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The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare is a novel by G. K. Chesterton, first published in 1908. The book has been referred to as a metaphysical thriller. Its importance was recognized in its later revival in paperback by Ballantine Books as the thirty-second volume of the celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in July, 1971. Image File history File linksMetadata Manwhowasthursday. ...
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (May 29, 1874–June 14, 1936) was an influential English writer of the early 20th century. ...
For other uses, see Country (disambiguation). ...
The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
The thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, and television. ...
A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ...
A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ...
This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...
ISBN-13 represented as EAN-13 bar code (in this case ISBN 978-3-16-148410-0) The International Standard Book Number, ISBN, is a unique[1] commercial book identifier barcode. ...
A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ...
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (May 29, 1874–June 14, 1936) was an influential English writer of the early 20th century. ...
Ballantine Books, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine, is a major book publisher and is currently owned by Random House. ...
Launched in 1969 (presumably in response to the growing popularity of Tolkiens works), the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series reissued a number of works of fantasy literature, which were out of print or dispersed in back issues of pulp magazines (or otherwise not easily available in the United States), in...
Year 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the 1971 Gregorian calendar. ...
Although it deals with anarchists the novel is not an exploration or rebuttal of anarchist thought; Chesterton's ad hoc construction of "Philosophical Anarchism" is distinguished from ordinary anarchism and is referred to several times not so much as a rebellion against government but as a rebellion against God, and takes on many aspects of nihilism. Anarchism is a political philosophy or group of philosophies and attitudes which reject any form of compulsory government[1] and support its elimination,[2] often because of a wider rejection of involuntary authority. ...
Ad hoc is a Latin phrase which means for this [purpose]. It generally signifies a solution that has been tailored to a specific purpose, such as a tailor-made suit, a handcrafted network protocol, and specific-purpose equation and things like that. ...
Nihilism (from the Latin nihil, nothing) is a philosophical position which argues that the world, especially past and current human existence, is without objective meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value. ...
Plot summary
In a surreal turn-of-the-century London, Gabriel Syme, a poet, is recruited to a secret anti-anarchist taskforce at Scotland Yard. Lucian Gregory, an anarchist poet, is the only poet in Saffron Park, until he loses his temper in an argument over the purpose of poetry with Gabriel Syme, who takes the opposite view. After some time, the frustrated Gregory finds Syme and leads him to a local anarchist meeting-place to prove that he is a true anarchist. Instead of the anarchist Gregory getting elected, the officer Syme uses his wits and is elected as the local representative to the worldwide Central Council of Anarchists. The Council consists of seven men, each using the name of a day of the week as a code name; Syme is given the name of Thursday. In his efforts to thwart the council's intentions, however, he discovers that five of the other six members are also undercover detectives; each was just as mysteriously employed and assigned to defeat the Council of Days. They all soon find out that they are fighting each other and not real anarchists; such was the mastermind plan of the genius Sunday. In a dizzying and surreal conclusion, the six champions of order and former anarchist ring-leaders chase down the disturbing and whimsical Sunday, the man who calls himself "The Peace of God". Fin de siècle is French for End of the Century. The term turn-of-the-century is sometimes used as a synonym, but is more neutral (lacking some or most of the connotations described below), and can include the first years of a new century. ...
This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...
New Scotland Yard, London New Scotland Yard, it blowwsssss often referred to simply as Scotland Yard or The Yard, is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service, responsible for policing Greater London (although not the City of London itself). ...
Anarchism is a political philosophy or group of philosophies and attitudes which reject any form of compulsory government[1] and support its elimination,[2] often because of a wider rejection of involuntary authority. ...
Details Like most of Chesterton's fiction, the story is heavy in Christian allegory. Chesterton, a devout Christian by this time (he joined the Roman Catholic church about 15 years later), suffered from depression for much of his life, and claimed afterwards that he wrote this book as an unusual affirmation that goodness and right were at the heart of every aspect of the world. He had hoped the book would serve as an encouragement to himself and to other members of his family who also had the tendency to become melancholic. Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box: A Christian () is a person who...
Clinical depression (also called major depressive disorder, or unipolar depression when compared to bipolar disorder) is a state of intense sadness, melancholia or despair that has advanced to the point of being disruptive to an individuals social functioning and/or activities of daily living. ...
On an interesting note the costumes that the anarchists/detectives don towards the end of the book represent what was created on their respective day. Sunday, 'the sabbath and the peace of God', sits upon a throne in front of them. His last words, 'can ye drink of the cup that I drink of?', is the question that Jesus asks James and John in The Gospel of Mark, chapter 10, vs 38-39, to challenge their commitment in becoming his disciples. The name of the girl Syme loves, Rosamund, is derived from 'Rosa Mundi', meaning 'Rose of the World' in Latin, and a title given to Christ. Chesterton would have meant this as a deliberate allusion. Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Wycliffe Tyndale · Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box: In Christianity, the Sabbath...
The Gospel of Mark is traditionally the second of the New Testament Gospels. ...
Gabriel Syme The character of Gabriel Syme, a man who wants to destroy Sunday because he is afraid of him and a 'man should leave nothing in the universe standing that he is afraid of', eventually finds that he embodies everything that he was fighting for. What Syme details about his upbringing is very much Chesterton's own upbringing, making him perhaps the most autobiographical of all of Chesterton's fictional characters.
Annotations Martin Gardner edited The Annotated Thursday which provides a great deal of biographical and contextual information in the form of footnotes, along with the entire text of the book, original reviews from the time of the book's first publication, and comments made by Chesterton on the book at various times. Originally published by Ignatius Press, the book is currently out of print. A less thorough annotation was done for the edition of the novel published as part of The Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton, also from Ignatius Press. Martin Gardner (b. ...
Ignatius Press was founded in 1978 by Father Joseph Fessio SJ, a Jesuit priest and former pupil of Pope Benedict XVI. Ignatius Press, named for Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit Order, is a Catholic publishing house headquartered in San Francisco, California. ...
Mercury Theatre adaptation On September 5 1938 the Mercury Theatre on the Air staged a somewhat abridged radio-play adaptation written by Orson Welles who was a great admirer of Chesterton. This was almost two months before the more famous War of the Worlds broadcast. The Mercury Theatre was a theatre company founded in New York City by Orson Welles and John Houseman. ...
This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ...
The War of the Worlds was an episode of the American radio drama anthology series Mercury Theatre on the Air. ...
Although it remained true to the book and is admired by most fans of Chesterton, its abridgements render it somewhat harder to understand, mostly because it omits some of the metaphysical and theological discussions and treats much of the whimsical and comedic asides rather too dramatically. Almost all of Chapter 14: The Six Philosophers is left out, in which the majority of the metaphysical speculation is found. Those who have not read the book might find the play somewhat baffling.
Notable Quotes
Gabriel Syme, the protagonist (Thursday) - "..no man should leave in the universe anything of which he is afraid." (Syme)
- "The rare, strange thing is to hit the mark; the gross, obvious thing is to miss it." (Syme)
- "Chaos is dull;" (Syme)
- "...what is there poetical about being in revolt? You might as well say that it is poetical to be seasick...Revolt in the abstract is — revolting. It's mere vomiting...It is things going right...that is poetical." (Syme)
- "...just at present you only see the tree by the light of the lamp. I wonder when you would ever see the lamp by the light of the tree." (Syme)
- "Always be comic in a tragedy. What the deuce else can you do?" (Gabriel Syme)
- "The moderns say we must not punish heretics. My only doubt is whether we have a right to punish anyone else." (Gabriel Syme)
- "Don't you see we've checkmated each other? I can't tell the police you are an anarchist. You can't tell the anarchists I am a policeman." (Syme)
The Police - "No one has any experience of the Battle of Armageddon." (The Police Chief)
- "Well, really, I don’t know of any profession of which mere willingness is the final test."
- "I do. Martyrs. I am sending you to your death. Good day." (Syme and the Police Chief, again)
- "We deny the snobbish English assumption that the uneducated are the dangerous criminals. We remember the Roman Emperors. We remember the great poisoning princes of the Renaissance. We say that the most dangerous criminal is the educated criminal. We say that the most dangerous criminal is the entirely lawless modern philosopher. Compared to him, burglars and bigamists are essentially moral people, and my heart goes out to them." (The Policeman)
Lucian Gregory, the anarchist - "The silly sentimentalists of the French Revolution talked about the Rights of Man! We hate rights and we hate wrongs. We have abolished right and wrong." (Lucian Gregory)
Wilks "de Worms" (Friday) - "Young man, I am amused to observe that you think I am a coward. As to that I shall say only one word, and it will be entirely in the manner of your own philosophical rhetoric. You think it is impossible to pull down the President. I know it is impossible, and I am going to try it." (Friday)
References Michael John Moorcock (born December 18, 1939, in London, England) is a prolific English writer primarily of science fiction and fantasy who has also published a number of literary novels. ...
Carroll & Graf Publishers is an imprint of Avalon Publishing Group specializing in history, biography, and fiction. ...
John [Frederick] Clute is a Canadian born author and critic who lives in Britain. ...
Cover Art. ...
Popular Culture - In the popular video game Deus Ex, one can read excerpts from the novel in books located in several areas of the game. Also in the game is a narcotic called "Syme".
This article is about the video game. ...
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