In Defense of Sanity: The Best Essays of G.K. Chesterton Kindle Edition

Mr. SanityG.K. Chesterton is [probably] the most Sane man that has ever lived, and yet he has a heart as playful as a child’s.His philosophy takes literally that perplexing saying of Jesus, “Whoever humbles himself like [a] child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven”(Matt. 18:3). One would think Christ was speaking of Chesterton for he has an unparalleled imagination, wit, frivolity, hilarity, humor, and most of all—child-like wonder. He can take the most lofty and verbose fallacies of our age and deconstruct them with a child-like common sense (which he would call “un-common sense.”)His favorite weapon is the paradox, in which he exposes the blindness in our sight (catch the paradox?), and utterly demolishes the ideological demagogues of our age with a hearty laugh. He likes to fight heresy with humor.A Sense of WonderIn one sane parable, entitled Tremendous Trifles, he tells a story about two men, Peter and Paul; one who desired to become a giant and travel the world, and the other who desired to become a pigmy and travel his back-yard. It is the giant who has paradoxically made everything small, and the pigmy that has paradoxically made everything big; Chesterton is that pigmy who has made himself small so that he can super-size the adventure he can have in the world. He makes the fantastic observation, “The world will never starve for want of wonders; but only for want of wonder.”An Adventure, Rightly ConsideredIn another sane essay, entitled On Running After One’s Hat, he makes the riotous deduction, “Now a man could, if he felt rightly in the matter, run after his hat with the manliest ardour and the most sacred joy. He might regard himself as a jolly huntsman pursuing a wild animal, for certainly no animal could be wilder. In fact, I am inclined to believe that hat-hunting on windy days will be the sport of the upper classes in the future.” Then he concludes after his philosophically funny generalizations about running after one’s hat, “An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.”Please, just let that quote revolutionize every uncomfortable encounter, lost direction, or “inconvenience” in your life into a cheerful adventure (as it has mine).On Lying in BedBut above all his other short works, On Lying in Bed is the most priceless piece of humor that you will read today (if you so choose.) He begins, “Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a coloured pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling…” What?! You just have to read it, and seriously it is Sane, because his conclusion is that when lying in bed you must do it for no other reason at all; he wants us to have principled leisure where we live not as utilitarians (doing everything as a means to another material end), but as Christians (who do things as ends in themselves to gain the ultimate end of happiness with God.)Sophisticated Sophistry?A common complaint about the writings of G.K. Chesterton is that he is too hard to understand, because he uses words like “sophistry.” Please endure the short amount of what appears to be “sophistry” by looking up these words and carefully reading, for in the end you will reap dividends of laughter and above all—sanity. Oftentimes Chesterton makes serious points in an unserious way, for we often won’t listen to sanity in plain language, so he uses foolish language in order to expose what is truly “sophistry” in our thinking.

There are very few essays in this collection that do not have the power to change one's perception of the world drastically (and for the better). Because so many others have written helpful things, I will just post the table of contents:1. Introduction to The Defendant (The Defendant, 1901)2. A Defence of Skeletons (The Defendant, 1901)3. On Certain Modern Writers and the Institution of the Family (Heretics, 1905)4. On Running After One's Hat (All Things Considered, 1908)5. Woman (All Things Considered, 1908)6. A Piece of Chalk (Tremendous Trifles, 1909)7. What I Found in My Pocket (Tremendous Trifles, 1909)8. On Lying in Bed (Tremendous Trifles, 1909)9. The Diabolist (Tremendous Trifles, 1909)10. The Twelve Men (Tremendous Trifles, 1909)11. The Shop of Ghosts (Tremendous Trifles, 1909)12. The Romantic in the Rain (A Miscellany of Men, 1912)13. The Mad Official (A Miscellany of Men, 1912)14. The Mystagogue (A Miscellany of Men, 1912)15. The Architect of Spears (A Miscellany of Men, 1912)16. Don't (Daily News, May 7, 1910)17. The Mystery of the Mystics (Daily News, August 30, 1901)18. A Much Repeated Repetition (Daily News, March 26, 1904)19. The Maxims of Maxim (Daily News, February 25, 1905)20. The Book of Job (GKC as MC, 1929)21. Cheese (Alarms and Discursions, 1910)22. On Gargoyles (Alarms and Discursions, 1910)23. The Fading Fireworks (Alarms and Discursions, 1910)24. The Furrows (Alarms and Discursions, 1910)25. The Meaning of Dreams (Lunacy and Letters, 1958)26. On Being Moved (Lunacy and Letters, 1958)27. The Pickwick Papers (Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens, 1911)28. The Bluff of the Big Shops (The Outline of Sanity, 1926)29. On Architecture (Generally Speaking, 1928)30. On Shakespeare (Generally Speaking, 1928)31. The Slavery of Free Verse (Fancies vs. Fads, 1923)32. Turning Inside Out (Fancies vs. Fads, 1923)33. On Turnpikes and Mediævalism (All I Survey, 1933)34. The Drift from Domesticity (The Thing, 1929)35. On Vulgarity (Come to Think of It, 1930)36. On a Humiliating Heresy (Come to Think of It, 1930)37. On Original Sin (Come to Think of It, 1930)38. On Jane Austen in the General Election (Come to Think of It, 1930)39. On Essays (Come to Think of It, 1930)40. On Evil Euphemisms (Come to Think of It, 1932)41. A Plea for Prohibition (Sidelights, 1932)42. The American Ideal (Sidelights, 1932)43. Marriage and the Modern Mind (Sidelights, 1932)44. Magic and Fantasy in Fiction (Sidelights, 1932)45. On the New Prudery (Avowals and Denials, 1934)46. On the Return of the Barbarian (Avowals and Denials, 1934)47. On Man: Heir of All the Ages (Avowals and Denials, 1934)48. On the Instability of the State (Avowals and Denials, 1934)49. The Romance of Childhood. (All is Grist, 1931)50. The Surrender upon Sex (The Well and the Shallows, 1935)51. Reflections on a Rotten Apple (The Well and the Shallows, 1935)52. Babies and Distributism (The Well and the Shallows, 1935)53. The Rout of Reason (Where Are the Dead? 1928)54. Mary Queen of Scots (Revaluations, 1931)55. George MacDonald (GKC as MC, 1929)56. Tolerating Other Religions (Illustrated London News, May 31, 1913)57. The Efficiency of the Police (Illustrated London News, April 1, 1922)58. About Beliefs (As IWas Saying, 1936)59. The Common Man (The Common Man, 1950)60. Two Stubborn Pieces of Iron (The Common Man, 1950)61. The Revival of Philosophy--Why? (The Common Man, 1950)62. If I Had Only One Sermon to Preach (The Common Man, 1950)63. Scipio and the Children (The Spice of Life, 1964)64. The Philosophy of Islands (The Spice of Life, 1964)65. The Artistic Side (The Coloured Lands, 1938)66. What Is Right with the World (The Apostle and the Wild Ducks, 1975)67. The Spice of Life (The Spice of Life, 1964)

I'd heard of G.K. Chesterton, of course, but had never actually read him. It was Ravi Zacharias's respect for him that led me to buy this book. I'm happy that I did. G.K. Chesterton's humour, brilliant wit, his faith in life and creativity are inspiring and cheering.

common sense like this is extremely rare

Amazing book, great essays, superb writing style from this master essayist. Only one complaint is that the binding is only a 7.5/10. Buy this book you won't regret it.

For any one who cares about GKC, this is essential reading. Increasingly one realises he was a prophetic voice and one of the greatest writers of the C20th.

I am a relative newcomer to Chesterton. He is someone you have heard about but how often have we actually read the work of the people we quote? This is a wonderful insight into the man, his extraordinary intelligence and gentleness in particular. So many of his essays have a contemporary feel. His essay topics cover vast ground, often unusual but always engaging. In 5 mins you can read an essay, find your mind stretched and your heart lifted. Astonishing when an essay topic can be a piece of chalk.