The Wrong Shape

by G.K. Chesterton

Certain of the great roads going north out of London continue far into the country a sort of attenuated and interrupted spectre of a street, with great gaps in the building, but preserving the line. Here will be a group of shops, followed by a fenced field or paddock, and then a famous public-house, and then perhaps a market garden or a nursery garden, and then one large private house, and then another field and another inn, and so on.

Genres: Mystery, Short Stories, Crime, Classics, Audiobook, Fiction, Detective

24 pages, Paperback

First published July 19, 2012

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

[Francesc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cuento de Chesterton sobre un asesinato/suicidio aparentemente imposible.
Para los amantes del Padre Brown.

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Chesterton's tale of a seemingly impossible murder/suicide.
For lovers of Father Brown.

[Chels Patterson · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book an mystery was very good.

Why the 1 star?

The language used in this novella should no longer be used. Fine I get it’s another time. But I certainly would never recommend this book to anyone because of the language.

Not only does it use the word yellow to describe someone of from Indian it also uses the N-word too. It also describes anything Asian as being wrong or evil. Even at one point there is an explanation for why Father Brown thinks this, and he says Arabic looks like the devil endowed writing.

The only reason this novel was finished was because I was trying to fall asleep and the audio book was on the other side. But the language got b so upset.

The mystery is rather good and surprising, it should be a show or movie. The writing and descriptions should be rewritten. And doing so would take nothing away from the story.

If we can rewrite Shakespeare a million times to keep with the times, same can be done for such racist language, to show the merits of the story whilst being anti-racist.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay. Not my favorite of his but okay.

[Teemu Öhman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another one of Greg Wagland's (Magpie Audio) free Father Brown stories on Youtube, listened to while driving. Oddly enough, I don't seem to be able to find my notes about this story, and now three and a half months later I cannot remember what this was about. What I do remember, however, is that this was a similarly mediocre story as the other ones.

[Perry Whitford · Rating 4 out of 5]

The house has the wrong shape, a knife has the wrong shape and a suicide note has the wrong shape. Father Brown knows that something isn't right.

As a mystery this is far from being the best of Brown, even I guessed this one despite the presence of a couple of obvious red herrings. However, that's not really what these stories are about. Their primary purpose is to present a philosophical advertisement for Catholic thought; the subject here is the difference between the miraculous and the merely marvelous:

"The quality of a miracle is mysterious, but its manner is simple."

As an aside, the actor who played Father Brown in the recent BBC series was also very much the wrong shape.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why does the shape of a piece of paper raise suspicion in Father Brown, and can it help him solve his latest case.

[Zen · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a shock!!! A Father Bruin story that actually has some common sense to it. The paper was the wrong shape because, the murderer had cut off the parts of the paper that would have shown that the note, written in the dead man's handwriting, was not actually a suicide note. It was a bit of literary writing. The dead man was a poet after all.

Wow! That even makes sense to me!!

On display also in this story, is GKC's blatent racism toward Indian people and his bigotry toward their particular faith, because it isn't christianity. And his xenophobia towards anything "Eastern", particularly its orthography and writing style, which looks inherently "evil" to him. What an ass!

Also included, for one's reading boredom, is GKC's usual cast of dull, uninteresting, bland characters with not a shred of personality to share amongst themselves.
Snoooore!

And so, the case is solved, by another sermon from the boring Father Bruin, convincing the murdering, yet love struck Doctor, to write out a "confession" of his crime and give it to him in a sealed envelope. Father Bruin says, of course, he won't snitch to the police, (it's the seal of confession thing), and lets the murderer make his own decision about confessing to the authorities.

And once again, I have to confess to myself, that I really don't like these Tales of Father Bruin.

[Antar Jabareen · Rating 2 out of 5]

كانَ «الأبُ براون» معَ صديقِه الفرنسي، «فلامبو»، في زيارةٍ للسيدِ «كوينتون»، الشاعرِ العبقريِّ الغريبِ الأطوارِ المُتيَّمِ بالثقافاتِ الشرقيَّة. كان «فلامبو» صديقًا للسيدِ «كوينتون» منذُ كانا يَدرُسانِ معًا في فرنسا، وكانت صحةُ الأخيرِ قد تدهورتْ للغايةِ من جرَّاءِ إدمانِه الأفيون، فصارَ طريحَ الفراش. منذُ دخلَ «الأبُ براون» المنزلَ — الذي تجلَّى في كلِّ أركانِه تأثُّرُ صاحبِه الشديدُ بالفنونِ الشرقيةِ الصاخِبةِ الألوان، المُعقَّدةِ التفاصيل — وهو يَستخدمُ كثيرًا عبارةَ «الشكلِ الخَطأ» لوصْفِ كثيرٍ مِنَ الأشياءِ التي رآها داخِلَ المنزل، ومن بينِها سِكينٌ معقوفٌ غريب، مُطعَّمٌ بشكلٍ بديعٍ بالأحجارِ والمعادنِ الملوَّنة، وجَدَه في حديقةِ المنزل. تقعُ بعضُ الأحداث، ثم يُفاجأُ جميعُ الحاضِرينَ بموتِ السيدِ «كوينتون» وترْكِه رسالةَ انتحارٍ عثَرَ عليها طبيبُه الخاصُّ بجوارِ جُثتِه. إلا أنَّ الشكَّ يَنتابُ «الأبَ براون» في شكلِ الورقةِ التي كُتِبتْ عليها رسالةُ الانتحار، الذي وصَفَه أيضًا ﺑ «الشكلِ الخطأ».
يحل الأب براون اللغز بجعل القاتل يعترف له بجريمته دون أن يعرف أحد سواه باعترافه. فقد اكتشف خدعة رسالة الانتحار.

[R.H. Naranjo · Rating 4 out of 5]

¿Hay un orden correcto en el universo? ¿Cómo sería el mundo creado por un Dios sumamente verdadero, sumamente necesario, sumamente bueno? Este cuento parece sencillo a simple vista, pero no dudo que, si se le observa con cuidado, se encontrará que Chesterton presenta unos claros supuestos metafísicos, teológicos y antropológicos. En un mundo ordenado, las criaturas simples, como las angélicas y las demoníacas, actúan de manera igualmente simple, si bien misteriosa. No obstante, aquellos sucesos misteriosos que no son simples deben venir de otro lugar, de otra fuente, de seres compuestos. Considero que hay muchas reflexiones que se pueden hacer de este cuento que van más allá de mis capacidades, muchas cosas que se me fueron o que no pude notar. Sin embargo, una sola leída ya es suficiente para mostrar que las aguas de la literatura chestertoniana, que podrían parecer superficiales son, en realidad, un océano completo.

[Sapphire Detective · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tend to be more lenient on older stories espousing now-unacceptable language or beliefs--it wasn't any better back then but it was a lot more common, unfortunately--but add the already kind of uninteresting mystery on top of the kind of racist depiction of a South Asian man (including a dropping of the n-word) and I'm out.

My rating: I'm not giving it an official rating, the one star is enough to show my displeasure.
Would I own/re-read?: No.
TW: See the entire body of my review.
Does the animal die?: No animals are harmed by the wrong shape.

[Arijit Ganguly · Rating 4 out of 5]

An ailing writer commits suicide in his mansion surrounded by a garden where everything is somehow out of shape, according to Father Brown. This story is more of a happenstance for Father than an active investigation. Stories like these ground a character in ways high-octane cases can’t, lending an air of realism. A very light read yet one that leaves a mark.

[Verba Non Res · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rebuscada, demasiado, con algunos toques de xenofobia, y lo que estimo son ataques al modernismo.

Cuento #3 de El candor del padre Brown

Anterior: “The Secret Garden”

Siguiente: “The Flying Stars”

[Alamgir Baidya · Rating 1 out of 5]

Giving it a single star because that’s the lowest you can give. Where’s the suspense in this? What kind of detective story gets solved with the culprit writing a confession to the detective, who does nothing to solve the case at all?

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

This short mystery was okay...din't really wow me nor did it disappoint me, it just was.

[Aubrie Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The climax in this story I thought was a little lacking but I thought it had good build up and suspense.

[Bud Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

One in a series of Father Brown mysteries. Mildly entertaining. Perhaps I'll watch an episode on PBS.

[Ray LaManna · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting Father Brown mystery

[Mike Lisanke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I moderately more interesting story about murder and confession.

[Adom · Rating 3 out of 5]

My review for all of the Father Brown stories.