The Annotated Thursday: G.K. Chesterton's Masterpiece, the Man Who Was Thursday [Paperback]

Martin Gardner (Author), G. K. Chesterton (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 290 pages
• Publisher: Ignatius Press (October 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898707447
• ISBN-13: 978-0898707441
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,566,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Chesteron: great! Gardner's annotations: mostly worthless., November 19, 1999

By 

P. Duggan "heirodule" (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Annotated Thursday: G.K. Chesterton's Masterpiece, the Man Who Was Thursday (Paperback)

Chesterton's novel, of course, is wonderful and entertaining and thought-provoking. But I bought this edition because I wanted Gardner's annotations to lend insight and interest. Mostly, the annotations describe London geography even where it has very little bearing on the meaning of the novel, or provide definitions of French phrases. Some annotaions are almost insulting in their obviousness, and some give away plot points before they occur in the text.

Gardners introduction and afterword are more to my liking, assisting with interpreting the final meaning of the novel. It would have been more helpful if the annotations also assisted in this task, by, say, poiting out stylistic and narrative choices Chesterton was making to convey his meaning along the way. A "commentary" of sorts.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a thinkers thriller, January 8, 2001

By 

Orrin C. Judd "brothersjudddotcom" (Hanover, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Annotated Thursday: G.K. Chesterton's Masterpiece, the Man Who Was Thursday (Paperback)

Definition is impossible : The Man Who was Thursday is not quite a political bad dream, nor a metaphysical thriller, nor a cosmic joke in the form of a spy novel, but it is something of all three. What it has most of is a boys' adventure story, which might help to explain my early excitement but not so much my continuing devotion. And what a title! I will not divulge its meaning here, but I cannot resist saying that anybody who at the sight of it does not feel a faint tingle of excitement and a breath of wonder is not really a fit person to be reading the book. -Kingsley Amis, Introduction to the Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics version

G. K. Chesterton's classic novel manages to provide a thriller that starts out like a Sherlock Holmes adventure and ends like Raiders of the Lost Ark, while at the same time offering a profound contemplation of the existence of evil in the world, the role of free will in the universe, the willingness of God to allow Man to suffer, and various other vexing metaphysical questions. Both the basic story and the religious philosophy are exciting, and though generations of readers have complained that the final chapter is too difficult to follow, the Annotated version has explanatory essays by Martin Gardner and there's an excellent essay of his available online, which do a great job of explaining just what Chesterton is up to. It is very much a Christian fantasy (or "Nightmare" to use Chesterton's own subtitle) but can be read with enjoyment by anyone who loves a good adventure yarn and doesn't mind being made to think.

GRADE : A-

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gardner strikes right balance, September 22, 2000

By 

Paul Miller "___[_]D___" (Memphis) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Annotated Thursday: G.K. Chesterton's Masterpiece, the Man Who Was Thursday (Paperback)

Gardner's introduction and afterword are great assets to understanding "The Man who was Thursday". There are less notes on this text than say Gardner's edition of "Alice" but you really can't compare the annotation of two such diverse texts. Note 5 in chapter two lists Joseph Chamberlain's birth as 1876 instead of 1836 which makes him younger than his sons whose birth dates are listed in the same annotation. I assume this is a typo in the print set-up, books are rushed out so fast these days I seem to find mistakes of fact in almost everything I read. For the most part I enjoyed the notes and didn't find them too obtrusive on Chesterton's wonderful masterpiece. Copious annotation can sometimes overpower a text and delve too deeply into the opinions of the annotater. Gardner, with his notes, strikes just the right balance here. Several years ago I had the opportunity to correspond with Mr. Gardner concerning research on a book he was writing at the time. I was left with the impression of a man who is markedly thorough in his research as well as being a fine gentleman. "The Annotated Thursday" is the edition of Chesterton's classic to own.