The Man Who Was Thursday

The Man Who Was Thursday

Rating

9.0

The Pequod Review:

The Man Who Was Thursday, one of G.K. Chesterton’s most celebrated works, is effectively a political allegory told in the form of a detective novel. The story centers on Gabriel Syme, a poet who is hired by Scotland Yard to infiltrate a secret anarchist group led by a mysterious and omnipotent individual known as Sunday. I won’t spoil the plot, but suffice to say Syme succeeds beyond his wildest imagination. The story is great fun, as the plot twists in comic and absurd directions, and has some depth as it considers the effectiveness of social activism and the merits of anarchism more generally. While some of Chesterton’s characters are stand-ins for his political viewpoints rather than well-developed individuals, the book is well-structured, playful and witty.