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The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare (Modern Library Classics)
by G.K. Chesterton

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/184419.The_Man_Who_Was_Thursday_A_Nightmare?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare (Modern Library Classics)" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1172522672m/184419.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/184419.The_Man_Who_Was_Thursday_A_Nightmare?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/27973.G_K_Chesterton">G.K. Chesterton</a><br/><br/>
  <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/10915299?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
  rating: 3 of 5 stars<br/>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, unsure of just what he was saying about God. At the end of my Wordsworth Classic edition, however, I found an excerpt with a note of admonition from the author himself: "I happen to have a very strong objection to that trick of missing the point of a story....I have sometimes had occasion to murmur meekly that those who endure the heavy labour of reading a book might possibly endure that of reading the title page of a book."  I had not endured any such labor, and so I quickly thumbed to the title page to read: "The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare."  That little, two-word subtitle goes a long way toward explaining Chesterton's tale.  But not having read it before launching into the story (I never waste time on test directions, either), I perhaps found the plot more mysterious and suspenseful than I might otherwise have done.   Because I was not considering the story to be a nightmarish dream sequence, more possibilities lay open to my mind.  Either way, The Man Who Was Thursday is a worthwhile read merely to enjoy Chesterton's play with words, and the beauty of his language. 
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  <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/710201?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Skylar's review
rating:
bookshelves: fantasy

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, unsure of just what he was saying about God. At the end of my Wordsworth Classic edition, however, I found an excerpt with a note of admonition from the author himself: "I happen to have a very strong objection to that trick of missing the point of a story....I have sometimes had occasion to murmur meekly that those who endure the heavy labour of reading a book might possibly endure that of reading the title page of a book." I had not endured any such labor, and so I quickly thumbed...more

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