The Incredulity of Father Brown

Book excerpt: In The Incredulity of Father Brown, G.K. Chesterton treats us to another set of bizarre crimes that only his 'stumpy' Roman Catholic prelate has the wisdom and mindset to solve. As usual, Chesterton loves playing with early twentieth-century class distinctions, 'common-sense' assumptions, and the often anti-Catholic biases of his characters. He loves showing, through his characters, how those who hold themselves superior to the 'fantasies' of Brown's Catholic faith themselves devolve into superstitious blithering when faced with the tiniest of mysteries. In this collection, Brown finds himself as the main event at his own funeral (The resurrection of Father Brown), contemplating the possibility of death from the sky (The arrow of heaven), piercing the mystery of a dog's 'prophetic' behavior (The oracle of the dog), and facing off against a curse hanging about a medieval burial (The curse of the golden cross). A collection of excellent tales from one of the finest British mystery writers.Gilbert Keith Chesterton was an English writer with a prolific and diverse output which included philosophy, ontology, poetry, play writing, journalism, public lecturing and debating, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction. Chesterton has been called the "prince of paradox". Time magazine, in a review of a biography of Chesterton, observed of his writing style: "Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories-first carefully turning them inside out."