Chesterton and the Romance of Orthodoxy: The Making of GKC, 1874-1908

by William Oddie

On the publication of Orthodoxy in 1908, Wilfrid Ward hailed G. K. Chesterton as a prophetic figure whose thought was to be classed with that Burke, Butler, Coleridge, and John Henry Newman. When Chesterton died in 1936, T. S. Eliot pronounced that 'Chesterton's social and economic ideas were the ideas for his time that were fundamentally Christian and Catholic'. But how did he come by these ideas? Eliot noted that Chesterton attached 'significance also to his development, to his beginnings as well as to his ends, and to the movement from one to the other'. It is on that development that this book is focused.

Chesterton and the Romance of Orthodoxy is an exploration of G.K. Chesterton's imaginative and spiritual development, from his early childhood in the 1870s to his intellectual maturity in the first decade of the twentieth century. William Oddie draws extensively on Chesterton's unpublished letters and notebooks, his journalism, and his early classic writings, to reveal the writer in his own words. In the first major study of Chesterton to draw on this source material, Oddie charts the progression of Chesterton's ideas from his first story (composed at the age of three and dictated to his aunt Rose) to his apologetic masterpiece Orthodoxy, in which he openly established the intellectual foundations on which the prolific writing of his last three decades would build.

Part One explores the years of Chesterton's obscurity; his childhood, his adolescence, his years as a student and a young adult. Part Two examines Chesterton's emergence on to the public stage, his success as one of the leading journalists of his day, and his growing renown as a man of letters. Written to engage all with an interest in Chesterton's life and times, Oddie's accessible style ably conveys the warmth and subtlety of thought that delighted the first readership of the enigmatic GKC.

Genres: Biography

416 pages, Paperback

First published November 6, 2008

Reviews

[Jeff Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read several excellent biographies on Chesterton, but what makes this one stand out is the more focused time frame and the framework of the topic. They give more time to his early years and some of his driving forces for influences which are wide and varied.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is part of a summer reading project on Chesterton.

Oddie provides something of a hagiography for GK Chesterton as Catholic convert. He pores over the details of GKC's earliest days up to the publication of Orthodoxy, paying special attention to those elements that foreshadow his eventual move to Rome. His concern is to show the development of Chesterton's thought as shown in his writings. Sadly, what is missing is a broader consideration of how Chesterton fits in with his time. Thus, one meets plenty of detail, but struggles to bring it into a larger, more satisfying whole.

Also, the real flaws of Chesterton's approach go unattended to, or at best only obliquely mentioned. Chesterton's style is a difficult one for contemporary readers, first because of his cascade of words, as well as his easy painting of one big picture after another (He would have made an excellent blogger). Too often, he writes from within a cultural context of Christendom that takes middle class, pastoral England c. 1890 as normative. For all the witticisms, his work does not translate easily to modern contexts. One wishes that Oddie had been more aware of that difficulty.

[The American Conservative]

'Oddie, a natural communicator with an impressive mastery of the sources, relates Chesterton’s religious odyssey with fluency. Sometimes, perhaps, there is too much ease in the writing: the text contains repetitions that suggest inadequate revision. A Protestant, moreover, might be inclined to think that the story is told from too Roman a perspective. After all, Chesterton was still an Anglican when he published Orthodoxy in 1908 and remained one until 1922. Even after his conversion, while totally secure in his new faith, he seemed to harbor more reservations about it than trouble Oddie.'

Read the full review, "Paradox Was His Doxy," on our website:
http://www.theamericanconservative.co...

[Fergal · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly epochal book. There is the study of Chesterton before Oddie and the study of Chesterton after Oddie. Making use of the archives in the British Library Oddie systematically works his way through the development of Chesterton's aesthetic and religious convictions, ending with the writing of his masterpiece, Orthodoxy.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

This covers GKCs early life and conversion - detailed and full and a little slow in places.