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The Complete Father Brown Stories (Father Brown)
This edition contains ALL of the Father Brown Stories.
Father Brown, one of the most quirkily genial and lovable characters to emerge from English detective fiction, first made his appearance in The Innocence of Father Brown in 1911. That first collection of stories established G.K. Chesterton's kindly cleric in the front rank of eccentric sleuths.
...more
Father Brown, one of the most quirkily genial and lovable characters to emerge from English detective fiction, first made his appearance in The Innocence of Father Brown in 1911. That first collection of stories established G.K. Chesterton's kindly cleric in the front rank of eccentric sleuths.
...more
Paperback, 797 pages
Published
January 5th 1998
by Wordsworth Classics
(first published 1935)
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The omnibus is the exhaustive collection of G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown short stories. If you've got a taste for detective stories and clever, British tones, then you'll love it. The omnibus is huge and I've been working through it for about 8 months. Take it a story at a time with a cup of hot tea and low lighting!
Tastes change; I find that I don't enjoy the Father Brown stories as much as I used to, or as much as I thought I did.
I'm still a fan of G.K. Chesterton, and I do enjoy his invention of the dumpy little priest (we're never told his first name) who is able to solve crimes because he understands the criminal mind because he has heard it all in confession.
The stories get a little too fantastical for my tastes. Also, in a couple of them, language is used that is unacceptable by today's s...more
I'm still a fan of G.K. Chesterton, and I do enjoy his invention of the dumpy little priest (we're never told his first name) who is able to solve crimes because he understands the criminal mind because he has heard it all in confession.
The stories get a little too fantastical for my tastes. Also, in a couple of them, language is used that is unacceptable by today's s...more
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Father Brown is a Catholic priest who somehow always gets involved in crime - as the one who solves the case, of course. But Father Brown doesn't seem to have logical methods like Sherlock Holmes, or Hercule Poirot, perhaps. In fact he oftentimes looks like a dreamy, absent-minded clergyman whose words nobody may understand. Several times people think he has known who the culprit is and is telling them to capture the man - when all he's saying is that the man is a witness or somebody who know...more
Father Brown is one of my detectives because G. K. Chesterton embodied the times in which he was writing into his main character, so that reader gains a vivid impression of the settings and contexts which Chesterton puts Father Brown in. Some of these stories were amazingly brilliant, shockingly surprising, fascinatingly interesting, and astoundingly intuitive. That is why some of the Father Brown stories were among the best short stories I have ever read by any author. Other stories in this Fat...more
Stan Bebbington
added it
I read most of the Father Brown stories in the fifties whilst vegetating in a bed-sit in London. On re-reading I found they had not travelled well. Murder and mayhem in country houses is no longer de rigeur for budding crime writers. Most of the houses are run by the National Trust, hardly conducive to mayhem and in my experience murder would be unthinkable as it would make such a mess on the carefully tended furniture and fittings. Violence has shifted to the streets.The plots are excessively e...more
Wow. I picked up this book because I was enjoy mysteries that are neither cozy nor thrillers, so I find that older mysteries are more to my taste. However, I didn't really enjoy these at all. While I thought some of the solutions were problematic, as in "The Invisible Man", and I was put off by the fact that people kept getting killed right under Father Brown's nose, my main problem was with the tone of the stories. A short, incomplete list of people who might be offended by these stor...more
Oh my...how much do I love Father Brown? I don't have a crush on him like I do on Lord Peter Wimsey, but he's so wise and compassionate and unassuming that I wish he was my priest. Not that I have a priest, or would really know what to do if I did. But that's how much I like him.
I'm partway through the first section of these short stories. I wish I owned the book so I could finish it. It's huge and not designed to be read at a single sitting. Each mystery deserves to be savored alone. For this reason it makes a great book to put in the throne room (bathroom).
I probably won't get to finish it this time around, but when I find a copy at a yardsale I'll know to pick it up. And since the library has it, I may check it out again.
The psychological...more
I probably won't get to finish it this time around, but when I find a copy at a yardsale I'll know to pick it up. And since the library has it, I may check it out again.
The psychological...more
The most incredible thing about miracles is that they happen. A few clouds in heaven do come together into the staring shape of one human eye. A tree does stand up in the landscape of a doubtful journey in the exact and elaborate shape of a note of interrogation. I have seen both these things within the last few days. Nelson does die in the instant of victory; and a man named William does quite accidently murder a man named Williamson; it sounds like a sort of infanticide. In short, there is in ...more
Read and reread these mysteries. Appreciate Father Brown's insight into human nature and Chesterton's descriptions.
This book is an anthology of all of the Father Brown mysteries. It is a collection of short stories in which Father Brown solves mysteries sometimes with the help of another, sometimes by himself. The stories themselves are delightful. Some readers will be frustrated when father Brown solves a mystery, but can tell no one because of the confidentiality of the confessional. These stories involve more right brain activity than those of his contemporary, Sherlock Holmes.
I found some o...more
I found some o...more
Father Brown is a funny sort of detective for many reasons. He is funny because G.K. Chesterton never lost the chance to give the reader a good laugh. He is funny because Chesterton does not allow Brown to take himself any more seriously than Chesterton took himself--after all, if one cannot laugh at oneself one has already lost a good amount of the humor to be found in life. He is also funny because he is unexpected and yet consistent to his character. Why should a bumbling little priest know s...more
Father Brown is to psychology what Sherlock Holmes is to material evidence. Re-reading these last Fall, I found that the chief pleasure and merit of the Father Brown mystery stories is getting inside the mind of Chesterton himself. The stories themselves are uneven in worth -- I got the impression that Chesterton churned them out, occasionally pausing over insurmountable implausibilities and plot defects but then just moving on with a shrug. Even so, they are fully as clever as any television...more
He's a catholic priest who solves mysteries. What more do you want?!!?!
The Father Brown stories are very interesting reads, but also very dense. I suppose I'm a romantic when it comes to my mystery fiction, and there's very little romance in these stories.
Very human, very dark. Mysterious elements introduced to make your hair stand on end, and then viciously slashed by cold common sense.
I'm not keen on Catholic morality being shoved down my throat.
I didn't care very much for Brown either, I'll admit. I found him a little too full...more
Very human, very dark. Mysterious elements introduced to make your hair stand on end, and then viciously slashed by cold common sense.
I'm not keen on Catholic morality being shoved down my throat.
I didn't care very much for Brown either, I'll admit. I found him a little too full...more
After listening to one of the audio plays on my mp3 player, I thought I would read this quintessential little English priest's adventures through the world of crime. Been putting if off for a while but decided a new year would be a great time to start it.
Only after realizing that each story was just a few pages long, it was just one story after another of some little priest jumping to conclusions and everyone, including the culprit, just assuming God's man knows best and either giving the...more
Only after realizing that each story was just a few pages long, it was just one story after another of some little priest jumping to conclusions and everyone, including the culprit, just assuming God's man knows best and either giving the...more
Rebecca
rated it
I feel kind of harsh giving this book 2 stars, since I really enjoyed the first five stories, which were the ones I was reading for university. In fact, I enjoyed them so much I decided to carry on reading this 700-odd page anthology, even though the required reading for the module was only the first 125pp or so. Taken on its own, Book 1, "The Innocence of Father Brown", would have easily earned an extra star or two from me. Book 2, "The Wisdom of Father Brown", was still fun...more
The Complete Father Brown has the five published books of his stories together with one loose story published other than in the original books. This volume is not something to be read through in one shot, but rather to be savoured. With that in mind I have now completed the second of the five books.
One minor complaint is that I wish there was a little more to each of the stories, that is in terms of how Father Brown puts things together. His explanations are a little hurried at times...more
One minor complaint is that I wish there was a little more to each of the stories, that is in terms of how Father Brown puts things together. His explanations are a little hurried at times...more
well, let's be honest...I haven't made it through the whole book/ collection yet... but I have read many stories and love them. Though the language is 'old', it is still understandable. I read it to my loved ones, who groaned about it, at first, but found out the plots really are intriguing, as only the old masters of mystery can be...!
Father Brown restles with faith, moral law and the Greater Conscience... while capturing 'bad guys' through witty, surprising means to bring about justice...more
Father Brown restles with faith, moral law and the Greater Conscience... while capturing 'bad guys' through witty, surprising means to bring about justice...more
[Well, actually, I haven't finished this one - I intend to, it's just I want to clear it out of my "What I'm Reading Now" section!] This book is comprised of a whole lot of short stories, most of which are entertaining, usually insightful and often surprising. Highly recommended for those who enjoy Sherlock Holmes stories. These, though, are written from the standpoint of the Christian faith. And Chesterton's understanding of the nature of humanity is excellent.
Still reading this - since it's a collection of short stories, I am able to take a break, read other books, and come back to pick it up. Father Brown is a delightfully engaging character with amazing character perceptions. I think it most interesting that Chesterton has made Father Brown so perfect so he's not nearly as interesting as the other characters. In this way, Chesterton swings the scope from endearing Father Brown to the more complicated, conflicted characters with whom Father Bro...more
Whoever says that fiction is useless should be slowly suffocated, actually, they're already doing that to themselves so I'll think of another punishment later. But in the meantime, Father Brown is great summertime fiction. Mysteries involving everything from upset bowls of soup to gargoyles and skulls buried in the potato patch. Father Brown is everything we love about Chesterton.
This recently kept me vastly amused whilst waiting for a long time for a hospital appointment to take place. Fortunately I had my Kindle with me and I was entertained wonderfully for the hour or so I was kept waiting after the time of my appointment. The stories are far-fetched and dated but amusing.
There were too many stories to count in this. I did get a bit tired of the mental gymnastics of trying to solve mystery after mystery. On the other hand, I love the anti-here, dumpy umbrellas toting Roman Catholic priest based in England. Some of the stories are surprisingly bloodthirsty, too.
This is a collection of short stories. Father Brown is a simple priest with an uncommon knack for unraveling mysteries. (For those who might be put off by his denomination, Father Brown's spiritual observations are not necessarily Catholic; rather, they are catholic, if you take my meaning.)
Homer H Blass
added it
He knows the depraved heart but he also sees God, God's creation, and man to make distinction made by T.S. Elliot from the view of the child not childishness. I enjoy them both as escapist detective stories and for their theological and moral insights.
I enjoyed the puzzles that Father Brown solved and was charmed by some of the many characters in the stories. I was, however, a bit shocked by the way he writes about non-English people - he uses racist terms that you would never read in a book today, including stereotypes about temperament, intelligence and stature. These are applied not only to Africans, Indians and Asians, but also to Italians, the French and Americans. I've read quite a bit of English literature of all periods, including ...more
Chesterton presents such a charming character. I love the fact that if I am really paying attention and following the details, I can figure out the mystery with Father Brown. There are some great life lessons to be learned along the way.
Some of the best mysteries ever written. Chesterton's Father Brown is a unique amateur detective who solves crimes because he understands man's sinful nature. Not only do the stories entertain, they challenge you to think as well.
As has been noted elsewhere, the Father Brown stories decline in chronological order, somewhat rapidly after the first few collections collected here. Still an essential landmark in the evolution of the analytic detective story.
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Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, play writing, journalism, public lecturing and debating, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction.
Chesterton has been called the "prince of paradox". Time magazine, in a rev...more
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Chesterton has been called the "prince of paradox". Time magazine, in a rev...more
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