Summer reading

Like so many people, I first encountered Chesterton through his Father Brown mysteries.

Although I have gone on to read a number of other works by him – including more Father Brown tales – I have not read any of his other short fiction.

Thanks to Ignatius Press, I intend to remedy that situation this summer - and to drag you along.

Volume XIV of The Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton is Short Stories, Fairy Tales, Mystery Stories – Illustrations.

As a bonus, it includes some Father Brown stories, two of which had been “lost.”

The collection includes a number of stories that had been published in various periodicals but not collected previously. The editors note that some of the stories had been published in English editions, but not American editions, and vice versa. The collection also includes stories from his notebooks and some juvenilia.

The stories are dated (where possible) and arranged in chronological order in each of the three sections - "A Potpourri of Tales," "Juvenilia," and "What Might Have Been" (complete stories and fragments from the notebooks).

Over the summer, I will work my way through the stories, then report back periodically with comments and reviews.