Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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-

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.

The obvious (and probably most common) comparison is to Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Agent." Both explore anarchy and revolution and have at their centers double agents. In many ways, though, the two works don't compare. Conrad's work is much darker; his London is infinitely bleaker and grosser than Chesterton's. Indeed, Conrad spends much more time describing his settings and creating the dark mood. Moreover, Conrad is more concerned than Chesterton with the psychological motivations underlying anarchy. These are not at all shortcomings in Chesterton's brilliant work; the two writers, each excellent in their own ways, simply focused on different things and had different goals and lessons to teach.

On its surface, "The Man Who Was Thursday" is the tale of a detective who infiltrates the inner circle of a group of anarchists and assumes a position on its board, whose seven members all bear names of days of the week. Syme, the detective, is Thursday; the mysterious, enigmatic leader is Sunday. Much of the fun of this book is in the twists and turns, so I won't give anything away. Some of the surprises (or revelation) are predictable, but many are not, and one typically builds on all the rest--keeping even the most predictable of them fresh and intriguing. At a deeper level, Chesterton explores the nature of good and evil, of fate and free will, of order and chaos, and also of faith. Indeed, Chesterton's vision of Christianity penetrates his work, sometimes explicitly (particularly the concluding chapters) and often implicitly and more symbolically. It underlies much of the book.

"Thursday" is a difficult book to understand, and the allegory is not easy to see or decipher. This is certainly a book that deserves many re-readings. On this note, Martin Gardner's introduction and notes provide a great framework for beginning to penetrate the book's deeper meanings. Moreover, his descriptions of the relevant geography and landmarks of London prove both helpful and fascinating.

This is a true masterpiece, unfortunately overlooked by far too many who have never heard of Chesterton or who don't know he wrote excellent fiction in addition to his fine Christian apologetics. Anyone stands to profit from reading "The Man Who Was Thursday." And this edition only enhances the experience.

If you have never read this book, DO IT NOW! And buy this copy. For just a little more than the paperback, you get Gardner's notes which help to shed some light on the neighborhoods of London and Chesterton's story. I was not familiar with the layout of London and his annotations gave some interesting facts and tidbits. Also, this is a hard text to tackle and Gardner's thoughts help introduce new ways to understand Chesterton's work.

Gardner had a similar problem with his ANNOTATED INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN: he avoided footnoting things which might be confusing, or for which he could have provided fascinating notes, in favor of stating obvious points. Why does this magnificent annotator do such a mediocre job with Chesterton, whose obscurities would benefit so much from the Full Gardner Treatment (see THE ANNOTATED ALICE)?

I feel a little deflated after completing "The Man Who Was Thursday." I would like to be able to imagine what it would have been like to read this book when it was first printed, before having Gardner & Chesterton explain the meaning of the "Sunday" character. Not that I would have figured it out on my own...

If you haven't read TMWWT before, I suggest you skip over Gardner's introduction and dive right in. Then go back and read Gardner's introduction and afterword to see if you've caught Chesterton's meaning. Granted, the text of the book doesn't go to any lengths to make its allusions unmistakable. Without Gardner and Chesterton's explanations, I believe you could take Sunday about any way you liked, somewhat like the Old Monk Michael in "The Ball and the Cross".

While the foreword and afterword are thorough and interesting, Gardner's annotations through the text are a bit of a mixed bag. Sometimes he rambles on over two pages of footnotes, bringing in ancillary details about London notables who lived near the setting of the action. Other times he waxes eloquent about scientific principles tangentially related to Chesterton's story. While many of his footnotes are exceedingly helpful, others are just weird. It appears, for example, that Gardner is a big Sherlock Holmes fan, given the relatively large presence that Holmes has in the footnotes.

Anyway - a great book with a worthy annotation.

The book came to me in excellent shape, some words marked and highlighted but that was to be expected for a used product such as this. The book itself is excellent.

For a book that's as short as this one, "The Man Who Was Thursday" is pretty packed.

G.K. Chesterton's classic novella tackles anarchy, social order, God, peace, war, religion, human nature, and a few dozen other weight concepts. And somehow he manages to mash it all together into a delightful satire, full of tongue-in-cheek commentary that is still relevant today.

As the book opens, Gabriel Symes is debating with a soapbox anarchist. The two men impress each other enough that the anarchist introduces Symes to a seven-man council of anarchists, all named after days of the week. In short order, they elect Symes their newest member -- Thursday.

But they don't know that he's also been recruited by an anti-anarchy organization. And soon Symes finds out that he's not the only person on the council who is not what he seems. There are other spies and double-agents, working for the same cause. But who -- and what -- is the jovial, powerful Mr. Sunday, the head of the organization?

Hot air balloons, elaborate disguises, duels and police chases -- Chesterton certainly knew how to keep this novel interesting. Though written almost a century ago, "The Man Who Was Thursday" still feels very fresh. That's partly because of Chesterton's cheery writing... and partly because it's such an intelligent book.

He doesn't avoid some timeless topics that make some people squirm. Humanity (good and bad), anarchy, religion and its place in human nature, and creation versus destruction all get tackled here -- disguised as a comic police investigation. And unlike most satires, it isn't dated; the topics are reflections of humanity and religion, so they're as relevant now as they were in 1908.

But the story isn't pedantic or boring; Chesterton keeps things lively by having his characters act like real people, rather than mouthpieces. From Symes to the Colonel to the mysterious Sunday himself, they all have a sort of friendly, energetic quality. "We're all spies! Come and have a drink!" one of the characters announces cheerfully near the end.

And of course, once the madcap police investigations are finished, there's still a mystery. Who is Sunday? What are his goals? And for that matter, WHAT is Sunday -- genius, force of nature, villain or god? The answer is a bit of a surprise, and as a reflection of Chesterton's beliefs, it's a delicate, intelligent piece of work.

And what of Martin Gardner's annotations? Well, they vary in usefulness -- sometimes he adds to your understanding of Chesterton's interests and possible intentions, and sometimes he goes off in rambling tangents that choke the original text.

"The Man Who Was Thursday" is a wacky, literate little satire that will both amuse and educate you. Not bad for a book often subtitled "A Nightmare."