Chesterton, GK - The Wisdom of Father Brown (1914)

Review by Nick Fuller

5/5

The Absence of Mr. Glass

This is the famous story in which Father Brown vies with a Holmesian detective to solve the mystery concerning a lodger. The multiple solutions, parodying "The Blue Carbuncle", are ingenious, and Brown's solution is completely unexpected. Sayers tried a similar gambit in "The Haunted Policeman" — and failed.

The Paradise of Thieves

A picturesque situation — capture of Englishmen abroad by banditti — in a highly romanticised and Impressonist Italy. There is no real "mystery" per se; rather the need to explain what certain events, including Father Brown's cryptic utterances ('Be ready to rescue her from the rescue'), mean.

The Duel of Dr. Hirsch

Easily the best story in the collection, this sombre story, with its Parisian setting, concerns, like "The Sins of Prince Saradine" and "The Chief Mourner of Marne", a crooked duel, with espionage behind—but with complications. "If he's a French patron he didn't write it, because it gives information to Germany. And if he's a German spy he didn't write it, well — because it doesn't give information to Germany." The solution is bizarre and utterly memorable, and is an ingenious variation on "The Secret Garden" and "The Absence of Mr. Glass", but infinitely more disturbing.

The Man in the Passage

Sayers' favourite of the Father Brown tales, this story of murder in a theatre committed virtually before the reader's eyes, with the conclusion given during a dramatic court scene, is technically perfect, with first-class misdirection.

Note that this is the story featuring the (unspeakable) Patrick Butler.

The Mistake of the Machine

The worst Father Brown story. Although there are some interesting comments on truth machines, it is far too complicated for its own good, so that the main details of the plot cannot be remembered an hour later.

The Head of Caesar

This comes a close second to "The Duel of Dr. Hirsch" as the best story in the collection. Father Brown and Flambeau shine from the dream-like and fantastic beginning of the man with the crooked nose, who "has gone a very crooked road — by following his nose," through the contrast between gold and natural light, to the revelation of true iniquity and vileness, amidst a terrifying atmosphere of wrongness.

The Purple Wig

In this story, told through the letters of a journalist to his editor (a rather M.R. Jamesian technique!), Father Brown destroys (as he would in future cases — c.f. "The Perishing of the Pendragons" and "The Doom of the Darnaways") a romantic family curse: the Devil's Ear of Eyre — a dramatic climax.

The Perishing of the Pendragons

Like the excellent "Sins of Prince Saradine", which it resembles, this story is set on a romantic river island, and concerns an ingenious method of murder by proxy — here, using a family curse / legend to secure an inheritance. The exciting climax with fire and water reveals a good bad murderer, who is, of course, an atheist.

The God of the Gongs

Perhaps Chesterton's least "politically correct" tale, with its negro villain, named Nigger Ned. In defence of the story, there is the dismal and forlorn seaside setting, "as dreary as a lost railway-carriage," and the two brilliant gimmicks.

The Salad of Colonel Cray

More foreign religions; here, Indian mysticism is used to disguise a cold-blooded murder attempt. Although there is the superb line, "If you had only seen the Monkey's Feet, we should have been very gentle — you would only be tortured and die. If you had seen the Monkey's Face, still we should be very moderate, very tolerant — you would only be tortured and live. But as you have seen the Monkey's Tail, we must pronounce the worst sentence. Which is — Go Free," the plot is no great favourite of mine: the poison is an untraceable one unknown to science, and the plot is slight.

The Strange Crime of Colonel Boulnois

Is this the first time the gimmick was used? The collection was published in 1913; Trent's Last Case in 1912; and The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes in 1927. Be that as it may, this is a fine story, which sheds an interesting light on morality and jealousy, and which boasts a picturesque murder following a performance of Romeo and Juliet and an eerie M.R. James nocturnal walk.

The Fairy Tale of Father Brown

In this highly romantic historical story, Father Brown acts as armchair detective to solve the mystery of an inexplicable murder committed fifty years in the past: how could a man have been shot in a country without guns? The solution is strong, ingenious and bizarre, but the piece is too much of an obvious fantasy to be totally convincing.

See also: http://onlydetect.wordpress.com/2010/04/26/g-k-chesterton-the-wisdom-of-father-brown-1913/