"It remains the most thrilling book I've read," wrote novelist Kingsley Amis about The Man Who Was Thursday. The story is nearly 100 years old, having first appeared in 1907, and since it's now in the public domain, exists in numerous editions. G. K. Chesterton, or G.K.C., is best known as the author of the Father Brown detective stories and for his "slovenly autobiography," Orthodoxy. This novel, part detective story, sort of a metaphysical thriller, kind of a melodrama, maybe surrealistic, slice-of-life, dream/ vision has dazzled numerous readers with its unclassifiable, gripping, hallucinatory style. There is no one like Chesterton, and this novel, along with The Ball and The Cross and Manalive, and The Flying Inn, and maybe The Club of Queer Trades and Four Faultless Felons, with some Father Brown thrown in, remains in the handful of his best.
Some years back, Ignatius Press launched an ambitious project to reprint all of Chesterton's prolific output, in which they are still fruitfully engaged. "Thursday" appeared in a volume dedicated to his novels, and then in an edition matching the Collected Chesterton editions. Finally it's gotten out on its own to the general reading public, and a good thing, too, for this is a very special edition.
I was an avid reader of Martin Gardner when he wrote the "Mathematical Games" column in Scientific American, always coming up with some brain teaser or logical conundrum, and one of the most read features of the magazine. Little did I know it was his latent detective tendency which led him on the trail of all sorts of alleged psychic phenomenon and New Age oddities, the most famous being his report on the pedigree of the Urantia Book, unmasking quite a few hoaxes and charlatans along the way.
But, as in a Chesterton novel, now the strands get all interconnected. Gardner's dual interest in literature and logic found a natural outlook in his Annotated Alice edition of fellow polymath Lewis Carroll's "Alice Through the Looking Glass." He also produced for Oxford Press, The Annotated Innocence of Father Brown by G.K.C.. Chesterton's famous sleuth, it turns out, was also about debunking so-called psychic phenomena, as fake seances were a growth industry in the early 1900s.
His annotated edition of Thursday was originally released as a sort of study version for those who'd already encountered one of the many editions of the novel and wanted to probe deeper with a trusty guide. Now that it's out at large, however, this edition serves not only as a deluxe follow-up for seasoned GKC addicts, but is also ideal for the new reader. How annotated is it? After Martin Gardner's (MG) introduction, there's a fascimile of Chesterton's hand-lettered faceplate of the first edition followed by GKC's dedication poem, nearly never reprinted in its entirety. The text is peppered with notes, art by GKC and period photos and drawings of GKC's London. There's also a bibliography of various editions of "Thursday," including the weirdest of them all, in the March, 1944 issue of the pulp mystery magazine, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, with a reproduction of its sensationalist cover.
The new reader is advised to read the novel first, before the MG intro (which gives away the game) and, if possible, without reading the back cover notes, reviews, or any other later opinions. Most readers get hooked and keep rereading it, and these naturally make up the audience for this edition. Like the film, Twelve Monkeys, GKC keeps you puzzling and pondering over this novel, but not so much for what happened as to for what it meant. Enter fellow detective Gardner (who starts his introduction with a quote from Sherlock Holmes creator, Conan Doyle, and points out that GKC was himself the founder of the Detection Club for mystery writers (Dorothy L. Sayers was the next president), and it's elementary, Watson, why this is your best guide.
Among the funny and realistic things G. K. Chesterton says in his "The Man who was Thursday" is the comment he makes about poor people and anarchism. He says that the poor are rebels but not anarchists; as a matter of fact, they have interest --more than anyone else -- in being governed. And this is so close to reality -- even more than 100 years after the first publication of this novel.
"The Man who was Thursday" is set in a strange world that bears a lot of resemblance with reality -- but somehow it is not the real world per se. Subtitled as "A Nightmare", this book is indeed a strange dream. Things that are supposed to be odd in the world outside of the book, in Chesterton's narrative are unique, strange and deeply funny. Gabriel Syme, the main character, is a poet disguised as policeman who enters into an anarchist group to uncover the boss identity and prevent a tragedy.
In these obscure times we live, Gabriel Syme is more real than ever. He is British police neurosis elevated to the nth. More or less something we're seeing the past few weeks, when, everybody is suspicious. However, Chesterton's characters a lighter and funnier -- what a relief. But with this novel the writer was criticizing the collective hysteria of his times that echoes in ours.
For this reason, and for exploiting and exposing human nature so bravely, "The Man who was Thursday" is one the essential readings of the XX century. The fear of the anarchist is over, but Western world will always have enemies -- their ideology may have changed through the years, but the average citizen must have always someone whom the government and the system will protect them from.
Throughout this "Nightmare" Chesterton depicts how people loose their sense of ridiculous and reality when under pressure. Nothing is to be what it seems to be. Like he says, `a man brain is a bomb', and he also states that bombs expand, they only destroy because they broaden. Chesterton opens the book with a poem for Edmund Clerihew Bentley, saying that a cloud was on the mind of men, a sick cloud upon the soul. Just like these times we are living.
