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Download this text: Manalive
Customer Review: Sanity has broken out, and is spreading!
Sometimes we need a little madness just to know we're alive. That's the basic message of "Manalive," a delightfully strange mystery (of sorts), in which G.K. Chesterton demonstrates just why life is worth living -- and that a bit of craziness can be extremely beneficial.
A wind blows a new tenant into the dreary Beacon House -- Innocent Smith, an exuberant, eccentric and sweet-natured man who seems to be nuts. But Smith has a positive effect on the house -- he creates his own court, brings a few couples together, and falls in love with a paid companion next door. All seems to be well with the world.
Then the unexpected happens: Smith shoots at one of the tenants, and two doctors arrive to arrest him, claiming that he's a bigamist, an attempted murderer, and a thief. But cynical writer Moon insists that the case be tried there -- and they explore Smith's past history, revealing startling truths about what he does. Is he the wickedest man in Britain, or is he "blameless as a buttercup?"
You gotta love "Holy Fool" books, although Chesterton's take on it is sunnier than Dostoyevsky's or Cervantes'. Instead, "Manalive" focuses on a childlike, optimistic man who is far cleverer than anyone suspects, because he knows the value of living life, and how to keep it from ever getting dull.
The first half of the book is a bit predictable, but Chesterton throws an unprecedented twist into the plotline by having the "allegorical practical joker" turn out to be a fugitive. Then, it's half legal battle, half philosophical argument, in which which Chesterton points out the beauty of living life, and how nothing makes us appreciate it more than the nearness of death.
"With our weak spirits we should grow old in eternity if we were not kept young by death. Providence has to cut immortality into lengths for us," Smith explains.
But since this is by Chesterton, it's full of hilarious dialogue ("In the matter of his being a flamingo, my client reserves his defence"), and lushly detailed writing, where something as small as a man standing in a moonlit garden is given an ethereal eerieness.
And Innocent Smith is a bit of an enigma -- charismatic, innocent, weird, eccentric and lovable. Yet how can he have committed these crimes, and still live up to his name? He's surrounded by a bunch of people who have fallen into dullness or cynicism -- Irish reporters, timid doctors, heiresses -- but who show signs of the "sanity" as they spend time around him.
"Manalive" is a twisty, hilarious tale where nothing is as it seems -- but Chesterton also throws in some philosophical points about how great it is to live your life, and appreciate it. Definitely a good read.
Product Description
Manalive pits a group of disillusioned young people against Mr. Innocent Smith, a bubbly, high-spirited gentleman who literally falls into their midst. Accused of murder and denounced for repeatedly marrying his wife and attempting to live in various houses, Smith prompts his newfound acquaintances to recognize an important idea: that life is worth living.
Customer Review: Sanity has broken out, and is spreading
Sometimes we need a little madness just to know we're alive. That's the basic message of "Manalive," a delightfully strange mystery (of sorts), in which G.K. Chesterton demonstrates just why life is worth living -- and that a bit of craziness can be extremely beneficial.
A wind blows a new tenant into the dreary Beacon House -- Innocent Smith, an exuberant, eccentric and sweet-natured man who seems to be nuts. But Smith has a positive effect on the house -- he creates his own court, brings a few couples together, and falls in love with a paid companion next door. All seems to be well with the world.
Then the unexpected happens: Smith shoots at one of the tenants, and two doctors arrive to arrest him, claiming that he's a bigamist, an attempted murderer, and a thief. But cynical writer Moon insists that the case be tried there -- and they explore Smith's past history, revealing startling truths about what he does. Is he the wickedest man in Britain, or is he "blameless as a buttercup?"
You gotta love "Holy Fool" books, although Chesterton's take on it is sunnier than Dostoyevsky's or Cervantes'. Instead, "Manalive" focuses on a childlike, optimistic man who is far cleverer than anyone suspects, because he knows the value of living life, and how to keep it from ever getting dull.
The first half of the book is a bit predictable, but Chesterton throws an unprecedented twist into the plotline by having the "allegorical practical joker" turn out to be a fugitive. Then, it's half legal battle, half philosophical argument, in which which Chesterton points out the beauty of living life, and how nothing makes us appreciate it more than the nearness of death.
"With our weak spirits we should grow old in eternity if we were not kept young by death. Providence has to cut immortality into lengths for us," Smith explains.
But since this is by Chesterton, it's full of hilarious dialogue ("In the matter of his being a flamingo, my client reserves his defence"), and lushly detailed writing, where something as small as a man standing in a moonlit garden is given an ethereal eerieness.
And Innocent Smith is a bit of an enigma -- charismatic, innocent, weird, eccentric and lovable. Yet how can he have committed these crimes, and still live up to his name? He's surrounded by a bunch of people who have fallen into dullness or cynicism -- Irish reporters, timid doctors, heiresses -- but who show signs of the "sanity" as they spend time around him.
"Manalive" is a twisty, hilarious tale where nothing is as it seems -- but Chesterton also throws in some philosophical points about how great it is to live your life, and appreciate it. Definitely a good read.
Customer Review: Middling Chesterton
This is not Chesterton's best book. However, forgetting for a moment that it is Chesterton (a word which here means 'one of the greatest author ever to live'), this is a wonderful book.
Full of Chestertonian whimsy, humor and outlandish ideas, it is a charm from beginning to end.
You will probably appreciate this book more if you are a die-hard Chesterton fan, but you need not be to enjoy it.
If, however, this is the first Chesterton you have read, please do not stop at this one, but go on to read his others. This is an author you cannot miss.
Customer Review: Sanity has broken out, and is spreading
Sometimes we need a little madness just to know we're alive. That's the basic message of "Manalive," a delightfully strange mystery (of sorts), in which G.K. Chesterton demonstrates just why life is worth living -- and that a bit of craziness can be extremely beneficial.
A wind blows a new tenant into the dreary Beacon House -- Innocent Smith, an exuberant, eccentric and sweet-natured man who seems to be nuts. But Smith has a positive effect on the house -- he creates his own court, brings a few couples together, and falls in love with a paid companion next door. All seems to be well with the world.
Then the unexpected happens: Smith shoots at one of the tenants, and two doctors arrive to arrest him, claiming that he's a bigamist, an attempted murderer, and a thief. But cynical writer Moon insists that the case be tried there -- and they explore Smith's past history, revealing startling truths about what he does. Is he the wickedest man in Britain, or is he "blameless as a buttercup?"
You gotta love "Holy Fool" books, although Chesterton's take on it is sunnier than Dostoyevsky's or Cervantes'. Instead, "Manalive" focuses on a childlike, optimistic man who is far cleverer than anyone suspects, because he knows the value of living life, and how to keep it from ever getting dull.
The first half of the book is a bit predictable, but Chesterton throws an unprecedented twist into the plotline by having the "allegorical practical joker" turn out to be a fugitive. Then, it's half legal battle, half philosophical argument, in which which Chesterton points out the beauty of living life, and how nothing makes us appreciate it more than the nearness of death.
"With our weak spirits we should grow old in eternity if we were not kept young by death. Providence has to cut immortality into lengths for us," Smith explains.
But since this is by Chesterton, it's full of hilarious dialogue ("In the matter of his being a flamingo, my client reserves his defence"), and lushly detailed writing, where something as small as a man standing in a moonlit garden is given an ethereal eerieness.
And Innocent Smith is a bit of an enigma -- charismatic, innocent, weird, eccentric and lovable. Yet how can he have committed these crimes, and still live up to his name? He's surrounded by a bunch of people who have fallen into dullness or cynicism -- Irish reporters, timid doctors, heiresses -- but who show signs of the "sanity" as they spend time around him.
"Manalive" is a twisty, hilarious tale where nothing is as it seems -- but Chesterton also throws in some philosophical points about how great it is to live your life, and appreciate it. Definitely a good read.
Customer Review: funny and challenging
One of my favorite books--I have read it 3 times. The imagery is engaging and funny. The book encourages one to live life to the fullest.
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