The Club of Queer Trades - G. K. Chesterton

The Club of Queer Trades (G. K. Chesterton, 1905)

This collection of six related short stories was a refreshing read. Retired judge-turned-mystic Basil Grant, his amateur detective brother Rupert, and his friend the narrator encounter several bizarre events that start to look awfully criminal, or at the very least inconsiderate, but each turns out to be a run-in with a member or potential member of the Club of Queer Trades. The only requirement for membership is that the person invented the means by which they earn their living. In the words of the narrator, “The discovery of this strange society was a curiously refreshing thing; to realise that there were ten new trades in the world was like looking at the first ship or the first plough. It made a man feel what he should feel, that he was still in the childhood of the world.”

Though each story has its own little twist to recommend it, the common thread is the character of Basil Grant, sort of an anti-Holmes in his emphasis on intuition and impression over what seem to be the facts. He'll be perfectly confident that the men launching attacks on a friend are not criminal; then, seeing an innocent stranger in the crowd on a busy street, he will declare the man the most evil person in London and follow him relentlessly. His friends play along, convinced he's finally gone all the way mad, but he turns out to be more wise than they care to admit.

Of course, since this is Chesterton, there are occasional philosophic and paradoxical gems tucked into each story, as well as plenty of humor. Though there is certainly a debt to Arthur Conan Doyle, these stories have enough spice and absurdity to make them wholly original. My only regret is that they are finished too soon.

Arbitrary rating: 4.5 out of 5 judges-turned-mystics