dmbrown320's review against another edition
Couldn’t load audiobook in hoopla, would like to return to at some point
allisonjpmiller's review against another edition
4.0
My first of Chesterton's fiction, and it will not be the last. (Already have Manalive lined up next.) Not what I expected - I guess I anticipated that his fiction would be heavy on the philosophy and lighter on the traditional elements of a novel: dialogue, character, description, etc. But I was wrong! Shouldn't I know better than to underestimate Chesterton by now?
Effortless passages, read closely, almost startled me with their visual clarity and vibrancy. The characters are defined by their quirks as much as their worldviews, and the dialogue! For being almost a hundred years old it is whip-smart, funny, and incredibly relevant.
As usual, Chesterton cuts to the quick of who we are, and where we've gone wrong.
Effortless passages, read closely, almost startled me with their visual clarity and vibrancy. The characters are defined by their quirks as much as their worldviews, and the dialogue! For being almost a hundred years old it is whip-smart, funny, and incredibly relevant.
As usual, Chesterton cuts to the quick of who we are, and where we've gone wrong.
spopovic's review against another edition
3.0
Written in 1904. Crazy story around the infiltration of an anarchist organization by a police officer. Good suspense. Some interesting philosophical thoughts throughout the book. Some tasty dialogues too. The ending is quite lame though...
foolishphilosopher's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
knicassio's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
lemmi_schmoeker's review against another edition
4.0
A very strange tale that turns from a crime story to a farce to an expressionist play to a Christian-philosophical treatise. It somehow manages to stay perfectly coherent throughout, with the unbelievable end scene a quite logical last step in a sequence of ever more outrageous scenes. Still, it leaves a somewhat sad feeling to see the fun and whimsy of the first half be pushed aside by the more serious and self-important realisations of the second, and the final impression is of a lecture received after setting out for a light distraction.
eyeofthewind's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25