My taste tends to lean towards contemporary fiction, as the flowery language and the representation of women in classic literature (by this I mean pre 1920) do not appeal to be.
Every once in a while I attempt to read something by a classic author and almost always I do not enjoy it. My latest attempt at reading a classic was G K Chesterton’s ‘Father Brown Stories’.
The blurb outlines that: “A small, disorganised, ordinary priest, Father Brown is an unlikely genius when it comes to piecing together strange and mysterious clues. Yet his ingenuity and intuition are unsurpassed, and his gift for deduction raises him to the top rank of investigators”.
I, surprisingly, thoroughly enjoyed this collection of short stories. Father Brown is a great character and I really appreciated his powers of deduction. It was refreshing to read a detective story containing actual detective work. With the growth of technology forensics has taken over crime writing. It was great to go back to the basics.
One of the other reasons I enjoyed these stories was that the endings were different. Most of the stories ended with Father Brown walking off with the criminal in discussion or repentance.
To satisfy my interests there was even a vaguely steam-punk short story titled “The Invisible Man”. In this story a man who became rich through the manufacture of robotic servants was found murdered. I loved the way Chesterton described the automatons and the thought provoking and witty way he wrote.
“One of the high-shouldered hooks that served the thing for arms, was a little lifted and Angus had suddenly the horrid fancy that poor Smythe’s own iron child had struck him down. Matter had rebelled, and these machines had killed their Master.”
I would definitely recommend for enjoyable detective stories that take you back to basics and enthral you with the beautiful and clever prose that Chesterton demonstrates. Four out of five stars.
I always liked that he was rumpled, circuitous and a bit... I dunno... off-putting. Father Brown is basically the canonical Columbo.
ReplyDeleteSounds great. I loved Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday so I'm sure this will be right up my alley.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a really different collection. I don't read or enjoy many classics either... but maybe I'll try it. Maybe!
ReplyDeleteI would have never thought of picking this one up but your review has made me curious...
ReplyDeleteGreat review :)
I will definitely be picking up The Man Who Was Thursday now! The only classics I like are the old school science fiction books/authors: Wyndam, Huxley, Bradbury and Orwell. Do not like any literary classics. Father Brown Stories are still very readable in today's standards. They are witty and clever but not flowery and overwritten
ReplyDeleteHmmm...I had never even considered reading GK Chesterton but I now see I'm missing out on something. I'll definitely keep this in mind if I ever get my TBR down. I do love a good mystery and I need to try to read some more short stories. Maybe this will be one that I start out on.
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