::READERS REVIEWS::

Was this published in a basement? - The book itself is great. This edition is terrible. Every aspect of it says amateur. The print and line spacing is way too small, making reading extremely tedious. No one wants to see that many words on a page. There are countless typos. The page numbers are enumerated in the bottom center. There is no writing on the spine, making it bad shelf material. The back is a promotion of the book, which is stylistically horrendous. Go for another publisher.

Mysteriious and entertaining - I liked this novel well enough, and would recommend it, but I nevertheless liked Chesterton's other masterpiece, The Napoleon of Notting Hill, better. This is a strange and mysterious story, with the battle against the anarchists being largely intellectual. I didn't understand the last chapter very well.

very interesting - Chesterton's tale is an interesting work which will make the intelligent reader question and think about the world we live in. Enjoyable!

Days of the Week - The first thing I want to say about Chesterton is that he was the first author in a long time that has had me look through a dictionary to determine the meaning of words. By Wednesday I got the drift of the story, although the denouement held a little surprise. Chesterton is an old master and it is difficult to be surprised by someone so often imitated, but as a wordsmith, his art is difficult to imitate. Defnitely worth reading.

Philosophical Essay Wrapped in a Political Thriller - You know how tortilla chips are just the vehicle to eat salsa or queso? In much the same way, this book is a vehicle for Chesterton to present his philosophy. When I started the book, I thought it was going to be a political thriller/mystery with philosophy thrown in. Actually, it turns out the book is philosophy with a political thriller/mystery thrown in. I realized this too late so missed a lot of the symbolism. This book addresses worldview, God, politics and more and is considered to be one of the top books of the 20th Century. You may have to read it more than once to understand it. I might even recommend that you read an analysis of the novel beforehand.

Here is an analysis I found helpful:
[...]

Absolutely brilliant. Endlessly entertaining... - Chesterton may just become one of my favorite authors - even if this is the only work by him that I'll ever bother to read. Why? Because I don't want to encounter another work by him that may not live up to my impression of The Man Who Was Thursday.

This novel is a tremendous piece of literary writing.

I would lay down every possible memory from the book which I enjoyed or which intrigued me. But that would be long winding.

Suffice to say, Chesterton's wit is a sinister thing. It crops up at the most unexpected junctures and never fails to catch me by surprise.

(I don't really like pasting quotes `coz it eats up space, but in this instance I do believe proof is called for:

"Why is it," he asked vaguely, "that I think you are quite a decent fellow? Why do I positively like you, Gregory?" He paused a moment, and then added with a sort of fresh curiosity, "Is it because you are such an ass?"

---

"I'm a policeman deprived of the help of the police. You, my poor fellow, are an anarchist deprived of the help of that law and organisation which is so essential to anarchy. The one solitary difference is in your favour. You are not surrounded by inquisitive policemen; I am surrounded by inquisitive anarchists.")

In a sense, this is a madcap tale of how `the man who was [called] Thursday' pursues an anarchist group's leader, the terrifying and mysterious man called `Sunday' with the help of several other characters who help make the story more and more bizarre.

Chock-full of twists - sometimes benignly predictable and sometimes too ludicrous for words - this novel is a rare treat. Even the Catholic allegorical bent is hardly something that fazed me, cynical git that I am.

Chesterton's narrative is at turns lyrical and wistful, sharp and witty. It is optimism couched in pessimistic premise. Reconciliation and resolution without the formulaic happy ending. A tumble down the rabbit hole without ever seeing where the hole gaped open.

They do say that a classic is one that everyone knows but hardly anyone reads (or something like that). And I admit that I was skeptical about this before turning the first page. By the second chapter however, I knew that this little piece of writing is one that unequivocally demands to be read.