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Customer Review: A Unique Chestertonian Gem
There's not another book out there like The Club of Queer Trades. It's a short collection of mysteries, all of which center around people who have unique jobs. Each story is original and clever and funny, totally unlike other mysteries you may have read. I particularly enjoyed the way in which the stories play as a counterpoint to the Sherlock Holmes stories. The incomparable Basil Grant solves these cases with his own otherworldly wisdom.
I couldn't escape the notion, either, that these stories weren't simply entertainments. There are brief moments of pure poetry where it seems that Chesterton is more concerned with writing a parable than with writing a mystery. Or, perhaps, he's just suggesting another sort of mystery. Anyway, this was a great read for so many reasons. It's a can't miss for Chesterton fans.
Customer Review: Awful Disappointment for Chesterton Fans
These six stories are completely missable for fans of the "Father Brown" tales. The "detective" here is Basil Grant, and he's omniscient and uninteresting-- he has no detecting to do since he just seems to "know" what's going on long before his dopy pals Rupert and Charles Swinburne.
I'm a big fan of the Holmes and Raffles and Thinking Machine stories, as well as all of the Father Browns. But these clunkers have no place in any canon of Victorian or post-Victorian detective/crime fiction.
Give this a miss.
Customer Review: Join the club
G.K. Chesterton always had a knack for making ominous situations that turned out to be... pretty normal. And that's what "The Club of Queer Trades" is all about, a string of Sherlock-Holmes-style mysteries that spoof the elaborate deduction process. And show readers some of the bizarrest jobs Chesterton could think of.
The book introduces us to Basil Grant, a judge who came to realize that law and justice aren't the same thing, and who ended up giving sentences like "Get a soul" before leaving the courtroom. Then his detective brother Rupert introduces him to Major Brown, an army officer who suspects that his neighbor is plotting to kill him. It isn't too surprising, since there are pansies spelling out "Death to Major Brown."
But with his deductive processes, Basil reveals the bizarre truth behind the Major's problem: an adventure company which is part of the Club of Queer Trades, a "society consisting exclusively of people who have invented some new and curious way of making money."
Throughout the stories, he, Rupert and the narrator encounter other people who have found weird ways of making a living: an ex-lieutenant who seems to be telling tall tales, the "the wickedest man in England," an Essex vicar who was kidnapped by men disguised as old ladies, a dancing professor who has apparently lost his mind, and finally a lady being imprisoned in a basement who flat out refuses to leave -- and it may have something to do withBbasil.
Only the guy behind "The Man Who Was Thursday" could pull off a book like "The Club of Queer Trades," or a concept like the club itself. And as an added humorous twist, this book is apparently meant as a sort of spoof to the Sherlock Holmes mysteries -- Rupert is sort of Holmesian in his elaborate deductions, but he never gets it right.
These are some of Chesterton's frothier stories, but he still peppers his stories with little moral and philosophical moments ("they have not merely no notion, they have an elaborately false notion of what the words mean"), but never enough to bog down the light banter and funny action scenes. And there are moments of Chesterton's prose that are pure poetry ("... a mystic, elvish, nocturnal hunting").
Basil himself is a bit of a know-it-all, but at least he's a funny, slightly offbeat one, and perfectly at ease with talking to a tied-up criminal about Darwinism. His brother Rupert introduces himself as being a detective, but gets more and more upset as the book goes on, until he desperately grasps at the idea of a villainous milkman giving "secret signs."
"The Club of Queer Trades" is a deliciously quirky little book, and leaves readers wishing that they could hear a few more tales of these wonky jobs. Definitely worth employing.
Customer Review: Clever and Entertaining
This is a nice collection of stories, all well done in Chesterton's infectious style. There are little bits of social dogma stuffed into the margins, but the stories are primarily amusements.
One odd note - this edition of the book contains some very strange artifacts - noticably occasions where the word "die" is substituted for the word "the". Almost as if it were translated from German and somebody missed a few articles. There were several other instances, which I've forgotten, but the number of errors in the text is surprising. The binding is also not vey sturdy - it's pretty clear that this Elibron Classics edition has been rapidly put together and not intended to last through more than one or two readings.
Product Description
6 whimsical short stories by brilliant, witty, English author, poet and critic. Improbable plots, marvelously funny episodes, evocative descriptions of late Victorian London distinguish delightful tales focusing on a club devoted to completely original and unusual professions. First republication to include all 32 of Chesterton's own original illustrations.
Customer Review: Funny and quick romp, though not his best.
G.K. is witty, and even his weaker works will still make you laugh out loud. This book is no different, a parody of the classic Sherlock Holmes type deductive reasoning. They are really several sub-stories that all merge together for a fitting conclusion, involving the queerest trade of them all. A lot of G.K.'s familiar themes are here, such as emphasis on atmosphere as opposed to details, and how things seemingly ridiculous not only make sense, but are actually necessary. Probably not the best place to start with his works, but if you're a fan these short stories will not disappoint.
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