Father Brown of the Church of Rome - Book 47

I have been reading this collection of Father Brown stories off and on for the past couple of weeks. Father Brown is a humble, quick, perceptive and wry little priest who is also a detective. And he always figures out who done it. G.K.Chesterton wrote many stories all published in various magazines at the time. This is a collection of stories edited by John Peterson and put out by Ignatius Press. I haven't read many Father Brown stories. I have read The Blue Cross a couple of times; this I believe is his most well known and is the story in which he introduced the character of Father Brown as well as the French jewel thief turned crime fighter, Flambeau, and the French Inspector Valentin.

I got this book several years ago but I only read the first two stories and then it sat on the shelf for a long while until I finally picked it up again. The stories are very witty and always have a surprise twist. Chesterton writes some lovely, lively descriptions of people and places. He gets a lot of meaning and innuendo in very efficiently. He is quite sly in his humor. I did find though, that I just couldn't read these stories at night in bed. For some reason I'd just fall right to sleep over them. And they all began to blur into one story where I could not keep the characters straight. However, if I read it during the day, I was alert enough to really enjoy these clever little gems. My favorite one was The Resurrection of Father Brown. My favorite quote from that one: "You silly people. You silly, silly people." You have to read it to know how funny that scene is.

I really appreciated John Peterson's helpful footnotes. Chesterton makes a lot of references to things that were popular knowledge in his day but which we might not catch the significance of. And I love all the allusions Chesterton makes to Shakespeare, to history and to Catholicism. He was one learned guy!

I have a hankering now to see Alec Guinness's portrayal of Father Brown. Here's a little clip I found on youtube.

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