Other editions of book The Napoleon of Notting Hill

In 1904, Great Britain was at the height of its prosperity; but G. K. Chesterton saw the drudgery of capitalism and bureaucracy eating away at the eccentricity and spontaneity of the human spirit. In The Napoleon of Notting Hill, his first novel, Chesterton creates a witty satire of staid government, set in a London of the future. Auberon Quinn, a common clerk who looks like a cross between a baby and an owl and is often seen standing on his head, is one day told that he has been randomly selected to be His Majesty the King. He decides to turn London into a medieval carnival for his own amusement - with delightful results.

The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G.K. Chesterton is set in a fictional future England, where the King is chosen by sheer chance. Terrible consequences ensue when one Auberon Quin is recruited as the country's new monarch - he in turn subjects the entire city to ridiculous rituals and costumes, which thoroughly bore and frustrate everyone under his rule. The exception however is Adam Wayne - the titular Napoleon - who takes up the King's rule with a fervent devotion to his antics and tomfoolery. Battles and revolt ensues as the farce rises to a dramatic crescendo. Behind the silliness and humour within the text are some philosophic questions about man's place in society and the world, and the nature of respecting one's enemies. Although not as popular as Chesterton's other novels, this book established the writer as a commentator capable of melding serious thought with farce. Characterised by his easily digestible style, ready use and exposure of paradox, and his use of wit and humour to advance argument, Chesterton's fiction and non-fiction writings on the topics of human behaviour and wider society remain relevant and poignant to this day.

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.

The dreary succession of randomly selected Kings of England is broken up when Auberon Quin, who cares for nothing but a good joke, is chosen. To amuse himself, he institutes elaborate costumes for the provosts of the districts of London. All are bored by the King's antics except for one earnest young man who takes the cry for regional pride seriously – Adam Wayne, the eponymous Napoleon of Notting Hill.

[Read by Frederick Davidson]In 1904, Great Britain was at the height of its prosperity; but G. K. Chesterton saw the drudgery of capitalism and bureaucracy eating away at the eccentricity and spontaneity of the human spirit. In The Napoleon of Notting Hill, his first novel, Chesterton creates a witty satire of staid government, set in a London of the future.Auberon Quinn, a common clerk who looks like a cross between a baby and an owl and is often seen standing on his head, is one day told that he has been randomly selected to be His Majesty the King. He decides to turn London into a medieval carnival for his own amusement -- with delightful results.

Meet Auberon Quin. He is a man to whom the world is a punchline; a dangerous man, for he cares for nothing but a joke. And meet Adam Wayne – to whom the joke is quite serious. When Quin is appointed King of England, he decides to turn London into a medieval carnival for his own amusement. When Adam Wayne is appointed Provost of Notting Hill, he proposes to be patriotic about it and takes the new order of things seriously, organizing a Notting Hill army to fight invaders from other neighborhoods. Amidst the chaos of confusion, the stirring speeches, the epic battles, and the all-pervading Chesterton wit, The Napoleon of Notting Hill is a cry for renewed life in a deadened world – a call that compels mankind to fight for the small things, if only for the sake of fighting for something.

How is this book unique? Font adjustments & biography included Unabridged (100% Original content) Illustrated About The Napoleon Of Notting Hill by G. K. Chesterton The Napoleon of Notting Hill is a novel written by G. K. Chesterton in 1904, set in a nearly unchanged London in 1984. Although the novel is set in the future, it is, in effect, set in an alternative reality of Chesterton's own period, with no advances in technology or changes in the class system or attitudes. It postulates an impersonal government, not described in any detail, but apparently content to operate through a figurehead king, randomly chosen.