I was interested in getting some of Chesterton's works of fiction (just picked up 'The Man Who Was Thursday').
In reading up on his works of fiction I've come across a particular sentiment more than a few times: that while his non-fiction writing is superb, his fiction writing is lacking.

The comparison has been usually between Chesterton and Lewis, it seems.
I've only read one of Lewis's works of fiction; 'Until We Have Faces'.

Does anyone else feel that Chesterton's works of fiction leave something to be desired?

Also, I see Maurice Baring also wrote a decent amount of fiction. Baring, Belloc and Chesterton seem to have all been pretty close. With respects to quality of the works of fiction - where would Baring stand in relation to Lewis and Chesterton.

Also, would there be any works of fiction for Baring that anyone would recommend?




Also, Also.... Are there any other writers similar writers like Lewis and Chesterton.

Chesterton felt that his works of fiction left something to be desired. Most critics agree with him. His point was that, at the most basic, he was a journalist, not a novelist at all. As he said in the AUTOBIOGRAPHY, "...I could not be a novelist because I really like to see ideas or notions wrestling naked, as it were, and not dressed up in a masquerade as men" (Chap XIV, p. 298). It's certainly difficult to read any of his novels and feel you are seeing a description of real people interacting. Ian Ker's intro to THE EVERYMAN CHESTERTON, which can be found at Amazon.com, has a brief discussion on this.

Doesn't mean that I haven't read all his novels with enjoyment. But they are Chesterton novels.

While I have a small Baring collection, I am not very interested in him. But I have heard it said that his novel C (that's just the letter "C") is recommended. I have a large collection of Belloc's novels and have never read them, either.

I don't think there are any writers like Chesterton and Lewis. But, in a similar vein to Chesterton's novels, I'd suggest the novels of Charles Williams. I collect him, too. He's also sui generis.


GKC

Thanks for the response.

I'm not far into "The Man Who Was Thursday", but I can see what you're saying about "It's certainly difficult to read any of his novels and feel you are seeing a description of real people interacting."
Some of the interactions between Syme and Lucian Gregory feel that way. Almost like the spoken thoughts of both characters are coming from the same mind - which at one level they are, but when it's supposed to be two unique characters it can be alittle odd to see.
But, I am enjoying "The Man Who Was Thursday".

I'll have to find that book by Baring.

I've heard that when both Baudelaire and Joris-Huysmans converted to Catholicism that they both continued to write; maybe I'll have to find some titles by them.

The idea of two protagonists being one mind (not literally) is also explicit in THE NAPOLEON OF NOTTING HILL: "You and I, Auberon Quin, have both of us throughout our lives been again and again called mad. And we are mad. We are mad, because we are not two men, but one man. We are mad, because we are two lobes of the same brain, and that brain has been cloven in two."

GKC

Interesting -- that's probably the least-known of his novels.

And the one he himself thought his best.

PERELANDRA second.


GKC

'Till We Have Faces.' Just to be an old crank.

Usually my role, that.

GKC

I'm not sure what you mean by "like." But you want to read Tolkein, if you haven't.

Come to think of it.... I read the whole Space Trilogy.
Completely forgot about that one.

I liked That Hideous Strength the best.... because of the monsters, of course.

Me too.

And then read THE ABOLITION OF MAN.

If you haven't.

GKC

Finished "The Man Who Was Thursday".
I liked it.

Kind of struck home with this line towards the end of the book:

Chesterton is the quotable of the group, and the one touching the most genres. But Belloc is the best writer of the group. Indeed, he is arguably the best English essayist of all time. He is, at the least, among the greats. His poetry is better than Chesterton's, but extended fiction was not his thing. Baring, I would say, is the better novelist of the group

I would not say that, of Belloc, neither as essayist, nor as poet. But I do like the man, greatly. I occasionally think that I would have, given the choice, preferred to meet him first. Maybe sharing a bottle of his wine, at King's Land.

Baring had better be the best novelist of the 3, though I've read none his fiction.

GKC

Literary Converts is one heck of a book.
So much to take in it feels like I'm forgetting most of it.

But, one thing that stands out is the fact that TS Eliot's poetry and writing lead many to believe that he was very much a progressive secularist/modernist. That GK Chesterton wrote some critical reviews of Eliot's writing which frustrated Eliot due to Chesterton 'not getting' Eliot's actual point.
Very interesting.

Lewis was quite un-fond of Eliot's poetry, too. They did manage a warmer, if slight, personal acquaintanceship.

GKC

I agree with CS Lewis....

Of course, I don't really care for poetry at all anyway....

I like this and that of Eliot's poetry.

GKC

Not even our Emily? Sadly, your loss.

Because I could not stop for death, he kindly stopped for me....

Batter my heart, three personed God....

Oh captain, my captain

Whose woods these are I think I know, his house is in the village though....

That's about the extent of my knowledge of poetry....