History Creator / GKChesterton

* INeverSaidItWasPoison: In "The Unmentionable Man," Mr. Pond's acquaintance Marcus, a minor French government employee, guesses that M. Louis must be a master blackmailer, since he saw an aristocratic woman beseech him late at night. Pond, in turn, surmises that M. Louis should be deported because he is a blackmailer...and yet cannot be deported, because he is a blackmailer (or rather, because of ''who'' he is blackmailing). Marcus snaps that the Prime Minister is an honest man, despite Mr. Pond saying nothing to the contrary. In short order, Marcus breaks down and admits that much of the government is corrupt, including, to his disgust, the Interior Minister, who's responsible for enforcing the laws in the first place.

Chesterton had a great influence on many writers, especially in the early twentieth century. He was for many years president of The Detection Club, an organization for writers of MysteryFiction (the oath of which, devised by GKC, demanded that members write only [[FairPlayWhodunnit Fair Play Whodunnits]]); such writers as Creator/AgathaChristie, Fr. Ronald Knox, and Creator/DorothyLSayers were co-members. Chesterton's fellow Roman Catholics Creator/HilaireBelloc ([[{{HeterosexualLifePartners}} Chesterton and Belloc]] were collectively nicknamed the [[{{PortmanteauCoupleName}} Chesterbelloc]] by Chesterton's "friendly enemy" Creator/GeorgeBernardShaw) and Creator/JRRTolkien were admirers, and GKC's apologetic writings (especially ''Orthodoxy'' and ''The Everlasting Man'') helped inspire Creator/CSLewis to convert to Christianity.

Unfortunately, Chesterton's writings also reveal him as [[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2014/11/19/g-k-chesterton-and-the-machinery-of-bigotry/ something of an anti-Semite]], although to what extent and in what contexts is hotly debated. As with [[ValuesDissonance many European intellectuals of his day]], his distrust of the Jewish minority and their supposedly disproportionate influence on the continent--in particular, his repeated suggestion that they dress in distinctive 'Arab' clothing in order to stand out more clearly as 'foreigners'--reads as a lot less excusable post-[[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Final Solution]]. On the other hand, he never believed in racial theory (to him religion, not race, was the primary defining factor), was vigorously denouncing the immorality of [[TheSocialDarwinist eugenics]] as far back as 1922-- [[FairForItsDay well ahead of the curve]]-- with his book ''[[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Eugenics_and_other_Evils Eugenics and Other Evils]]'' among others, and he deeply disliked the race-baiting demagoguery of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler.[[note]]Chesterton died shortly after the Nazis took power in Germany.[[/note]] He also had sympathies with the Zionist movement, arguing that the so-called "Jewish problem" would be solved if the Jewish people had [[UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} their own nation]]. And he actually believed Jews as a group to be superior to Christians in many regards, recognizing that it was their oppression by the latter that drove them to commercial activities he deemed dishonorable. In short, it's not totally cut-and-dried.

GKC has received many homages and pastiches in fiction. Golden Age mystery author Creator/JohnDicksonCarr was such a strong admirer that he modeled his most famous character, Dr. Gideon Fell, on Chesterton's appearance. More recently, Creator/NeilGaiman modeled a character in ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'' after him, got his inspiration for [[Literature/{{Neverwhere}} London Below]] from ''Literature/TheNapoleonOfNottingHill'' (as he relates [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatlife/6915542/Neil-Gaiman-introduces-Neverwhere.html here]]), and Gaiman and Creator/TerryPratchett dedicated ''Literature/GoodOmens'' "To G.K. Chesterton: A Man Who Knew What Was Going On." He is also a star in the steampunk Christian series ''Literature/YoungChestertonChronicles''.

GKC has received many homages and pastiches in fiction. Golden Age mystery author Creator/JohnDicksonCarr was such a strong admirer that he modeled his most famous character, Dr. Gideon Fell, on Chesterton's appearance. More recently, Creator/NeilGaiman modeled a character in ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'' after him, got his inspiration for [[Literature/{{Neverwhere}} London Below]] from ''The Napoleon of Notting Hill'' (as he relates [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatlife/6915542/Neil-Gaiman-introduces-Neverwhere.html here]]), and Gaiman and Creator/TerryPratchett dedicated ''Literature/GoodOmens'' "To G.K. Chesterton: A Man Who Knew What Was Going On." He is also a star in the steampunk Christian series ''Literature/YoungChestertonChronicles''.

Chesterton had a great influence on many writers, especially in the early twentieth century. He was for many years president of The Detection Club, an organization for writers of MysteryFiction (the oath of which, devised by GKC, demanded that members write only [[FairPlayWhodunnit Fair Play Whodunnits]]); such writers as Creator/AgathaChristie, Fr. Ronald Knox, and Creator/DorothyLSayers were co-members. Chesterton's fellow Roman Catholics Hilaire Belloc ([[{{HeterosexualLifePartners}} Chesterton and Belloc]] were collectively nicknamed the [[{{PortmanteauCoupleName}} Chesterbelloc]] by Chesterton's "friendly enemy" Creator/GeorgeBernardShaw) and Creator/JRRTolkien were admirers, and GKC's apologetic writings (especially ''Orthodoxy'' and ''The Everlasting Man'') helped inspire Creator/CSLewis to convert to Christianity.

* CorruptChurch: Chesterton was aware that the Christian faith had its share of bad Christians, and he makes this remark in his article "Superstition and Modern Justice", echoing Creator/GiovanniBocaccio:

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: In ''Literature/TheBalladOfTheWhiteHorse,'' UsefulNotes/AlfredTheGreat and Guthrum; in his play, ''The Judgement of Dr. Johnson'', Dr. Creator/SamuelJohnson, John Boswell, Edmund Burke, ''etc.''

-->I also remember that it was we who invented the well-known and widespread national game of Gype. All sorts of variations and complications were invented in connection with Gype. There was Land Gype and Water Gype. I myself cut out and coloured pieces of cardboard of mysterious and significant shapes, the instruments of Table Gype; a game for the little ones. It was even duly settled what disease threatened the over-assiduous player; he tended to suffer from Gype's Ear. My friends and I introduced allusions to the fashionable sport in our articles; Bentley successfully passed one through the Daily News and I through some other paper. Everything was in order and going forward; except the game itself, which has not yet been invented.

* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: A character with red hair is ''almost'' always Good in Chesterton. Less frequently, blond hair is evil -- especially if the blondness looks somehow artificial ("gilded"). This may have something to do with the fact that [[AuthorAppeal Chesterton's beloved wife was a redhead]]. There are exceptions, however:

* DeadpanSnarker: During the UsefulNotes/FirstWorldWar: "Mr. Chesterton, why aren't you out at the front?" "Madam, if you go around to the side, you will see that I am." (in reference to his weight). Many of Chesterton's characters share this trait.

* WaterTowerDown: Threatened in ''The Napoleon of Notting Hill''

--> ''Cervantes on his galley sets the sword back in the sheath''
--> (Don John of Austria rides homeward with a wreath.)
--> ''And he sees across a weary land a straggling road in Spain,''
--> ''[[Literature/DonQuixote Up which a lean and foolish knight forever rides in vain,]]''
--> ''And he smiles, but not as Sultans smile, and settles back the blade....''
--> (But Don John of Austria rides home from the Crusade.)

* HeelRealization: He came to realize how sinful racism is and apparently repented.

* LiteralistSnarking: Chesterton once acquired a copy of ''Platitudes in the Making'' by a Holbrook Jackson and wrote down his responses in green. One of his responses is as follows:
-->'''Jackson:''' The future will look upon man as we look upon the ichthyosaurus—as an extinct monster.
-->'''Chesterton:''' The "future" won't look upon anything. No eyes.

* MeaningfulName: In ''The Flying Inn'', there's a chemist by the name of Crooke, who assists his customers in getting round prohibition legislation by selling alcohol as medicine.