Books with title The Innocence Of Father Brown

Shortly after the publication of ORTHODOXY, G. K. Chesterton moved from London to Beaconsfield, where he met Father O'Connor. It was the combination of Father O'Connor's shrewd insights to the darker side of man's nature together with his mild appearance that suggested to Chesterton a character that became the unassuming, pudding-faced Father Brown. Numerous short stories followed. All of them featuring this priest who appeared to know nothing yet in fact knew more about criminals than they knew about themselves. THE INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN is the first collection of these stories. "Father Brown is a direct challenge to the conventional detective and in many ways he is more amusing and ingenious." (Saturday Review)

This is the first volume of Chesterton's brilliant, ingenious Father Brown stories. Ahead of a new series of the popular BBC adaptation starring Mark Williams, all five of the original Father Brown books have been republished with charming and collectible Penguin covers. With his round face, pipe and umbrella, the shambling, bespectacled priest Father Brown is an unlikely detective - yet his innocent air hides a razor-sharp understanding of the criminal mind. As this first volume of his adventures shows, the wise, worldly clerical sleuth has an uncanny ability to bring even the most elusive wrongdoer to justice. G. K. Chesterton was born in 1874. He attended the Slade School of Art, where he appears to have suffered a nervous breakdown, before turning his hand to journalism. A prolific writer throughout his life, his best- known books include The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1922), The Man Who Was Thursday (1908) and the Father Brown stories. Chesterton converted to Roman Catholicism in 1922 and died in 1938.

The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton. Father Brown is a fictional Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective who is featured in 53 short stories published between 1910 and 1936 written by English novelist G. K. Chesterton. Father Brown solves mysteries and crimes using his intuition and keen understanding of human nature. Chesterton loosely based him on the Rt Rev. Msgr. John O'Connor (1870–1952), a parish priest in Bradford, who was involved in Chesterton's conversion to Catholicism in 1922. Chesterton portrays Father Brown as a short, stumpy Roman Catholic priest, with shapeless clothes, a large umbrella, and an uncanny insight into human evil. In "The Head of Caesar" he is "formerly priest of Cobhole in Essex, and now working in London". He makes his first appearance in the story "The Blue Cross" published in 1910 and continues to appear throughout forty-eight short stories in five volumes, with two more stories discovered and published posthumously, often assisted in his crime-solving by the reformed criminal M. Hercule Flambeau.

G K Chesterton’s best-known character is the priest-detective Father Brown, who appears in 51 short stories, most of which were later compiled in five books. Chesterton based the character on Father John O'Connor (1870–1952), a parish priest in Bradford who was involved in Chesterton's conversion to Catholicism in 1922. Father Brown is a short, stumpy Catholic priest, "formerly of Cobhole in Essex, and now working in London". He is perpetually correcting the incorrect vision of the bewildered folks at the scene of the crime and wandering off at the end with the criminal to exercise his priestly role of recognition and repentance. Father Brown is characteristically humble, and is usually rather quiet; when he does talk, he almost always says something profound. Although he tends to handle crimes with a steady, realistic approach, he believes in the supernatural as the greatest reason of all.

In his day, Flambeau was a legend of the underworld. Even now, his old confederates remember with pride the Tyrolean Dairy scheme, in which he built a thriving milk business despite owning not a single cow. But today the master thief finally meets his match. Attempting to steal a priceless cross, Flambeau runs afoul of Father Brown, an ordinary-looking priest with amazing insight into the criminal mind. With grace, logic, and good humor, the stout little clergyman soon reforms one of England's most notorious villains.In thrilling tales such as "The Blue Cross," "The Secret Garden," and "The Hammer of God," G. K. Chesterton's immortal priest-detective applies his extraordinary intuition to the most intricate of mysteries. No corner of the human soul is too dark for Father Brown, no villain too ingenious. The Innocence of Father Brown is a testament to the power of faith and the pleasure of a story well told.