PATRICK BRAYBROOKE.

_46 Russell Square, W.C. 1_
1922.

_Contents_

CHAPTER PAGE

I THE ESSAYIST 1

II DICKENS 15

III THACKERAY 29

IV BROWNING 42

V CHESTERTON AS HISTORIAN 57

VI THE POET 67

VII THE PLAYWRIGHT 76

VIII THE NOVELIST 79

IX CHESTERTON ON DIVORCE 90

X 'THE NEW JERUSALEM' 96

XI MR. CHESTERTON AT HOME 99

XII HIS PLACE IN LITERATURE 105

XIII G.K.C. AND G.B.S. 113

XIV CONCLUSION 119

_Chapter One_

THE ESSAYIST

It is extremely difficult in the somewhat limited space of a chapter to
give the full attention that should be given to such a brilliant and
original essayist (which is not always an _ipso facto_ of brilliant
essayists) as Chesterton. Essayists are of all men extremely elastic.
Occasionally they are dull and prosy, very often they are obscure, quite
often they are wearisome. The only criticism which applies adversely to
Chesterton as an essayist is that he is very often--and I rather fear he
likes being so--obscure. He is brilliant in an original manner, he is
original in a brilliant way; scarcely any thought of his is not
expressed in paradox. What is orthodox to him is heresy to other people;
what is heresy to him is orthodox to other people; and the surprising
fact is that he is usually right when he is orthodox, and equally right
when he is heretical. An essayist naturally has points of view which he
expresses in a different way to a novelist. A novelist, if he adheres to
what a novel should be--that is, I think, a simple tale--does not
necessarily have a particular point of view when he starts his book. An
essayist, on the other hand, starts with an idea and clothes it. Of
course, Chesterton is not an essayist in the really accepted manner of
an essayist. He is really more a brilliant exponent of an original point
of view. In other words, he essays to knock down opinions held by other
essayists, whether writers or politicians. It would be manifestly absurd
to praise Chesterton as being e