Dear Internet,
I
suspect you have been well. I surely
hope that you did not stop working whilst I was gone. Even while I was away, I was busy reading
while I could. Even when I was
completely sick with a stomach ache for the entire duration of my time away, I
kept reading when I could find the chance.
But alas, I was unable to complete "The Complete Father
Brown." Although, 554 pages out of 718
is nothing to sneeze at while being sick.
At the same time because of the abundance of stories that I have read in
those 554 pages, doing a single post for the complete book would have forced me
to cover too much material for a single post.
In a way, it is better that I did not finish it in these two weeks and
force to shrink down a review. So, here
is what I will do for you, Internet. I
will try and cover the first three books that "Complete" includes in
this post, and tomorrow I will try to cover the remaining two books, provided
that I can finish the remaining 164 pages, which should not be that difficult. The first three books are "The Innocence
of Father Brown," "The Wisdom of Father Brown," and "The
Incredulity of Father Brown."
Father
Brown is the titular character, a small and simple Catholic priest who normally
resides in England. Occasionally he will
travel to far off lands for missionary work or travel from other reason, but
the majority of his time is spent there in England. The stories he is a part of are mysteries
that abound with the usual list of theft, disappearances, murder and so
forth. All is in a day's work for the
little priest who relies on common sense and reason to determine the
culprit. Unlike the private eye or the
police officer of other mystery stories, Father Brown is less concerned with
the justice of mankind but with the soul of the man who falls by the evils of
his deeds.
"The
Innocence of Father Brown" and "The Wisdom of Father Brown"
should be taken hand in hand for a number of reasons. The first is the timeframe of the
publication. "Innocence" was
published in 1911, and "Wisdom" in 1914. "Incredulity" was not published
until 1926, which marks a twelve year gap between books and the largest gap
between any of the Father Brown books.
The second reason is the style of writing. While it can be argued that Chesterton has a
unique and almost iconic style of writing, after that twelve year gap there is
a very distinct difference between how the stories are handled. The manner that Father Brown handles the
cases presented before him are the same but there is a slight difference that might
be overlooked. This is mostly due to the
third reason, the length of the stories.
In the first and second books, there are twelve stories apiece. "Incredulity" only has eight, as
well as later books. With each book
averaging 150 pages, this means that the first two books move much quicker from
one story to the next than the later ones.
This is probably due to the fact that Chesterton had to write the
stories in "Innocence" for individual publications and had to keep
them brief. I cannot find information
that hints that "Wisdom" was published in the same manner, but it can
be reasoned that "Incredulity" definitely did not have this
limitation because of the length of the stories and because of how long after
it was published hints to a different manner of publication.
The
first two books with their quicker stories are fast paced and include less
detail. There are fewer characters and
the mysteries are wrapped up sooner. The
stories are bite sized and quickly eaten and digested. That quickness is a rather nice in that the
stories never sit too long and mull constantly over the mystery. There is also a certain lightheartedness to
the stories that are harder to find in the later books. I might have to come back to this point in my
next review, but in the first two books, there seems to be a lot less murders
going on. I will get a final count to
you tomorrow. Instead there are thefts
or implications of theft, much more often.
With the way that the stories go, I would be deadly afraid of ever
meeting Father Brown, because it seems people are constantly getting killed
while he is around. The only way to
prevent such from occurring to myself would be to stay constantly near the
priest until someone else does die. But
I digress into that topic that all mystery series all fall into as they go on. Eventually people are going to be killed, a
lot.
The
third book, however, takes a slightly different turn. Father Brown is recognized the world over as
a sleuth and his advice on mysterious matters are sought out. The stories are longer and more in-depth. The mysteries are then of course more complex
and harder for the reader to figure out.
I do not want to come across saying that more complex mysteries are a
bad thing, but after reading two books filled with much shorter stories, it
required me to change gears to reading ones that are more multifaceted in its
presentation. This has an instant effect
on the reader. Since more information is
available, the clues can be hidden in more places and every little detail can
set off the hairpin reflexes of the reader.
Chesterton knows this and works it to his advantage. At the same time, Chesterton is able to
expand on some of the core dynamics that make Father Brown unique.
Father
Brown is a priest first. Saying his
business is in souls would be accurate but at the same time blasphemous to say
is as such, lest it imply that he trades them like a money lender does with collateral. He cares about the individuals that he meets,
but not in a showy fashion. He does not
chase after the criminal at the end of the story many times, especially if
there is a police officer around to do so.
His duty is foremost that of a confessor, and if he can see some
redeeming light in the criminal, Father Brown will seek out the soul to save
it. It is a refreshing change from cop
dramas where the main character is constantly itching to punch the criminal in
the face.
The
only thing that I can say against the third book is that there is not enough of
Flambeau, the world renowned thief turned private investigator. For one reason or another he is my most favorite
character in the books. Perhaps it is
because he is more relatable than Father Brown, because sometimes Father
Brown's quiet nature comes across as being indifferent to his surroundings when
in fact he is mulling over the details. It
could be that Flambeau lives so much more passionately than Father Brown. I am not sure what exactly my reason for
liking Flambeaus is so much. What did
strike me was that he does not even show up in the third book, or at least not
much at all. He makes a key appearance
in the forth book but that will be for tomorrow.
With
that I think I will stop here for now, Internet. There are one or two things that I still want
to talk about, but I will roll those in together with the fourth and fifth
books.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
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