The Outline of Sanity: A Biography of G.K. Chesterton [Hardcover]

Alzina Stone Dale (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1982

"Gilbert Keith Chesterton has been the subject of several biographies, but none as comprehensive as The Outline of Sanity, a life of G. K. Chesterton by Alzina Stone Dale."
--THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

"A biography in which the imaginative and intellectual stature of the man is seen in its full measure."
--SUNDAY TIMES (UK)

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Alzina Stone Dale is a freelance author/lecturer who has published biographies of Dorothy L. Sayers, G. K. Chesterton, and T. S. Eliot and edited Love All: The Comedies of Dorothy L. Sayers, Dorothy L. Sayers, the Centenary Celebration, and Sayers on Holmes. Dale had also written mystery travel guides to London, England, New York, Chicago, and Washington D.C., two of which have won Malice Domestic’s Agatha Awards. A contributor to As her Wimsey Took Her, and The Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery, Dale is a member of the Sayers Society, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, the Authors Guild, and the Society of Midland Authors. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 354 pages
• Publisher: Eerdmans (1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802835503
• ISBN-13: 978-0802835505
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,529,142 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Introduction to Chesterton, September 25, 2008

By 

Jackson Pollock (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Outline of Sanity: A Biography of G. K. Chesterton (Paperback)

This really is, in my opinion, the best introduction to the thought and life of G.K. Chesterton. I have read a couple other biographies that came nowhere near the level of understanding Alzina Stone Dale brings to this work.

While it is commonly accepted that Chesterton was a literary genius, he has not fared well with the current arbiters of taste. Usually, biographers treat Chesterton as a Quixotic figure, essentially a deeply conservative man born out of his time, or they focus on the dark parts of the man, his supposed anti-Semtism, his excesses in food and drink, etc. Stone Dale has an objective tone that grasps the complexities of the man, while showing a strong compassion for her subject. She writes well about his politics, aesthetics and religion, with a real feel for his cultural time and place. Chesterton was a paradoxical man and that's what makes him so interesting. I think his politics will be seen as very forward-thinking someday and will probably be studied by those looking for a third way out of the capitalism vs. socialism mess we are in at the time I write this.

His faith was foundational in his life, and Stone Dale treats it with sophistication, without bringing in her own bias (as some writers do). She gives you real sense of the energy of Edwardian London and the business of journalism at the time. I can't recommend the book enough for those interested in Chesterton's thought.