The Man Who Was Thursday
by G.K. Chesterton
|
|
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of The Man Who Was Thursday.
discuss this book
friend reviews (0)
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
lists with this book
This book is not in any lists. Go add it to a list.
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1223)
Read in February, 2008
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Like this review?
yes
(2 people liked it)
add a comment
Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
people who liked <i>Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell</i>
Hmmmm. Wildly imaginative throughout, but quite predictable in parts. It reminded me of Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman.
I love that Chapter 5 is called "The Feast of Fear."
Here are some of my favorite quotations from the book:
It is always the humble man who talks too much; the proud man watches himself too closely.
He defended respectability with violence and exaggeration. He grew passionate in his praise of tidiness and propriety.
"And now...more
I love that Chapter 5 is called "The Feast of Fear."
Here are some of my favorite quotations from the book:
It is always the humble man who talks too much; the proud man watches himself too closely.
He defended respectability with violence and exaggeration. He grew passionate in his praise of tidiness and propriety.
"And now...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
This short novel is intriguing, humorous, clever, and spotted with stunning descriptions. Ostensibly, it is a tale of an undercover police man (Syme) seeking to infiltrate an organization of anarchists, controlled by the "Council of Seven Days" under the leadership of a man named Sunday. The novel is not as obviously allegorical as The Ball and The Cross, at least not until near the end, when it become entirely symbolic. I struggled with Chesteron's meaning when I concluded the novel...more
Like this review?
yes
(3 people liked it)
add a comment
Read in June, 2008
The question "What is your favorite book?" has always been impossible for me to answer, but this is the only book I have ever felt comfortable defaulting to. I've read it at least a half a dozen times since I discovered a copy of it in a used bookstore when I was in middle school; I will probably reread it a dozen more in the next ten years. I get something different out of it every time I reread it.
The story itself makes no sense, until you come back to the subtitle: A Nightmare...more
The story itself makes no sense, until you come back to the subtitle: A Nightmare...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
plot summary: what happens, when & where, central characters, major conflicts[return]detective syme embarks upon a strange adventure after meeting a man spouting anarchist poetry in the park. he engages him in a poetical debate and ends up following him to a secret meeting of a group of anarchists, who are about to elect their next representitive to the central anarchist council--"thursday" (the council members going by alias's named after the days of the week). along the way sym...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
recommended to Ginnie by:
Andrew Nicoll
This is the only Chesterton book that holds up for me today because the fear of anarchists portrayed in Thursday mirrors todays fear of terrorists and hence resonates strongly. Anarchists in the England of 1907 represented a kind of vengeful, all-devouring nihilism that was assumed to be pervasive -- and this is the crucial thing -- profoundly seductive, sweeping through whole classes of intellectuals, or immigrants, or especially immigrant intellectuals. It's easy to forget that in the...more
Like this review?
yes
(4 people liked it)
1 comments
Read in October, 2007
Fun read, all the way. It's an adventure/detective story where the main character, Gabriel Syme, joins the Central Anarchist Council as "Thursday." The twists and turns of the plot will hold you to the pages until the truly bizarre ending, which I'm still attempting to fathom the implications of. (Hint: at the end of the story consider Chesterton's subtitle to the book; "A Nightmare") I knew Chesterton had me hook, line and sinker in the fourth chapter when the protagonis...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in March, 2008
this book is enjoyable on many levels: as a compelling mystery, as a humorous and well-crafted yarn, as classic british literature (1908), and as penetrating allegory. chesterton's novel excels at each count, and was composed without a trace of sanctimony.
more aptly, writing about the man who was thursday in 1929, chesterton asserts, "the bolshevists have done a good many silly things; but the most strangely silly thing that i ever heard of was that they tried to turn this a...more
more aptly, writing about the man who was thursday in 1929, chesterton asserts, "the bolshevists have done a good many silly things; but the most strangely silly thing that i ever heard of was that they tried to turn this a...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in February, 2008
When I first started reading this book I found the plot rather predictable, at least for the first 3/4 of the story. It was witty and short enough that I kept reading. The character development was timed exquisitely to continue evenly throughout the entire book. The language of the characters and the author was intelligent and in tune with the era. Initially, my only complaint was I had thought this was going to be an extended allegory for some Christian/Atheist battle of intellect and will, and...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in July, 2008
This book totally surprised me. I didn't know what to expect going into it, and each time I felt like I was getting a handle on the story it would take some surprising turn that changed everything. It starts out as a turn of the century detective story, but by the end becomes a sort of metaphysical exploration. As the book neared its resolution I was captivated, but also somewhat baffled. I could tell the book was trying to say something about different philosophical approaches to life and G...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in February, 2008
Though I enjoyed the story, The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare parts of the story left me in the dark. It is of keynote to remember that the story is a nightmare and not really occurring in the real world.
Summary: Styme becomes a police detective assigned to a special task force to root out the anarchists that threaten the world.
Breakdown Review:
Storyline: I give 5 out of 5 stars Not another story out there quite like this one. Unique and insightful all in one.
Writing style:...more
Summary: Styme becomes a police detective assigned to a special task force to root out the anarchists that threaten the world.
Breakdown Review:
Storyline: I give 5 out of 5 stars Not another story out there quite like this one. Unique and insightful all in one.
Writing style:...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in February, 2008
G.K. Chesterton's morality play offers a template for later distopias, especially Orwell's: prim prose, insistent caricature, switchback plot twists, verbal mind-battles, and moral backlighting provided by the author's absolute sense of right and wrong.
Despite a strong opening gambit featuring anarchists debating at a bohemian garden party, Chesterton quickly loses solid descriptive ground of London streets to a vast a completely unbelievable underground populated by what we today would cal...more
Despite a strong opening gambit featuring anarchists debating at a bohemian garden party, Chesterton quickly loses solid descriptive ground of London streets to a vast a completely unbelievable underground populated by what we today would cal...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
recommends it for:
Fans of detailed imagery, fantastic wit
A brilliant novel. This is actually my favorite novel of all time. I suppose i have a sort of literary crush on GK Chesterton-- I fall in love with his whimsical, clever writing and so even a short book like this can take me weeks just because I savor his lovely sentences. As I pour through his perfectly-chosen words, I can’t help but feel deeply inspired and impressed.
My favorite: “… his black seemed richer and warmer than the black shades about him, as if it were compounded of p...more
My favorite: “… his black seemed richer and warmer than the black shades about him, as if it were compounded of p...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in July, 2007
Whoa.. most of this book was like any other British literature of its time, but then when you get to the end, the author goes way out on a limb and makes you STREEETCH your imagination, and comprehension. The whole thing kept me waiting and wondering what would happen at the end, and then when I got to the end, I was like.. "What the??" Keep in mind, the title includes the words "A Nightmare". The end was definitely more dream-like than realistic, and my brain spent many days...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in May, 2008
This is not normally the kind of book I would read or like. It’s allegorical, it’s about anarchists, and there are no pretty girls. But Susanna Clarke – who wrote my most favorite Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - lists it as one of her favorites and I loved the title, so I got it, and it was a delight. It’s a philosophical screwball comedy mixed into a spring night’s love song between Gentlemen. It feels more like a movie or a kid’s book than a grown-up one and, I’m sorry, but it...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
recommended to Robinkgood by:
alex thomson (nihilistic yalie)
even if you've read turn-of-the-twentieth-century decadent, victorian literature (i.e. huysman), this slim, little book will surprise you. best know for his father brown mysteries, chesteron has a fluidity with words that remains unmatched to this day (except perhaps by dr seuss)! it's a brilliant, sometimes terrifying exploration of not just human nature, but of the question of whether or not humanity, as it was construed at the beginning of the 20th c, would continue to exist in light of the s...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in March, 2008
This is a surreal political thriller from a hundred years ago. I was laughing a lot at the first chapters, it's kind of amazing how little things have changed. Back then, the scary terrorists were anarchists, but other than that... it's the same 'Nightmare.' My only complaint is that none of the characters were women. This is especially a problem with the character who is the 'sabbath.' But I guess we can forgive some sexism in a book of this age. The author believed that a certain kind of relig...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2007
This is a classic adventure story, and brainy and British no less. Fast-paced action and lively dialogue permeate these 180 pages. Chesterton indicts anarchy in the midst of all the good fun.
"Being surrounded with every conceivable kind of revolt from infancy, Gabriel had to revolt into something, so he revolted into the only thing left--sanity." Gabriel Syme is a British policeman who goes undercover to foil an anarchist council's assassination plot and gets caught up in the group...more
"Being surrounded with every conceivable kind of revolt from infancy, Gabriel had to revolt into something, so he revolted into the only thing left--sanity." Gabriel Syme is a British policeman who goes undercover to foil an anarchist council's assassination plot and gets caught up in the group...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in August, 1997
recommends it for:
Anyone
G.K. Chesterton is one of the greatest all-around communicators the world has ever known. In this book full of allegory, Chesterton takes on anarchy in a bigger frame than anti-government groups. I took this book as a challenge. I fought to get through it and then re-read it. With a little help from other Chesterton novels like The Napoleon of Notting Hill, I was able to understand the kind of allegory that Chesterton deals in, namely Christian allegory. But this should not be thought of as a re...more
Like this review?
yes
2 comments
Read in January, 2008
I cannot yet really critique this book. I loved it but don't even know all the reasons why. I'm still trying to sort it out and understand all he was saying through it. My book group is going to discuss it this next week, and I hope in talking together we can help each other. It is very rich in how he uses language and creates drama that you want to follow. I knew going in that there was much to uncover, so I think I was more worried about trying to understand it than just enjoying the stor...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
