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Fancies Versus Fads
A Collection of 31 essays from G.K. Chesterton.
"I have strung these things together on a slight enough thread; but as the things themselves are slight, it is possible that the thread (and the metaphor) may manage to hang together. These notes range over very variegated topics and in many cases were made at very different times. They concern all sorts of things from lady barristers to cave-men, and from psycho-analysis to free verse. Yet they have this amount of unity in their wandering, that they all imply that it is only a more traditional spirit that is truly able to wander." (From the Introduction)
"I have strung these things together on a slight enough thread; but as the things themselves are slight, it is possible that the thread (and the metaphor) may manage to hang together. These notes range over very variegated topics and in many cases were made at very different times. They concern all sorts of things from lady barristers to cave-men, and from psycho-analysis to free verse. Yet they have this amount of unity in their wandering, that they all imply that it is only a more traditional spirit that is truly able to wander." (From the Introduction)
- GenresEssaysCatholicNonfiction
252 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1923
About the author
G.K. Chesterton
4,184 books6,074 followersGilbert 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 13, 2022
A collection of essays on, as he observes up front, various subject. Not very fanciful, a number of them -- the legal question of how the protection of the community allows for massive injustice is obviously deadly serious. One discussing the reaction to an essay he wrote about youngsters who refer to their fathers as "old bean." Dramatic unities. The lack of danger of toy bow and arrows. And more.
June 16, 2026
ENGLISH: This is the first time I have read this collection of 30 literary essays by Chesterton, published in 1923. As usual, I have selected many quotes. Let's look at some:
From "The fear of the film": In short, so long as we combine ceaseless and often reckless scientific speculation with rapid and often random social reform, the result must inevitably be not anarchy but ever-increasing tyranny. There must be a ceaseless and almost mechanical multiplication of things forbidden. The resolution to cure all the ills that flesh is heir to, combined with the guesswork about all possible ills that flesh and nerve and brain-cell may be heir to - these two things conducted simultaneously must inevitably spread a sort of panic of prohibition. Scientific imagination and social reform between them will quite logically and almost legitimately have made us slaves. We are there now.
"A defense of dramatic unities" offers a good defense of the classical unities of time, action and place, especially in detective stories. To quote Chesterton: ...cosmopolitan complications... spoil the fine domesticity of a good murder... The drama of detection is in discovering how he can be killed decently and economically, within the classic unities of time and place.
From "Street cries & stretching the law": It will not confort us in the hour of failure to listen to long and ingenious explanations of our success. As the current Spanish government is doing.
From "The revolt of the spoilt child": Everybody says that each generation revolts against the last. Nobody seems to notice that it generally revolts against the revolt of the last.
In "Is Darwin dead?" Chesterton performs in his typical failure to understand evolution. He relies on two different arguments, which are still used by those who don't know about biology: that half an organ cannot give selective advantage (he mentions the wings of a bat) and the lack of "missing links." But the first is wrong: half a wing may make gliding possible, if not flying, and the "missing links" are being found everywhere.
ESPAÑOL: Esta es la primera vez que he leído esta colección de 30 ensayos literarios de Chesterton, publicada en 1923. Como de costumbre, he seleccionado muchas citas. Veamos algunas:
De "El miedo al cine": En resumen, mientras combinemos la especulación científica incesante y a menudo temeraria con la reforma social rápida y a menudo aleatoria, el resultado inevitable no será la anarquía, sino una tiranía cada vez mayor. Habrá una multiplicación incesante y casi mecánica de lo prohibido. La decisión de curar todos los males que hereda la carne, combinada con la especulación sobre todos los males posibles que la carne, los nervios y las células cerebrales pueden heredar, estas dos cosas llevadas a cabo simultáneamente provocarán inevitablemente un pánico centrado en prohibiciones. La imaginación científica y la reforma social nos convertirán en esclavos, lógica y casi legítimamente. Ahí estamos ya.
"Defensa de las unidades dramáticas" ofrece una buena defensa de las unidades clásicas de tiempo, acción y lugar, especialmente en las novelas policiacas. Citemos a Chesterton: ...las complicaciones cosmopolitas... estropean la delicada domesticidad de un buen asesinato... El drama de la investigación reside en descubrir cómo se le puede matar de forma decente y económica, cumpliendo las unidades clásicas de tiempo y lugar.
De "Gritos callejeros y estiramiento de la ley": No nos consolará en la hora del fracaso escuchar largas e ingeniosas explicaciones de nuestro éxito. Como hace el gobierno actual de España.
De "La rebelión del niño mimado": Todo el mundo dice que cada generación se rebela contra la anterior. Nadie parece darse cuenta de que usualmente se rebela contra la rebelión de la anterior.
En "¿Ha muerto Darwin?" Chesterton demuestra su habitual falta de comprensión de la evolución. Su crítica se basa en dos argumentos distintos, que aún utilizan quienes desconocen la biología: que la mitad de un órgano no puede conferir ventaja selectiva (menciona las alas de un murciélago) y la ausencia de "eslabones perdidos". Pero el primero es erróneo: la mitad de un ala puede permitir planear, ya que no volar, y los "eslabones perdidos" van apareciendo por doquier.
From "The fear of the film": In short, so long as we combine ceaseless and often reckless scientific speculation with rapid and often random social reform, the result must inevitably be not anarchy but ever-increasing tyranny. There must be a ceaseless and almost mechanical multiplication of things forbidden. The resolution to cure all the ills that flesh is heir to, combined with the guesswork about all possible ills that flesh and nerve and brain-cell may be heir to - these two things conducted simultaneously must inevitably spread a sort of panic of prohibition. Scientific imagination and social reform between them will quite logically and almost legitimately have made us slaves. We are there now.
"A defense of dramatic unities" offers a good defense of the classical unities of time, action and place, especially in detective stories. To quote Chesterton: ...cosmopolitan complications... spoil the fine domesticity of a good murder... The drama of detection is in discovering how he can be killed decently and economically, within the classic unities of time and place.
From "Street cries & stretching the law": It will not confort us in the hour of failure to listen to long and ingenious explanations of our success. As the current Spanish government is doing.
From "The revolt of the spoilt child": Everybody says that each generation revolts against the last. Nobody seems to notice that it generally revolts against the revolt of the last.
In "Is Darwin dead?" Chesterton performs in his typical failure to understand evolution. He relies on two different arguments, which are still used by those who don't know about biology: that half an organ cannot give selective advantage (he mentions the wings of a bat) and the lack of "missing links." But the first is wrong: half a wing may make gliding possible, if not flying, and the "missing links" are being found everywhere.
ESPAÑOL: Esta es la primera vez que he leído esta colección de 30 ensayos literarios de Chesterton, publicada en 1923. Como de costumbre, he seleccionado muchas citas. Veamos algunas:
De "El miedo al cine": En resumen, mientras combinemos la especulación científica incesante y a menudo temeraria con la reforma social rápida y a menudo aleatoria, el resultado inevitable no será la anarquía, sino una tiranía cada vez mayor. Habrá una multiplicación incesante y casi mecánica de lo prohibido. La decisión de curar todos los males que hereda la carne, combinada con la especulación sobre todos los males posibles que la carne, los nervios y las células cerebrales pueden heredar, estas dos cosas llevadas a cabo simultáneamente provocarán inevitablemente un pánico centrado en prohibiciones. La imaginación científica y la reforma social nos convertirán en esclavos, lógica y casi legítimamente. Ahí estamos ya.
"Defensa de las unidades dramáticas" ofrece una buena defensa de las unidades clásicas de tiempo, acción y lugar, especialmente en las novelas policiacas. Citemos a Chesterton: ...las complicaciones cosmopolitas... estropean la delicada domesticidad de un buen asesinato... El drama de la investigación reside en descubrir cómo se le puede matar de forma decente y económica, cumpliendo las unidades clásicas de tiempo y lugar.
De "Gritos callejeros y estiramiento de la ley": No nos consolará en la hora del fracaso escuchar largas e ingeniosas explicaciones de nuestro éxito. Como hace el gobierno actual de España.
De "La rebelión del niño mimado": Todo el mundo dice que cada generación se rebela contra la anterior. Nadie parece darse cuenta de que usualmente se rebela contra la rebelión de la anterior.
En "¿Ha muerto Darwin?" Chesterton demuestra su habitual falta de comprensión de la evolución. Su crítica se basa en dos argumentos distintos, que aún utilizan quienes desconocen la biología: que la mitad de un órgano no puede conferir ventaja selectiva (menciona las alas de un murciélago) y la ausencia de "eslabones perdidos". Pero el primero es erróneo: la mitad de un ala puede permitir planear, ya que no volar, y los "eslabones perdidos" van apareciendo por doquier.
August 29, 2026
Excellent
July 18, 2026
Favorite quote:
“Progress, in the good sense, does not consist in looking for a direction in which one can go on indefinitely. For there is no such direction, unless it be in quite transcendental things, like the love of God. It would be far truer to say that true progress consists in looking for the place where we can stop.”
“Progress, in the good sense, does not consist in looking for a direction in which one can go on indefinitely. For there is no such direction, unless it be in quite transcendental things, like the love of God. It would be far truer to say that true progress consists in looking for the place where we can stop.”
July 19, 2024
Great book, I listened to the audiobook version on YouTube. I will leave the link below so that everyone can enjoy it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jbv1...
March 24, 2022
A fun collection focused on social issues, trends, and ideologies. Though compiled almost a century ago, a good number of the opinions and observations expressed are applicable to twenty-first century phenomena. Though there were several points at which I disagreed with Chesterton, his arguments did encourage me to re-evaluate the reasons for my disagreement and seriously consider the reverse view.
Favorite essay: "The Terror of a Toy"
Favorite essay: "The Terror of a Toy"
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews