Books with author Gilbert Keith

During the first three decades of the twentieth century, eugenics, the scientific control of human breeding, was a popular cause within enlightened and progressive segments of the English-speaking world. The New York Times eagerly supported it, gushing about the wonderful "new science." Prominent scientists, such as the plant biologist Luther Burbank, were among its most enthusiastic supporters. And the Carnegie and Rockefeller foundations generously funded eugenic research intended to distinguish the 'fit' from the 'unfit.'

A collection of related short stories by British author G. K. Chesterton. Each story is centered on a person who is making his living by some novel and extraordinary means (a "queer trade"). To gain admittance to the Club, one must have a unique queer trade as principal source of income. "Cherub" Swinburne describes his quest for The Club of Queer Trades with his friend Basil Grant, a retired judge, and Rupert Grant, a private detective who is Basil's younger brother. Each of the stories describes their encounter with one of the trades. In the final story, Rupert Grant rescues a lady from her kidnappers but cannot understand why she refuses to be rescued. The answer leads to the unveiling of the mystery of The Club of Queer Trades.First published by Harper & Brothers, London, 1905.

Chesterton's nightmarish and suspenseful mystery The Man Who Was Thursday weathers the storm of time very well. Syme, recruited by the police to infiltrate an anarchist group whose members adopt the names of the week, goes on a madcap and confused chase where nothing and no one is what it seems. I challenge any reader to anticipate on a first reading what is coming in the book. The ending portions of the story can be confusing in their own right. The novel operates on several levels, and is deeply philosophical and religious. I've read it at least three times over the years and see more in it each time. Indeed, the ending suggests it may not be possible to mine its depths entirely.This free Kindle edition is formatted well and easily readable. It has one paradoxical aspect: it has no introduction. I call it a paradox because without an introduction the reader may become as lost and mystified as the characters in the book, yet with an introduction much of the surprise and suspense in the book would be dissipated. And of course, any comment on Chesterton needs to use the word paradox!

Regina and her brother have successfully escaped from their solitary confinements where Lady Dumontet rules as warden of the household and life is no better than even the worse of prisons. As they flee in search for a better life they stumble upon something very unexpected; a realm where magic flourishes; interesting creatures roam the streets and the secrets of the siblings’ royal past is revealed. The Parting Trees, follows Regina and her team, Fox Squad, as they quest through the realm in search of the powerful Grand Master so she can fulfill the prophecy that declares she is the one to defeat a powerful sorcerer called The Mad Sister. The only problem is that Regina seemingly has no powers in this land full of magic.

Regina and her brother have successfully escaped from their solitary confinements where Lady Dumontet rules as warden of the household and life is no better than even the worse of prisons. As they flee in search for a better life they stumble upon something very unexpected; a realm where magic flourishes; interesting creatures roam the streets and the secrets of the siblings’ past is revealed. The Parting Trees, follows Regina and her team, Fox Squad, as they quest through the realm in search of the powerful Grand Master so she can fulfill the prophecy that declares she is the one to defeat a powerful sorcerer called The Mad Sister. The only problem is that Regina seemingly has no powers in this land full of magic. For more content by K. Gilbert visit: Level1Writer.com

The Man Who Knew Too Much by AUTHORHow is this book unique? Illustrations IncludedFree AudiobookThe Man Who Knew Too Much is a compilation of eight detective stories by the English philosopher and prolific writer Gilbert Keith Chesterton. The protagonist of these stories is the man of the title, Horne Fisher, an upper-class detective whose investigative gifts often put him in uncomfortable situations where he has to take difficult decisions. In stories like “The Face in the Target” and “The Vengeance of the Statue,” which are all told by a third-person narrator, Fisher uses his deductive faculties and theatrical representations to absolve the innocent and incriminate the guilty. Most of the crimes dealt with in these stories are about mysterious murders. Yet, Fisher has also to solve other cases related to theft as well as to disputes over money and estates. Due to his friendly or family relationships with influential statesmen, Fisher often finds himself with “too much” knowledge about the way things are run in the country. This paradoxically valuable and embarrassing knowledge forces him many a time to let the murderer get away with his crime in order to avoid something more dangerous to happen to the country such as war or rebellion.

The Napoleon of Notting Hill is a futuristic novel set in London in 1984. Chesterton envisions neither great technological leaps nor totalitarian suppression. Instead, England is ruled by a series of randomly selected Kings, because people have become entirely indifferent. The joker Auberon Quin is crowned and he instates elaborate costumes for every sector of London. All the city's provosts are bored with the idea except for the earnest young Adam Wayne - the Napoleon of Notting Hill.

Chesterton's characteristics would probably meet with the literary surprise of his life, when, after reading the plain, simple introduction, he would proceed to peruse the pages of Orthodoxy and find himself at once dazzled, perplexed, delighted by this blaze of wit, paradox, epigram, sarcasm, Johnsonian common sense, original ways of looking at things which everybody knows, deep philosophic argument served out in terms of the most commonplace thought, and some of the great truths of reliion tested effectively and favorably by inspecting them upside down. The book is meant to be a companion to Heretics, in which Chesterton attacked some of the current philosophies.

The Flying Inn may be briefly characterised as a narrative comic opera. It follows the Gilbertian formula of satirising actual anomalies by carrying them out quite logically to burlesque extremes; and the resemblance is heightened by the serio-comic songs with which the characters regale one another throughout the story. Mr. Chesterton takes Prohibition for his point of attack, as it might have been Chancery or Aestheticism or the Admiralty; and his fantasy develops out of the ridiculous facts with the same methodical madness, the same wild precision of logic, which make Patience and Iolanthe and Pinafore a dithering delight. The aristocrat of the hour, becoming fanatical upon the subject of the Higher Orientalism, enacts that no alcohol shall be sold except under the sign of a licensed inn: which license is, of course, refused except to a few highly expensive establishments. But, just as the last inn of old England is about to be torn down, along comes a wild Irish captain who is a friend of the innkeeper; plucks up the sign, and away they go, taking with them a cheese and a keg of rum and a delectable bull-pup who rejoices in the name of Quoodle ...

With Father Brown the author has entered upon a new literary field in a series of detective stories. Strange to say, his hero is not a Sherlock Holmes or a Lecoq, but a gentle little parish priest who uses his knowledge of human nature gained in his religious work to unravel mysterious crimes which have baffled the police. The stories are of the dashing and brilliant kind that Stevenson invented — exciting tales told in artistic manner by a first-class literary hand.