G.K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday is a thrilling novel of
deception, subterfuge, double-crossing and secret identities, and this
Penguin Classics edition is edited with an introduction by Matthew
Beaumont. The Central Anarchist Council is a secret society sworn to
destroy the world.
The council is governed by seven men, who
hide their identities behind the names of the days of the week. Yet one
of their number - Thursday - is not the revolutionary he claims to be,
but a Scotland Yard detective named Gabriel Syme, sworn to infiltrate
the organisation and bring the architects of chaos to justice. But when
he discovers another undercover policeman on the Council, Syme begins to
question his role in their operations.
And as a desperate chase
across Europe begins, his confusion grows, as well as his confidence in
his ability to outwit his enemies, unravelling the mysteries of human
behaviour and belief in a thrilling contest of wits. But he has still to
face the greatest terror that the Council has: a man named Sunday,
whose true nature is worse than Syme could ever have imagined ... In
his introduction, Matthew Beaumont examines the book's themes of
identity and confrontation, and explores its intriguing title.
This edition also contains a chronology, notes and suggested further
reading. G.K. Chesterton (1874-1938) attended the Slade School of Art,
where he appears to have suffered a nervous breakdown, before turning
his hand to journalism.
A prolific writer throughout his life,
his best-known books include The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904), The
Man Who Knew Too Much (1922) and the Father Brown stories. Chesterton
converted to Roman Catholicism in 1922 and died in 1938. If you enjoyed
The Man Who Was Thursday, you might enjoy Joseph Conrad's The Secret
Agent, also available in Penguin Classics.
'The most thrilling book I have ever read'Kingsley Amis, author of Lucky Jim
The Man Who Was Thursday - G K Chesterton
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