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In the London of the future, democracy has been replaced by equal opportunity monarchy.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

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