The Napoleon of Notting Hill - G. K. Chesterton

The Napoleon of Notting Hill (G. K. Chesterton, 1904)

In the London of the future, democracy has been replaced by equal opportunity monarchy. When a new king is needed, a random citizen is chosen to fill the slot. The system works because no one cares about England anymore anyway – people are cosmopolitan citizens of the world, patriots of reason and moderation, not of place. However, when a supreme jokester gets the kingship and, to avoid boredom, splits the London neighborhoods into medieval city-states, one man takes the joke seriously and revives a bloody, glorious patriotism.

The Napoleon of Notting Hill is tough to categorize. It is set in the future, but it is not science fiction; though it has knights and battles, it is not an historical romance. It deals with politics, but it is not political; it is hilarious, yet it is violently tragic. All the wonder and poetry of the beginning of a new world can be found next to the poignant sadness of that world's end. It is a very serious joke.

While there is plenty of fun along the way examining modern life through the medieval lens, and there is even some stirring action, Chesterton raises a lot of questions. He attempts to answer some in the dream-like last chapter, but we are left with a paradox: Is it better for people to live and die for something noble, or to avoid the potentially catastrophic effects? What if that something noble is completely arbitrary and even a little silly?

Two quotes from the book perhaps best explain what it is about.

“Is it altogether impossible to make a thing good without it immediately insisting on being wicked?”

“He had that rational and deliberate preference which will always to the end trouble the peace of the world, that rational and deliberate preference for a short life and a merry one.”

Arbitrary rating: 4.5 out of 5 serious jokes