That Rediscovered Chesterton Essay

 

I recently heard about an newly rediscovered Chesterton essay, "The Historical Detective Story." Apparently he had written it for a magazine the Detection Club (to which he belonged) was thinking of creating. The magazine never came into existence, and the essay remained unpublished. Somehow the manuscript ended up at the University of Notre Dame and was recently rediscovered. It was finally published in Strand Magazine with a forward by Dale Ahlquist.

Today, I bought a copy of the magazine at a local bookstore (despite that fact that the cover of the magazine proclaims "Display until Nov. 15").

In the essay, Chesterton discusses contemporary detective stories and laments "a sameness, or even a staleness." 

He then suggests a way to get around this problem while still preserving the "dynamic morality of the detective tale."

Before making his suggestion, he develops the "morality"idea.

"For the detective tale is almost the only decently moral tale that is still being told. It is only in blood and thunder stories that there is anything so Christian as blood crying out for justice to the thunder of  of the judgment; and the shocker is now the only novel that is not shocking."

His suggestion: The historical detective story. Even though the elements of the "mysterious heart of man" would be the same, the settings, the trappings, would add some new life. 

He's not calling for all detective stories to be set in ancient times, but having some set there would bring some freshness to the genre.

His argument about the moral nature of detective stories resonates with me. It is one of the reasons why I like such stories. Indeed, when I read a detective story and there is not justice at the end I am disappointed.

As for historical settings, I have read some that do indeed do make use of such settings. The delightful Medieval Brother Cadfael mysteries of Ellis Peters (Edith Pargeter) and The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco come to mind. But, of course, there are many more. 

Maybe Chesterton was prophetic.

I have even myself been tempted to create my own detective story set around the time of the Civil War. Perhaps I will .

As for this rediscovered essay, I enjoyed it. The mentions of Dorothy Sayers and E. C. Bentley added to the delight. And he had a few other suggestions that make it well worth reading.

Get to the bookstore before they take the magazine off the shelf!