Dear Internet,
Well, I
have finished "The Complete Father Brown," which I have learned is
not actually complete. There are 51 "Father
Brown" stories, and this collection only covers 49 of them. Before you ask, no, I will not hunt them down
and speed read them for this review. If
you want an opinion bad enough for them, you can go ask Cleverbot. I am already terribly behind and am writing
this well after I should have started it.
The
fourth and fifth books, "The Secret of Father Brown" and "The
Scandal of Father Brown," are really where Chesterton takes a strong
emphasis on the nature of Father Brown and the manner that he approaches the
mysteries placed before him. In fact, it
is the main focus of the vignettes that frame "Secret," the forth
book. What separates Father Brown from
Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes copycats is the manner that Father Brown
solves each case. He does not pour over
the evidence with a fine tooth comb and recall a mountain of obscure scientific
knowledge that no sane individual would be able to retain. He does not withhold evidence like a smart
alec. What he does do is examine the
crime from the perspective of the supposed criminal and go through everything
that would make the person commit the crime to the point just shy of committing
it himself. He examines the individuals
that are suspected, those that are not, and examines the philosophies of
each. Father Brown attempts to
understand the people that he meets as well as the philosophy that each lives
by. That might be putting it bluntly,
since most characters, and real world individuals, would not admit to living by
a specific philosophy. Father Brown
searches for a motive foremost and the manner of the crime falls into place. This manner of crime solving is most apparent
in the last two books.
What are
also apparent in the last two books are the same length and flow elements that
I had already mentioned. The stories can
sometimes get too complex at first for my taste. It can be a bit hard to determine just who is
essential to solving the crime, but I feel that is more my own fault that the
book's. Especially since that is a core
aspect of the mystery story. Creating a
little confusion is tantamount to making the reader feel like a fool. All mystery stories are made to make the
reader feel like a fool, but a rightful and fair fool. Nobody likes being made a fool if they are
made so dishonestly. Chesterton makes
sure not to let this happen. Everything is
there for the reader to figure out for themselves. Sometimes it is what is left out that makes a
clue, but it is pointed out once the solution comes around and is usually shown
to have been an obvious hole.
Overall,
"Father Brown" is a wonderful collection of stories that are simply
enjoyable all around. Some of the
stories feel dated. Considering that
some of them are at least a hundred years old, this should be expected. A large majority of the stories, however, are
still solvable by today's standards. The
characters are enjoyable and well made, stretching a large spectrum of
characteristics. The crimes have a large
range of possibilities that rarely do they feel like they are repeating. The settings are illustrated well enough that
they are painted before the reader. All
of this adds up to a good series of stories, but "Father Brown" is
more than just that. It has good dogma,
which is essential to a work being great.
There are underlining levels of the human condition and how the
characters react to it which are essential to the stories. If a character is a Communist, Bolshevik,
Christian, Puritan, Atheist, or some other group, it is essential to the plot,
but never in the way might that one expect.
The doctrine of each group is analyzed and examined. There is an amazing insight into each one
that reveals the hidden facets that would be rather obvious, but somehow might
not be. Chesterton is a writer that
constantly points out the truth and calls out the problem in any given
situation, whose insight continues to resonate a hundred years later.
On the
matter of murder stories that I mentioned yesterday, there were 49
stories. Approximately 18 were murder
cases, 11 were theft ones, 10 had the crime avoided, and 10 had no crime
actually take place. These numbers are
not very accurate since some stories had both theft and murder. There were also a few that might be easily
categorized a fifth category. The
concentration of murder stories were highest in the latter books, and book two
had the least concentration of murders.
It still felt like those Brits were dropping like leaves on a windy autumn
evening.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
P.S. Next is the
anime "Saki."
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