Father Brown

Father Brown is a fictional character created by English novelist G. K. Chesterton, who stars in 52 short stories, later compiled in five books. Chesterton based the character on Father John O'Connor (1870–1952), a parish priest in Bradford who was involved in Chesterton's conversion to Catholicism in 1922. The relationship was recorded by O'Connor in his 1937 book Father Brown on Chesterton.

Contents

Character

Father Brown is a short, stumpy Catholic priest, "formerly of Cobhole in Essex, and now working in London," with shapeless clothes and a large umbrella, and uncanny insight into human evil.

He makes his first appearance in the story "The Blue Cross" and continues through the five volumes of short stories, often assisted by the reformed criminal M.Hercule Flambeau. Father Brown also appears in a story "The Donnington Affair" that has a rather curious history. In the October 1914 issue of the obscure magazine The Premier, Sir Max Pemberton published the first part of the story, inviting a number of detective story writers, including Chesterton, to use their talents to solve the mystery of the murder described. Chesterton and Father Brown's solution followed in the November issue. The story was first reprinted in the Chesterton Review (Winter 1981, pp. 1–35) and in the book Thirteen Detectives.[1]

Unlike the more famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown's methods tend to be intuitive rather than deductive. He explains his method in 'The Secret of Father Brown':

"You see, I had murdered them all myself.... I had planned out each of the crimes very carefully. I had thought out exactly how a thing like that could be done, and in what style or state of mind a man could really do it. And when I was quite sure that I felt exactly like the murderer myself, of course I knew who he was."

Father Brown's abilities are also considerably shaped by his experience as a priest and confessor. In "The Blue Cross", when asked by Flambeau, who has been masquerading as a priest, how he knew of all sorts of criminal "horrors," he responds: "Has it never struck you that a man who does next to nothing but hear men's real sins is not likely to be wholly unaware of human evil?" He also states a reason why he knew Flambeau was not a priest: "You attacked reason. It's bad theology." And indeed, the stories normally contain a rational explanation of who the murderer was and how Brown worked it out.

Father Brown always emphasises rationality: some stories, such as "The Miracle of Moon Crescent", "The Oracle of the Dog", "The Blast of the Book" and "The Dagger With Wings", poke fun at initially skeptical characters who become convinced of a supernatural explanation for some strange occurrence, while Father Brown easily sees the perfectly ordinary, natural explanation. In fact, he seems to represent an ideal of a devout, yet considerably educated and "civilised" clergyman. This can be traced to the influence of neo-scholastic thought on Chesterton.

Father Brown is characteristically humble, and is usually rather quiet; when he does talk, he almost always says something profound. Although he tends to handle crimes with a steady, realistic approach, he believes in the supernatural as the greatest reason of all.

Interpretations and criticism

Father Brown was the perfect vehicle for conveying Chesterton's view of the world and, of all of his characters, is perhaps closest to Chesterton's own point of view, or at least the effect of his point of view. Father Brown solves his crimes through a strict reasoning process more concerned with spiritual and philosophic truths rather than scientific details, making him an almost equal counterbalance with Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, whose stories Chesterton read and admired. However, the Father Brown series commenced before Chesterton's own conversion to Catholicism.

Father Brown in other media

Reference to Father Brown

In Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited, a quote from the Father Brown story "The Queer Feet" is an important element of the structure and theme of the book. Father Brown speaks this line after catching a criminal, hearing his confession, and letting him go: "I caught him, with an unseen hook and an invisible line which is long enough to let him wander to the ends of the world, and still to bring him back with a twitch upon the thread." Book Two of Brideshead Revisited is called "A Twitch Upon the Thread," and the quote acts as a metaphor for the operation of grace in the characters' lives. They are free to wander the world according to their free will until they are ready and receptive to God's grace, at which point He acts in their lives and effects a conversion. In the miniseries made by Granada Television adapting Brideshead, the character Lady Marchmain (Claire Bloom) reads this passage aloud.

Compilation books

1. The Innocence of Father Brown (1911)

  1. The Blue Cross (as Valentin Follows a Curious Trail,The Saturday Evening Post, July 23;1910; The Story-Teller, September 1910)
  2. The Secret Garden (The Story-Teller, October 1910)
  3. The Queer Feet (The Story-Teller, November 1910)
  4. The Flying Stars (The Saturday Evening Post, May 20,1911)
  5. The Invisible Man (The Saturday Evening Post, January 28,1911)
  6. The Honour of Israel Gow(as The Strange Justice, The Saturday Evening Post, March 25, 1911)
  7. The Wrong Shape (The Saturday Evening Post, December 10,1910)
  8. The Sins of Prince Saradine (The Saturday Evening Post, April 22,1911)
  9. The Hammer of God (as The Bolt from the Blue, The Saturday Evening Post, November 5, 1910)
  10. The Eye of Apollo (The Saturday Evening Post, February 25,1911)
  11. The Sign of the Broken Sword (The Saturday Evening Post, January 7,1911)
  12. The Three Tools of Death (The Saturday Evening Post, June 24,1911)

2. The Wisdom of Father Brown (1914)

  1. The Absence of Mr Glass
  2. The Paradise of Thieves
  3. The Duel of Dr Hirsch
  4. The Man in the Passage
  5. The Mistake of the Machine
  6. The Head of Caesar
  7. The Purple Wig
  8. The Perishing of the Pendragons
  9. The God of the Gongs
  10. The Salad of Colonel Cray
  11. The Strange Crime of John Boulnois
  12. The Fairy Tale of Father Brown

3. The Incredulity of Father Brown (1926)

  1. The Resurrection of Father Brown
  2. The Arrow of Heaven
  3. The Oracle of the Dog
  4. The Miracle of Moon Crescent
  5. The Curse of the Golden Cross
  6. The Dagger with Wings
  7. The Doom of the Darnaways
  8. The Ghost of Gideon Wise

4.The Secret of Father Brown (1927)

(framing story) The Secret of Father Brown
  1. The Mirror of the Magistrate
  2. The Man With Two Beards
  3. The Song of the Flying Fish
  4. The Actor and the Alibi
  5. The Vanishing of Vaudrey
  6. The Worst Crime in the World
  7. The Red Moon of Meru
  8. The Chief Mourner of Marne
(framing story) The Secret of Flambeau

5. The Scandal of Father Brown (1935)

  1. The Scandal of Father Brown
  2. The Quick One
  3. The Blast of the Book
  4. The Green Man
  5. The Pursuit of Mr Blue
  6. The Crime of the Communist
  7. The Point of a Pin
  8. The Insoluble Problem

The Donnington Affair (1914, outside of compilations)

The Vampire of the Village (Strand Magazine, August 1936); included in later editions of "The Scandal of Father Brown"

The Mask of Midas (1936)

References

Citations

  1. ^ G.K.Chesterton. Smith, Marie. ed. Thirteen Detectives. London: Xanadu. ISBN 0-947761-23-3. 
  2. ^ Cox, Jim, Radio Crime Fighters, 2002, p. 9, McFarland, Jefferson, NC, ISBN 0786413905
  3. ^ Terrace, Vincent. Radio Programs, 1924-1984:A Catalog of Over 1800 Shows. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0351-9. 
  4. ^ How Father Brown Led Sir Alec Guinness to the Church
  5. ^ Sutcliffe, Tom (2000-08-07). "Sir Alec Guinness obituary". Guardian. http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Guardian/0,4029,351452,00.html. Retrieved 2007-02-28. 
  6. ^ Ignatius.com
  7. ^ Thewordinc.org
  8. ^ Chesterton.org
  9. ^ Booksoftheyearawards.com
  10. ^ EWTN.Com
  11. ^ IMDb.com
  12. ^ IMDb.com
  13. ^ IMDb.com

External links