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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN num: 9781853260032
ISBN number: 1853260037
Label: Wordsworth Editions Ltd
Manufacturer: Wordsworth Editions Ltd
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 288
Printing Date: January 05, 1998
Publishing house: Wordsworth Editions Ltd
Sale Popularity Level: 22528
Studio: Wordsworth Editions Ltd
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Father Brown, one of the most quirkily genial and lovable characters to emerge from English detective fiction, very first made his appearance in The Innocence of Father Brown in 1911. That very first collection of stories established G.K. Chesterton's kindly cleric in the front rank of eccentric sleuths. This complete collection contains all the favourite Father Brown stories, showing a quiet wit and compassion that has endeared him to many, whilst solving his mysteries by a mixture of imagination and a sympathetic worldliness in a totally believable manner.
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Rated by buyers 
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The Complete Father Brown Stories is a misnomer for the title of this book of mystery stories by G.K. Chesterton. The book actually contains only stories from the very first two books in the series: The Innocence of Father Brown, and The Wisdom of Father Brown. Stories from all four Father Brown mysteries (including The Incrudulity of Father Brown and The Secret of Father Brown) can be found in the Wordsworth Classics edition entitled Father Brown and apparantly not available through amazon.com. None of these titles has any particular significance beyond giving a different name to each set of stories. Be that as it may, The Complete Father Brown Stories does give a good sense of these mysteries.
Father Brown is much different from his more illustrious precedessor in British detective fiction, Sherlock Holmes. Brown is short, Holmes is tall, Brown is cherubic, Holmes is rod-thin. Brown is unassuming, Holmes is commanding. The tone of the stories themselves are different. The Father Brown mysteries are more light-hearted with a touch of humor, whereas Holmes is all seriousness.
But Father Brown and Holmes are alike in that they solve seemingly unsolvable crimes and difficult situations by throught processes rather than brute force. Father Brown ponders a case and suddenly has an "aha" moment and comes up with the solution.
The stories are in many ways more enjoyable than the Holmes mysteries. The very first story, The Bule Cross, introduces the reader to Flambeau, a master thief turned detective, who shows up in many of the Father Brown stories. Flambeau bears some resemblance to Dr. Watson in that his skills are inferior to those of Father Brown, but he is treated more as an equal than is Dr. Watson. The Paradise of Thieves tells a marvelous tale in which things are never what they seem. The Honour of Israel Gow provides a unique definition of "honour." The Mistake of the Machine is a delightful tale in which there is no crime but shows that love can conquer all if one is clever enough.
All in all this book is delightful reading for mystery and non-mystery fans as well.
Rated by buyers 
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This book was purchased based on the titles in the table of contents. However, this book is 277 pages and not the 800 pages it says. It is NOT the complete Father Brown Mysteries at all. A few of the stories like "The Flying Stars" and "The Absence of Mr.Glass" are not in this book. I am very disappointed since this was a Christmas gift.
Rated by buyers -
The mystery story is exemplified by the Sherlock Holmes stories. Those who haven't read them will probably know much about them from the way they have (justly) been added to the public imagination. So a good way of describing the Father Brown stories is to compare the two, as the images of Holmes are probably known to all.
Holmes is a private detective. As such, his main objective is to solve the crime. Father Brown is (obviously) a Catholic priest. His objective is to serve God by trying to better society. These two goals say a lot about how they go about solving crimes. Unlike Holmes, Brown gets close to crimes by accident (yes, that's a big suspension-of-disbelief) - as they happen amongst the families and coworkers of friends. He does not seek to "catch" the crook for the police but rather to find out what happened. At times, he lets the criminal go - and unlike the grumpy Holmes his speech (full of philosophical discussions) and actions reek of a love of humanity.
Holmes solves by logical deduction. Brown solves by a combination of intiution and a deep insight into character and circumstance. As such, the crux of many of the stories is psychological. Others rely on assumptions that people make about, say, people subservient to them. The Brown stories are therefore great satires of the early 20th century London society.
This edition has 18 stories - a quite eclectic collection and very recommended if you haven't encountered Brown before. The very first one (the Blue Cross) introduces him marvelously as one of the great detectives.
Rated by buyers -
If you enjoy Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, I think you will appreciate Father Brown. This edition is a great bargain-priced introduction.
Father Brown is the archetypal bumbler who is actually quite adept at finding out who committed the crime. He is the ordinary citizen who beats the police at their own game.
I got addicted to short stories about 35 years ago when I was at high school. I began reading them in the yellow-covered Gollancz science fiction short story collections. There is something to be said for a story that you can read at a sitting.
Chesterton's stories are now public domain. You can sample them online, but it is much nicer to have a book to browse away from the computer!
And this is such an unbeatable price, I am buying several copies to give as excellent, but inexpensive gifts.
Highly recommended.
Rated by buyers -
In the genre of the finely crafted English detective story, Chesterton's "Father Brown" stories are wholesome and stimulating detective tales surpassed by few others, except perhaps Doyle's legendary Sherlock Holmes. In contrast to the arrogant Holmes, however, Chesterton's protagonist is rather quiet, unassuming and modest, and makes an unlikely hero - a catholic priest. Father Brown's simple manner makes you quick to underestimate him, but the startling flashes of brilliance that spill from beneath his humble exterior soon make you realize that he has a firm grasp on the truth of a situation when you are as yet frustratingly distant from it. His perceptive one-liners make it evident that he has a clear insight into something that you see only as an apparently insoluble paradox.
Chesterton has been called the "prince of paradox", and the Father Brown stories are a clear testimony of his fondness for paradox. Ultimately it is not just crimes that Brown must solve, but the paradox underlying them. In fact, not all stories are crime stories - among them are mysterious situations that do not involve criminals, and it is the perceptive insight of Father Brown that is needed make apparent contradictions comprehensible by his ruthless logic. Father Brown is not so much concerned with preserving life or bringing a criminal to justice as he is with unravelling the strands of an impossible paradox. In fact, Chesterton's conception of Father Brown is itself a paradox - both a cleric and a crime-fighter, a priest and a policeman, a representative of God's mercy and an instrument of God's justice, a proclaimer of forgiveness and a seeker of guilt, a listener in the confessional and a questioner in the interrogation.
How a priest could possibly play the role of a detective is explained in the very first story, "The Blue Cross". Brown apprehends the confounded criminal Flambeau and explains that his knowledge of the criminal mind is due in part to what he's heard at the confessional booth "We can't help being priests. People come and tell us these things." (p.17) When Flambeau retorts "How in blazes do you know all these horrors?" Chesterton allows his humble priest to attribute his insight into human depravity to his experience as a priest: "Oh, by being a celibate simpleton, I suppose, he said. Has it never struck you that a man who does subsequent to nothing but hear men's real sins is not likely to be wholly unaware of human evil." (p.18)
But both Chesterton and Father Brown have insight into much more than just human depravity - they are both champions of Catholic orthodoxy. This gives the Father Brown stories a depth not found in Brown's compatriot Holmes. In the course of Chesterton's stories, we are treated to philosophical discussions about catholic theology, such as the relationship between faith and reason. We do not merely meet an assortment of cobblers, blacksmiths, magistrates and generals, but atheists, legalists, secularists, pagans, Presbyterians, Puritans, Protestants and Catholics, all with varying and vying affections for superstition, naturalism, rationalism, scepticism, agnosticism, materialism, anarchism, nihilism, or cynicism. Along with C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, G.K. Chesterton was one of the few writers in the twentieth century that made an important contribution to English literature that was stamped by Christian principles instead of the prevailing secularism of the day.
Readers who do not share Chesterton's theological convictions will not concur with all his insights, but they must concede that they are enjoyable, profound and stimulating. Somewhat surprising is the occasional use of blasphemous expletives such as "O my God", although generally from the mouths of others than Father Brown himself. And Brown does seem to degenerate more and more into a mouthpiece for Chesterton, with a sermonizing tone not present in the very first stories.
But on the whole these are exemplary models of the English crime short story. The "Wordsworth Classics" edition contains a selection of 18 favorite stories, with contributions from all five of Chesterton's published Father Brown collections. Among my favorites are "The Blue Cross", where Father Brown follows a mysterious trail of clues and engages in some bizarre behaviour and fascinating theological discourse to apprehend Flambeau. "The Hammer of God" is also an outstanding whodunnit, as Brown solves the murder of a man who has been crushed by a huge hammer outside a church, seemingly the recipient of a divine thunderbolt of judgment from heaven. In the process Chesterton shares some thought-provoking insights, such as the memorable: "Humility is the mother of giants. One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak." (p.91) Also unforgettable is "The Blast of the Book", which recounts the mysterious disappearance of five men whose only crime was to open a seemingly magical ... Read More
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