In Defense of Sanity: The Best Essays of G.K. Chesterton

by G.K. Chesterton, Dale Ahlquist (Editor)

G.K. Chesterton was a master essayist. But reading his essays is not just an exercise in studying a literary form at its finest, it is an encounter with timeless truths that jump off the page as fresh and powerful as the day they were written.

The only problem with Chesterton's essays is that there are too many of them. Over five thousand! For most GKC readers it is not even possible to know where to start or how to begin to approach them.

So three of the world's leading authorities on Chesterton - Dale Ahlquist, Joseph Pearce, Aidan Mackey - have joined together to select the "best" Chesterton essays, a collection that will be appreciated by both the newcomer and the seasoned student of this great 20th century man of letters.

The variety of topics are astounding:  barbarians, architects, mystics, ghosts, fireworks, rain, juries, gargoyles and much more. Plus a look at Shakespeare, Dickens, Jane Austen, George MacDonald, T.S. Eliot, and the Bible. All in that inimitable, formidable but always quotable style of GKC. Even more astounding than the variety is the continuity of Chesterton's thought that ties everything together. A veritable feast for the mind and heart.

While some of the essays in this volume may be familiar, many of them are collected here for the first time, making their first appearance in over a century.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Religion, Catholic, Christian, Christianity

406 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2011

About the author

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was an English writer, philosopher, lay theologian, and literary and art critic.

He was educated at St. Paul’s, and went to art school at University College London. In 1900, he was asked to contribute a few magazine articles on art criticism, and went on to become one of the most prolific writers of all time. He wrote a hundred books, contributions to 200 more, hundreds of poems, including the epic Ballad of the White Horse, five plays, five novels, and some two hundred short stories, including a popular series featuring the priest-detective, Father Brown. In spite of his literary accomplishments, he considered himself primarily a journalist. He wrote over 4000 newspaper essays, including 30 years worth of weekly columns for the Illustrated London News, and 13 years of weekly columns for the Daily News. He also edited his own newspaper, G.K.’s Weekly.

Chesterton was equally at ease with literary and social criticism, history, politics, economics, philosophy, and theology.

Reviews

[David Gustafson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is no wonder that today's newspapers no longer offer up great essayists to challenge readers with clever concepts stress-tested by Socratic standards or merciless feuilletonistas who love skewering the polit-scum with poisoned arrows that never miss a bullseye.

Very few citizens read newspapers today. This is a forgettable age of thirty-second soundbites echoing the politically correct narratives making the usual rounds where the PC spank wankers turkey-gobble their latest stuff at the NYT, WaPo, NBC, CBS, NPR and CNN.

This is not an age of towering literary giants armed to the teeth with a potent arsenal of history, literature and wit who are begged by editors to share their observations and opinions. This is not only an age lacking in talent, it is an age of blatant censorship.

G.K. Chesterton was one of the most important stars from a more civilized age that respected the competing thoughts and concepts of learned men. He bequeathed us a legacy of thousands of essays for our casual contemplation.

Many of them are amusing because GKC is befuddled by being surrounded by the hypocrisies of his time that bear startling similarities to our own.

This is a collection of some of GKC's biggest hits. They contain elegant time capsules that will transport the discerning reader back to a quaint world of intellect and language.

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

How refreshing it is to read people that go against the grain, regardless of their persuasion, provided they remain intellectually honest. The British writer Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was one of them. And his essays in particular highlight this. Apparently he wrote thousands of them, often as newspaper articles, so it is impossible to read them all. Fortunately, the compiler of this book has made a selection for us. And this does indeed show how Chesterton consciously seeks out polemics through the weapon of irony. He usually does this by immediately putting forward a position that goes against what you might call modern common sense: a defence of fairy tales and folklore, for example, but also a defence of the institution of family and marriage, or the notion of original sin. This immediately makes it clear that he can safely be classified among conservative, even reactionary thinkers, and I guess he would not have taken this as an insult. Chesterton particularly criticized the disenchantment of the world that had been brought about by modernity. His sharpest weapon against this is that is the instrument of the provocative paradox, the deliberate posing of paradoxical propositions to make the reader think and to unmask the false certainties of modernity. Not everything he has put on paper is equally captivating or successful, but these essays do what they aim to do, namely to make us think beyond the obvious.

[Davis Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly, deliriously, impossibly delightful.

[Elizabeth]

I finally finished! Nearly three months later! This has taken me so long to read that I hardly know how to rate it or how to sum it up as a whole except to say that G.K. Chesterton has a gift for out-of-the-box thinking. I feel like he would have been a bad student in a modern school because he would be off in his own complex and imaginative world. GKC is brilliant and so much of this was over my head or had an ideological, political, and philosophical context that I wasn’t picking up on. I think I would love this even more if it was annotated.

I think more in story form than essay form. I’m better with details than with the overarching logic that GKC is so gifted at, so I don’t know that the essay will ever be a favorite form for me. However, I did have some essays in this that I loved and that helped me see the world in a new way. I love GKC’s consistent insistence that the world is full of wonder and order and beauty and truth. And the childlike, the humble are those who live with eyes wide open to the gift of life. GKC seemed to embody that gift himself as well.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book includes 67 essays, some of which are published for the first time in this collection. The variety of topics covered is diverse and delightful.

There's something astounding about a volume that can contain a playful exposition about chasing your hat (and why it's fun and comical) and a serious discussion of why we need to understand philosophy.

I've heard Chesterton called a prophet, and reading a few of these essays made me understand why. He wrote a century ago, but his writing is relevant, real, and radical to us in the here-and-now.

This was one of my favorite recent reads. It's also a book that you would do well to put by your armchair and pick up every so often. You're sure to be amused and challenged in equal proportion and in ways that will surprise you.

Highly recommended.

[Ardyth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chesterton always gives me material for wrestling. It's good for me. It would be good for you, too.

That said... by the end of this collection I was weary of the endless repetition of Medievalism as an ideal. I am one of those post-Enlightenment Moderns so often disparaged by GKC. I like living in a Republic, I don't want to return to monarchy - absolute or otherwise - and most certainly not to medieval Europe.

But... Chesterton nails it many times here. The wrestling is a real workout, one that was very beneficial. ;)

A final thought: before purchasing this particular collection, look into one of its collators, Mr Joseph Pearce. A bit of his history, which you can find on Wikipedia, and some of his current writings in The Imaginative Conservative. The words in the book are Chesterton's, and my review is of those -- but I can only assume Mr Pearce (along with his colleagues on the cover) receives some royalty from the sales of this compilation of public domain works. Had I known more of him prior to buying, I would have selected a different recipient for my greenbacks.

As the 21st century neo-Distributists / Medievalists / Classical Educationalists who compiled this collection might put it, so as to demonstrate their Latin skills and, by implication, their superior Education and Sense: caveat emptor.

[Julie Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wide-ranging collection of G.K. Chesterton's essays, many of which appeared in newspapers before being collected into book form and published in his lifetime. Three editors who know and love Chesterton's writing picked their favorites which cover such disparate topics as cheese to the modern family to being on a jury. As is always the case with Chesterton he keeps you on your toes and often has you laughing while he does it. This made for delightful bedtime reading.

[Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I generally strive to avoid using the term genius promiscuously — except when evaluating Wordle results — but GKC was clearly a genius. Fortunately, he was astonishingly prolific, so he left plenty for us to appreciate.

Having said that, I’m not sure I’d recommend this book unless you’re already a GKC fan. Undoubtedly, there are some gold nuggets here, but readers will still need to do some mining. The editors have adroitly done valuable sifting for us, but nevertheless there remains a fair amount of extraneous commentary that may not always be terribly interesting to today’s readers.

GKC was astoundingly perceptive and prescient, and his essays remain more wise and worthwhile than the majority of columns written by current editorialists. While reading through these essays, most of which were penned about a century ago, I couldn’t help but wonder what he would write today. Not that he would be at all be surprised where we have wound up. I just wonder where precisely he would target his concerns. And wouldn’t a current-day GKC still be so fun to read?


[Edit 7/24/22]:
I just came across this passage in The Medieval Mind of CS Lewis: How Great Books Shaped a Great Mind and thought I would just save it here:

Lewis was a little surprised with himself that he, an atheist at the time, liked Chesterton so much, concluding, “I liked him for his goodness.“ Lewis adds, “In reading Chesterton, as in reading McDonald, I did not know what I was letting myself in for. A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading…God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous.“

[Jeff Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great collection of Chesterton's essays, some I have read before - but many new to me. Chesterton is always interested in his perspective, and his essays could have been written today as they say the trends he wrote about have only increased. Most of all, I love how Chesterton sees the world in that he really sees the world and that the most mundane things are also often the most important ones.

[Oliver Bateman · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the 3-5 best essay collections I've ever read. Well-curated, nice little intros from the editors, and essays that with a handful of exceptions can be read in a single sitting (on the toilet). There are 300-500 sentences in here worth stealing, or at least "paraphrasing" in one's own vade mecum or commonplace book. Sure, most of this work is in the public domain, but it's nice to have it under a single cover.

[Austin Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I come back to this one habitually. Chesterton reminds me how holiness is something imminently relevant to the public square and daily life.

Incidentally, my wife always knows I’m re-reading this one because it’s one of the few books that makes me consistently laugh out loud.

[Corey Wozniak · Rating 5 out of 5]

TL;DR
GKC is important because he argued for “those ancient and natural things, the zest of being, the divinity of man, the sacredness of simple things, [and] the health and humor of the earth” (375).

GK Chesterton is a prophet. I do not say that flippantly—in my own religious tradition “prophet” means something rather important. Still, I say, Chesterton is a prophet. These essays, all of which are more than 100 years old, have not tarnished with time whatsoever. Actually, they feel astonishingly contemporary. That’s because a prophet transcends his time—he is a “watchman on the tower” and sees afar off.

Like all prophets, GKC was an iconoclast, shattering the idols of “modernism”—which idols are the same ones worshipped in these “postmodern” times, if in different incarnations: progress, capitalism, socialism, liberalism, conservatism, fashion, eugenics, radical feminism, scientism, technology. None of the modern orthodoxies of his time (and ours) were immune to his stinging criticisms, which he dealt with gloves off.

But GKC was not a sackcloth-and-ashes sort of Jeremiah; despite the many things that are wrong with the world, GKC is a jolly prophet. And his jolliness is what I love most about him. His wit, humor, and style, are dazzling. {sidenote: I want so badly to write like him...}

For Chesterton, the jolly prophet, the whole world sparkles with wonder. He is astonished at everything, and he is able to find philosophy, humor, poetry, and God in the most mundane things: potatoes, rain, cheese, skeletons, and chalk.

For Chesterton, living is an adventure, and the mundane is miraculous. All of existence, even the most tedious humdrum is humming with excitement:

“I have experienced the mere excitement of existence in places that would commonly be called as dull as ditch-water. And by the way, is ditch-water dull? Naturalists with microscopes have told me that it teems with quiet fun. Even that proverbial phrase will prove that we cannot always trust what is proverbial, when it professes to describe what is prosaic” (379).

I remember that as a child, astonishment was an instinct. My whole world, tiny as it was, was an adventure. I remember getting immense pleasure out of my great grandmother’s little trinkets: a prism that made rainbows from sunlight; a lamp that turned on and off by touch; her jewelry box; her husband’s pocketknife. Each of these things was a treasure and a wonder. All of my childhood memories are of these little things, because as a child I gave the world greater attention. Reading GKC helped me to try to see the world as I saw it as a child.

Most probably we are in Eden still. It is only our eyes that have changed” (2).

For those who would like a sample of GKC, may I recommend "On Running After One's Own Hat," which is available for free online.

{5*s}

*note to self: have 10th graders read "On Running After One's Own Hat" and "The Spice of Life."

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chesterton is wonderful! This book is fantastic! It is amazing how true these essays are almost a hundred years later.

[John David · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is one word that bubbles forth when I read G.K Chesterton, wit. I cannot count the times Chesterton has made me stop reading so that I could laugh, the same way I might stop reading to sneeze. Many times I reread Chesterton’s sentences and paragraphs because while his one liners are magnificent, his set up is even more impressive. I think good authors are witty. I think great authors are witty and smart. I think the best authors are witty, smart, and always have something to say. Many authors write; few authors speak. Chesterton, in this amalgamation of essays, speaks. He speaks as if he were a man you met at a bar on a Thursday evening. His essays are personal, becuase he is personable. Chesterton doesn’t write becuase he has to, nor does he write becuase he wants to. Chesterton writes becuase you shouldn’t stand quite in an elevator with a stranger. When you are alone with another human being, the easiest thing you can do is say hello. Chesterton says hello and goodbye, he also says how do you do and why the long face. Reading Chesterton does not replace talking with a stranger -as I think Chesterton would agree. However, reading Chesterton is great preparation for when you’re alone with a stranger on an elevator, and you have just made an unexpected stop on the twenty second and half floor.

[Kris McGregor · Rating 5 out of 5]

How can you possibly pick the best of G. K. Chesterton’s essays? Thank goodness for Dale Ahlquist, Joseph Pearce, Aidan Mackey! Leading authorities on all things G. K. they’ve done it for us…and what a feast! From cheese to Jane Austen, barabarians to “what is right with the world”, G. K. covers it all. And the beauty is that it is still as relevant today as it was in his day…that’s the mark of genius, or more accurately, authentic wisdom and grace. Click here to listen to my interview with Dale Ahlquist. He is always a joy to talk with! He is the “good son” of G. K. Have fun with the listen and then read “In Defense of Sanity: The Best Essays of G.K. Chesterton”

[Luke Poff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes.

[Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

he'd tear that sam harris guy to shreds.

[Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chesterton is absolutely worth reading!!!
Loved it...

great collection of essays.
it has left me hungry...
I want more!!!

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was such a genius and out-of-the-box thinker that I flounder within his works. Many of his references are to current events in England during his lifetime and to British history with which I am unfamiliar, so I must often interrupt my fragile chain of thought to search and research! One day I tried a new approach: I imagined sitting across from the man in a public house of his time. He talked loudly and fast in between sips and puffs, gesticulating wildly at times and roaring with a big laugh. His often self-deprecating, tongue-in-cheek comments revealed a man with brain which could retain vast amounts of knowledge and articulate his opinions with apparent ease. Although I disagree with some of his views on religion and educational systems, I do admire these thought-provoking essays.

If, as they say, I could go back in time and sit and talk with someone, he would be among my first choices!

[James Swenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining writing: one feels an immediate personal connection to the cheerful curmudgeon, as well as a definite admiration for the precision of his prose. The various essays collected here are particularly enjoyable when they're tendentious. Chesterton's characteristic flourish is the sentence that boldly declares the opposite of a common-sense fact. Occasionally profound, sometimes merely contrary; always engaging.

[Izzy Markle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chesterton’s cheeky intelligent essays are both profound and enjoyable. This collection is a buffet of essays ranging in topic from public affairs, theology, gender roles, family, politics, book reviews, philosophy and creative reflections.

While their are a couple that didn’t age well, due to cultural irrelevance or lack of context, most of these essays are full of insightful truth and many boarder line prophetic. The man just thought well. Solid read.

[Kyle Mann · Rating 5 out of 5]

"An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered."

An excellent collection of essays. Cheese, chasing hats, skeletons, painting the ceiling -- many interesting and profound pieces. I could have done without the lengthy transcribed lecture on Mary Queen of Scots, however. Everything else was gold.

[Brian Koser]

Chesterton is the writer that most consistently delights me. Here are some of my favorites from this collection:

On Certain Modern Writers and the Institution of the Family (from "Heretics")
- "People wonder why the novel is the most popular form of literature; people wonder why it is read more than books of science or books of metaphysics. The reason is very simple; it is merely that the novel is more true than they are. Life may sometimes legitimately appear as a book of science. Life may sometimes appear, and with a much greater legitimacy, as a book of metaphysics. But life is always a novel. Our existence may cease to be a song; it may cease even to be a beautiful lament. Our existence may not be an intelligible justice, or even a recognizable wrong. But our existence is still a story."
- "A man has control over many things in his life; he has control over enough things to be the hero of a novel."

On Running After One's Hat (from "All Things Considered")
- "An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered."

Woman (from "All Things Considered")

A Piece of Chalk (from "Tremendous Trifles")

What I Found in My Pocket (from "Tremendous Trifles")

The Twelve Men (from "Tremendous Trifles")

The Romantic in the Rain (from "A Miscellany of Men")

The Mystagogue (from "A Miscellany of Men")
- "If the art critics can say nothing about the artists except that they are good it is because the artists are bad."

The Mystery of the Mystics (from "Daily News")

A Much Repeated Repetition (from "Daily News")
- History is the one thing that does not repeat itself, because each person is unique.

The Book of Job (from "GKC as MC")
- Doubters should not stop doubting: they should doubt more: they should doubt themselves.

On Gargoyles (from "Alarms and Discursions")

The Fading Fireworks (from "Alarms and Discursions")
- Christians take the tragic and turn it into farce, like Guy Fawkes Day.
- Christianity is a stained glass window, Confucianism is fireworks.

The Pickwick Papers (from "Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens")

Turning Inside Out (from "Fancies vs. Fads")
- Being a mother is harder than being a businesswoman because charge over the entirety of a few lives is harder than charge over a part of many lives.

On Evil Euphemisms (from "Come to Think of It")

[Kris]

Recommended by Adam Francisco on Faith & Reason podcast.

[Noah Calcagno · Rating 5 out of 5]

The whole experience of reading Chesterton is essentially being blown away that it’s possible for anyone to be this good at writing.

The compilers of this book chose dozens of Chesterton’s thousands of essays in which he covered a whole swath of topics. Some of which are borderline prophetic when you consider they were written around 100 years ago, yet completely maintain their relevance. Other times, Chesterton speaks to a specific issue that matters little to you or criticizes a certain book that you’ve never heard of, yet you can’t help but read the essay with your utmost attention anyway.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

These essays, per chapter, are compact with such art, wisdom, adventure, and grit. I throughly enjoyed the mind capsule of words and thought by G. K. Chesterton. I will definitely re-visit this piece of art literature.

[phoebe · Rating 4 out of 5]

not sure the edition of the copy i read but the cover looked like this. Chesterton is so awesome. I love what he had to say about education. And i really loved "On Lying in Bed" that story was so nice. I also liked "What I Found in My Pocket". And "The Romance of Childhood" (even though i disagreed with it). I liked almost all of them. I was surprised when I found out he wasn't an infp because from what i've read, he writes and thinks the same way an infp would. or at least his essays feel like infp essays in the way that they notice the little things and find so much beauty in them. this collection of essays is so amazing i love how vastly it ranges. Some thoughts on directly super serious topics and some thoughts on seemingly random topics that he magically turns into a deep analysis of the human condition and the existence of God. Worded that sentence poorly but don't mind that. and I love his writing voice it is very easy and enjoyable to read.

[Elena Hebson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The experience of reading most of Chesterton's essays is as if Chesterton is a tour guide to some scenic landscape you thought you were familiar with when the guide begins speaking a foreign language and suddenly you realize you're miles away and the guide is laughing at you. His wit is sharp and his knowledge base is expansive, and he uses both to his advantage. Although occasionally puzzling, these essays were an enjoyable read. I even referenced an idea from one of them in my college classes. Some of my favorite essays from this collection were On Running After One's Hat, Cheese, and The Slavery of Free Verse.

[Cole Criddle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I need Chesterton’s influence - theological, artistic, and philosophical. In a world of reconstruction, progressives, and change, his writing is a glimpse into a mind with deep respect for ordinary people and old fashioned truths. He reveres the joy and perspective of children. He treats women with a respect without ulterior motive. He turn idioms and modern semi-truisms inside out and lets us see how silly our new wisdom is, all with some sort of approachable but foreign British mirth and poetic agility.

I’d like to write a little more like him and in many ways, be a little more like him.

[Noah Goats · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Chesterton. I enjoy the way that he tackles important subjects with both humor and intelligence. He writes with a unique style, making his points with interesting paradoxes and generalizations in a way nobody else ever has. In this collection you get a selection of Chesterton's writings covering all kinds of subjects over a broad swath of his career. I kept it by my bedside for a couple month, reading an essay or two every now and then, and I really enjoyed it.