|
|
Encyclopedia entry: Chesterton, G. K.
- Article from:
- The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature
- Author:
Copyright© The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature 2003, originally published by Oxford University Press 2003. (Hide copyright information)
|
Chesterton, G. K. (
Gilbert Keith Chesterton
)
(1874–1936), made his name in journalism writing (with
Belloc
) for the
Speaker
, in which both took a controversial, anti-Imperial, pro-Boer line on the Boer war; his friendship with Belloc earned them from G. B.
Shaw
, the twin nickname of ‘Chesterbelloc’. His first novel,
The Napoleon of Notting Hill
(1904), a fantasy set in a future in which London is plunged into a strange mixture of medieval nostalgia and street warfare, develops his political attitudes, glorifying the little man, the colour and romance of ‘Merry England’, and attacking big business, technology, and the monolithic state. These themes ...