Tremendous Trifles

G. K. Chesterton

• Publisher: Aeterna Classics
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9783963765674
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Classics
• Index: Literature

Reflections on life that are hilarious, touching, and sometimes even terrifying. Trifles? No. Chesterton goes deep even when he seems to have a light touch. Laugh at "What I Found in My Pocket" and "On Lying in Bed", meditate on "A Piece of Chalk" and warm up to "The Dragon's Grandmother" and shiver at "The Diabolist."

 

 

 

 

TREMENDOUS TRIFLES

 

by G.K. Chesterton

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Published by Aeterna Classics 2018

 

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

I. Tremendous Trifles

II. A Piece of Chalk

III. The Secret of a Train

IV. The Perfect Game

V. The Extraordinary Cabman

VI. An Accident

VII. The Advantages of Having One Leg

VIII. The End of the World

IX. In the Place de La Bastille

X. On Lying in Bed

XI. The Twelve Men

XII. The Wind and the Trees

XIII. The Dickensian

XIV. In Topsy-Turvy Land

XV. What I Found in My Pocket

XVI. The Dragon’s Grandmother

XVII. The Red Angel

XVIII. The Tower

XIX. How I Met the President

XX. The Giant

XXI. A Great Man

XXII. The Orthodox Barber

XXIII. The Toy Theatre

XXIV. A Tragedy of Twopence

XXV. A Cab Ride Across Country

XXVI. The Two Noises

XXVII. Some Policemen and a Moral

XXVIII. The Lion

XXIX. Humanity: an Interlude

XXX. The Little Birds Who Won’t Sing

XXXI. The Riddle of the Ivy

XXXII. The Travellers in State

XXXIII. The Prehistoric Railway Station

XXXIV. The Diabolist

XXXV. A Glimpse of My Country

XXXVI. A Somewhat Improbable Story

XXXVII. The Shop Of Ghosts

XXXVIII. The Ballade of a Strange Town

XXXIX. The Mystery of a Pageant

 

 

I. Tremendous Trifles

Once upon a time there were two little boys who lived chiefly in the front garden, because their villa was a model one. The front garden was about the same size as the dinner table; it consisted of four strips of gravel, a square of turf with some mysterious pieces of cork standing up in the middle and one flower bed with a row of red daisies. One morning while they were at play in these romantic grounds, a passing individual, probably the milkman, leaned over the railing and engaged them in philosophical conversation. The boys, whom we will call Paul and Peter, were at least sharply interested in his remarks. For the milkman (who was, I need say, a fairy) did his duty in that state of life by offering them in the regulation manner anything that they chose to ask for. And Paul closed with the offer with a business-like abruptness, explaining that he had long wished to be a giant that he might stride across continents and oceans and visit Niagara or the Himalayas in an afternoon dinner stroll. The milkman producing a wand from his breast pocket, waved it in a hurried and perfun...