Varied Types G K Chesterton Aeterna Press Books
Download As PDF : Varied Types G K Chesterton Aeterna Press Books
Another delightful and sharply pointed excursion into the topics of the day, and of our day as well, with Gilbert Keith Chesterton. Here he uses his wit and mastery of paradox to bring into focus a number of historical persons who in many ways typify the people who presently shape our world and who in their own right have already shaped Western civilization. These reprinted magazine articles are filled with his good natured wit and devastating ability to use reductio ad absurdum to destroy the popular myths that drive our society at full-speed into, and expose the utter nonsense that underlies, secular humanism. You will come away with yet another new collection of wonderful quotes.
Varied Types G K Chesterton Aeterna Press Books
Imagine the following situation: you are somehow forced to spend the rest of your life reading only one author of your choice. Who would you choose? Given this predicament, I always say one would cause the least harm to oneself by choosing either Jorge Luis Borges or G. K. Chesterton. Because they are both a pleasure to read, of course, but also because through their work one encounters the ideas of so many other authors. I count it as a great blessing that I don't have to choose one author, that I can spend the rest of my life reading both Borges and Chesterton.Published in 1903, _Varied Types_ is an expansion of _Twelve Types_ (1902), a collection of essays on different contemporary personalities that Chesterton published originally in The Daily News and The Speaker. This is, therefore, early Chesterton. As a matter of fact, _Twelve Types_ was GKC's second book of essays, after _The Defendant_ (1901). _Varied Types_ includes all of the essays in _Twelve Types_ plus eight more. These are the contents: Charlotte Brontë, William Morris and His School, The Optimism of Byron, Pope and the Art of Satire, (St.) Francis, Rostand, Charles II, Stevenson, Thomas Carlyle, Tolstoy and the Cult of Simplicity, Savonarola, The Position of Sir Walter Scott, Bret Harte, Alfred the Great, Maeterlinck, Ruskin, Queen Victoria, The German Emperor, Tennyson, and Elizabeth Barret Browning. Varied indeed!
One potential reader might say, "But I don't care about most of these people!" I'm not particularly interested in Ruskin myself, or in Morris, or in Charles II, or in the German emperor. One of the many wonderful things about Chesterton is that, no matter what he is writing about, the reader always gets eye-opening, life-changing insight from him, and a quotable observation in virtually every page. (Underlining or highlighting GKC always makes me feel silly, as there is not much that I don't underline.) So, my advice is not to let the table of contents keep you from reading this unforgettable book. True, some of these personalities are not as relevant today as they were back in Chesterton's time, but Chesterton's ideas are eternal: not only do they not become obsolete, but their relevance increases with every passing day.
_Varied Types_ is akin to Chesterton's following collection of essays, _Heretics_ (1905). I would call these books two sides of the same coin: while in _Heretics_ Chesterton exposes the problems in the philosophies of some of his contemporaries (such as Wells, Kipling, Shaw, and Tolstoy), in _Varied Types_ he tends to focus on figures he agreed with, or at least liked (and yes, Tolstoy is included here too because GKC knew there were two sides to the great Russian novelist). To characterize _Heretics_ as "negative criticism" and _Varied Types_ as "positive criticism" would constitute a gross simplification; this is merely a starting point. As is well known, critics would later denounce GKC for criticizing his opponents in _Heretics_ without stating positively what he himself believed. We should be eternally grateful to those critics, as Chesterton responded by producing one of his most perfect books: _Orthodoxy_ (1908). As the dates of publication show, the first decade of the 20th century was a beautifully productive period for Chesterton. Other titles published during this time were the novels _The Man Who Was Thursday_, _The Napoleon of Notting Hill_ and _The Ball and the Cross_, the collection of stories _The Club of Queer Trades_, the essay collections _Tremendous Trifles_ and _All Things Considered_, and three of his delightful critical biographies: _Charles Dickens_, _George Bernard Shaw_ and _GF Watts_. Even in the midst of these masterpieces, _Varied Types_ stands out as a lucid, memorable, highly satisfactory read.
Like many readers of Chesterton, I am constantly in the lookout for "quotable quotes" while I read him. In this aspect, as in all others, _Varied Types_ won't disappoint. Let me share a handful of unforgettable observations:
"Until we love a thing in all its ugliness we cannot make it beautiful" (from "William Morris and His School;" a reference to _Beauty and the Beast_).
"While the world is almost always condemned in summary, it is always justified, and indeed extolled, in detail after detail" (from "The Optimism of Byron").
"One cannot write in white chalk except on a black-board" (Ibid.).
"It is strange that men should see sublime inspiration in the ruins of an old church and see none in the ruins of a man" (from "Stevenson").
"A man must be very full of faith to jest about his divinity" (from "Thomas Carlyle").
"The bad fable has a moral, while the good fable is a moral" (from "Tolstoy").
"To study humanity in the present is like studying a mountain with a magnifying glass; to study it in the past is like studying it through a telescope" (from "Alfred the Great").
"The majority of men are poets, only they happen to be bad poets" (from "The German Emperor").
As can be seen, whether or not we still read the authors treated in _Varied Types_ or think about the other historical figures, this work of Chesterton's is still relevant. The only problematic essay I found was the one on Kaiser Wilhelm II. History proved this character to be much more destructive than GKC judged him to be, but then, that is not Chesterton's fault, and if anything, it proves that he was always willing to give people the benefit of the doubt.
In _Varied Types_ the reader will find all the traits that make Chesterton the wonderful writer he is: humor, optimism, keen insight, wit, paradox. This is, incidentally, a great collection for both GKC initiates and connoisseurs. My next Chesterton book will be _The Defendant_.
Thanks for reading, and enjoy the book!
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Varied Types G K Chesterton Aeterna Press Books Reviews
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One thing this prescient book achieves--and possibly the reason Chesterton wrote it--is to show just how varied such types can be. Our own time, (and he must have foreseen it) for all it's electronic wizardry and lightening communication, is devoid of much true diversity of personality, talent and perspective. The infantile nature of modern political debate is a perfect example. Really, there is no debate at all, just cartoonish demonizing of one's opponent. Nor is there any particular yearning for fundamental truth. Say what you will about the likes of Stevenson, Tolstoy or Savonarola (my favorite) they were originals and, in the case of the latter, prepared to die for their beliefs. Today, our crusaders are merely looking for face time which will allow them to angle their way into a lucrative career. They speak boldly and then retire to Georgetown watering holes to clang glasses with "members from across the aisle." Or they yup it up at parties attended by other "names" regardless of what those names profess. "It's all good" is their motto. But Chesterton manages to draw some quick sketches of personalities with real flavor and who said it's not at all good and it ought to be better--personalities who, in today's world, would probably be exiled to oblivion for reasons of mouth feel. He was able to do this because Western society hadn't become completely therapeutic and (which is to say roughly the same thing) chickafied. I'll take Sir Walter Scott over Camille Paglia, any day!
Imagine the following situation you are somehow forced to spend the rest of your life reading only one author of your choice. Who would you choose? Given this predicament, I always say one would cause the least harm to oneself by choosing either Jorge Luis Borges or G. K. Chesterton. Because they are both a pleasure to read, of course, but also because through their work one encounters the ideas of so many other authors. I count it as a great blessing that I don't have to choose one author, that I can spend the rest of my life reading both Borges and Chesterton.
Published in 1903, _Varied Types_ is an expansion of _Twelve Types_ (1902), a collection of essays on different contemporary personalities that Chesterton published originally in The Daily News and The Speaker. This is, therefore, early Chesterton. As a matter of fact, _Twelve Types_ was GKC's second book of essays, after _The Defendant_ (1901). _Varied Types_ includes all of the essays in _Twelve Types_ plus eight more. These are the contents Charlotte Brontë, William Morris and His School, The Optimism of Byron, Pope and the Art of Satire, (St.) Francis, Rostand, Charles II, Stevenson, Thomas Carlyle, Tolstoy and the Cult of Simplicity, Savonarola, The Position of Sir Walter Scott, Bret Harte, Alfred the Great, Maeterlinck, Ruskin, Queen Victoria, The German Emperor, Tennyson, and Elizabeth Barret Browning. Varied indeed!
One potential reader might say, "But I don't care about most of these people!" I'm not particularly interested in Ruskin myself, or in Morris, or in Charles II, or in the German emperor. One of the many wonderful things about Chesterton is that, no matter what he is writing about, the reader always gets eye-opening, life-changing insight from him, and a quotable observation in virtually every page. (Underlining or highlighting GKC always makes me feel silly, as there is not much that I don't underline.) So, my advice is not to let the table of contents keep you from reading this unforgettable book. True, some of these personalities are not as relevant today as they were back in Chesterton's time, but Chesterton's ideas are eternal not only do they not become obsolete, but their relevance increases with every passing day.
_Varied Types_ is akin to Chesterton's following collection of essays, _Heretics_ (1905). I would call these books two sides of the same coin while in _Heretics_ Chesterton exposes the problems in the philosophies of some of his contemporaries (such as Wells, Kipling, Shaw, and Tolstoy), in _Varied Types_ he tends to focus on figures he agreed with, or at least liked (and yes, Tolstoy is included here too because GKC knew there were two sides to the great Russian novelist). To characterize _Heretics_ as "negative criticism" and _Varied Types_ as "positive criticism" would constitute a gross simplification; this is merely a starting point. As is well known, critics would later denounce GKC for criticizing his opponents in _Heretics_ without stating positively what he himself believed. We should be eternally grateful to those critics, as Chesterton responded by producing one of his most perfect books _Orthodoxy_ (1908). As the dates of publication show, the first decade of the 20th century was a beautifully productive period for Chesterton. Other titles published during this time were the novels _The Man Who Was Thursday_, _The Napoleon of Notting Hill_ and _The Ball and the Cross_, the collection of stories _The Club of Queer Trades_, the essay collections _Tremendous Trifles_ and _All Things Considered_, and three of his delightful critical biographies _Charles Dickens_, _George Bernard Shaw_ and _GF Watts_. Even in the midst of these masterpieces, _Varied Types_ stands out as a lucid, memorable, highly satisfactory read.
Like many readers of Chesterton, I am constantly in the lookout for "quotable quotes" while I read him. In this aspect, as in all others, _Varied Types_ won't disappoint. Let me share a handful of unforgettable observations
"Until we love a thing in all its ugliness we cannot make it beautiful" (from "William Morris and His School;" a reference to _Beauty and the Beast_).
"While the world is almost always condemned in summary, it is always justified, and indeed extolled, in detail after detail" (from "The Optimism of Byron").
"One cannot write in white chalk except on a black-board" (Ibid.).
"It is strange that men should see sublime inspiration in the ruins of an old church and see none in the ruins of a man" (from "Stevenson").
"A man must be very full of faith to jest about his divinity" (from "Thomas Carlyle").
"The bad fable has a moral, while the good fable is a moral" (from "Tolstoy").
"To study humanity in the present is like studying a mountain with a magnifying glass; to study it in the past is like studying it through a telescope" (from "Alfred the Great").
"The majority of men are poets, only they happen to be bad poets" (from "The German Emperor").
As can be seen, whether or not we still read the authors treated in _Varied Types_ or think about the other historical figures, this work of Chesterton's is still relevant. The only problematic essay I found was the one on Kaiser Wilhelm II. History proved this character to be much more destructive than GKC judged him to be, but then, that is not Chesterton's fault, and if anything, it proves that he was always willing to give people the benefit of the doubt.
In _Varied Types_ the reader will find all the traits that make Chesterton the wonderful writer he is humor, optimism, keen insight, wit, paradox. This is, incidentally, a great collection for both GKC initiates and connoisseurs. My next Chesterton book will be _The Defendant_.
Thanks for reading, and enjoy the book!
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