"The world will never starve for want of wonders, but only for want of wonder."
-- G. K. Chesterton
The thirty-nine short essays that make up Chesterton's delightful book are the result of "sitting still and letting marvels and adventures settle on him like flies." Actually, the author does move around quite a bit--to Germany, France, and on foot in England when he tires of waiting for a train. Everywhere he goes, Chesterton looks at ordinary things and asks us to see how extraordinary they are: the contents of his pockets, the items in a railway station, pedestrians in the street. What appear to be trifles are actually tremendous, and he uses them as a springboard to expound on Christianity, the nuclear family, democracy, and the like with supreme clarity and wit.
The essays gathered here are a testament to G. K. Chesterton's faith--not his faith in religion or a higher power, but in the ability to discover something wonderful in the objects, the experiences, and the people that cross our paths every single day. With his unique brand of humor and insight, he demonstrates how the commonplace adds enormous value to the landscape of daily life. Full of both good sense and nonsense, Chesterton's commentaries--first published nearly a century ago--remain fresh today.
Originally published: London: Methuen, 1909.
Table of Contents:
1. Tremendous Trifles
2. A Piece of Chalk
3. The Secret of a Train
4. The Perfect Game
5. The Extraordinary Cabman
6. An Accident
7. The Advantages of Having One Leg
8. The End of the World
9. In the Place de la Bastille
10. On Lying in Bed
11. The Twelve Men
12. The Wind and the Trees
13. The Dickensian
14. In Topsy-Turvy Land
15. What I Found in My Pocket
16. The Dragon's Grandmother
17. The Red Angel
18. The Tower
19. How I Met the President
20. The Giant
21. A Great Man
22. The Orthodox Barber
23. The Toy Theatre
24. A Tragedy of Twopence
25. A Cab Ride Across Country
26. The Two Noises
27. Some Policemen and a Moral
28. The Lion
29. Humanity: an Interlude
30. The Little Birds Who Won't Sing
31. The Riddle of the Ivy
32. The Travellers in State
33. The Prehistoric Railway Station
34. The Diabolist
35. A Glimpse of My Country
36. A Somewhat Improbable Story
37. The Shop of Ghosts
38. The Ballade of a Strange Town
39. The Mystery of a Pageant
Widely known as the "Prince of Paradox," G. K. Chesterton was one of the most influential English writers and thinkers of the 20th century. Chesterton's prodigious talents embraced a wide range of subjects, from philosophy and religion to detective fiction and fantasy. And while his writings are light and whimsical, they are filled with direct and honest truths.