The Man Who Was Thursday

A Nightmare

G. K. Chesterton, G. K. Chesterton

• Publisher: Start Publishing LLC
• Year: 2013
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9781625586681
• Subtopic: Classics
• Index: Literature

In The Man Who Was Thursday we are transported to a surreal turn-of-the-century London. Gabriel Syme, a poet, is recruited to a secret anti-anarchist taskforce at Scotland Yard. Lucian Gregory, an anarchist poet, is the only poet in Saffron Park, until he loses his temper in an argument over the purpose of poetry with Gabriel Syme, who takes the opposite view. After some time, the frustrated Gregory finds Syme and leads him to a local anarchist meeting-place to prove that he is a true anarchist. Instead of the anarchist Gregory getting elected, the officer Syme uses his wits and is elected as the local representative to the worldwide Central Council of Anarchists. The Council consists of seven men, each using the name of a day of the week as a code name; Syme is given the name of Thursday. In his efforts to thwart the council's intentions, however, he discovers that five of the other six members are also undercover detectives; each was just as mysteriously employed and assigned to defeat the Council of Days. They all soon find out that they are fighting each other and not a real anarchists; such was the mastermind plan of the genius Sunday. In a dizzying and surreal conclusion, the six champions of order and former anarchist ring-leaders must chase down the disturbing and whimsical Sunday, the man who calls himself "The Peace of God."

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• The Two Poets of Saffron Park
• The Secret of Gabriel Syme
• The Man Who Was Thursday
• The Tale of a Detective
• The Feast of Fear
• The Exposure
• The Unaccountable Conduct of Professor De Worms
• The Professor Explains
• The Man in Spectacles
• The Duel
• The Criminals Chase the Police
• The Earth in Anarchy
• The Pursuit of the President
• The Six Philosophers
• The Accuser