G. K. Chesterton's Works on the Web

My aim is to provide a single source for all of Chesterton's works which are available as etexts. The main Chesterton page is here.

If you have any other Chesterton works please email them to me at the address: martin@gkc.org.uk. Also, if you spot any mistakes, typos etc. in any file, then let me know about them.

All the files are available in plain ASCII text format, and many are also available in HTML. The larger files are also available as zip archive files. Zip is a multi-platform archiving and compression program, see http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/UnZip.html for more information.

Wondering where to start? Click here for some suggestions!

See the main page for works about G. K. Chesterton, photographs, audio files, and links to other sites.

Mirrors

• http://www.gkc.org.uk/gkc/books/
• http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/books/

Contents

• Non-Fiction Books
• Fiction
• Essays
• Poems
• Introductions
• Bibliographies
• Quotes

Non-Fiction Books

• Heretics (1905) -- text (374K) -- zipfile (139K) -- html (420K)
• Orthodoxy (1909) -- text (367K) -- zipfile (139K) -- html (372K) -- LibriVox audio book -- Speech synthesizer reading from www.freechristianaudiobooks.com
• What's Wrong With the World (1910) -- html (344K) -- html (Project Gutenberg) (375K) -- text (344K) -- zipfile (132K) -- LibriVox audio book
• The Everlasting Man (1925) -- html (600K) -- text (600K) -- zipfile (220K) -- PDF (1,013K) (C.S.Lewis listed The Everlasting Man among the 10 books which did most to shape his philosphy of life).
• St. Thomas Aquinas (1933) -- html (295K) -- text (295K) -- zipfile (109K)
• Do We Agree? A debate between G. K. Chesterton and Bernard Shaw (1928) -- text (47K) -- zipfile (18K)
• The Catholic Church and Conversion (1926) -- text (137K) -- zipfile (51K)
• Charles Dickens, Part I (1906) -- html (199K) -- text (195K) -- zipfile (75K) -- LibriVox audio book
• Charles Dickens, Part II (1906) -- html (189K) -- text (185K) -- zipfile (70K)
• Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens, Part I (1911) -- html (244K) -- text (240K) -- zipfile (90K)
• Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens, Part II (1911) -- html (187K) -- text (184K) -- zipfile (68K)
• Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens (1911). Project Gutenberg edition. -- html (187K) -- text (184K) -- zipfile (68K)
• The Superstition of Divorce (1920) -- text (135K) -- zipfile (51K)
• A Miscellany of Men (1912) -- html (328K) -- text (293K) -- zipfile (116K)
• Utopia of Usurers and other Essays (1917) -- text (195K) -- zipfile (77K)
• A Short History of England (1917) -- text (345K) -- zipfile (132K)
• Eugenics and other Evils (1922) -- html (270K) -- alternate html (270K) -- text (264K) -- zipfile (102K)
• The Well and the Shallows (1935) -- text (401K) -- zipfile (154K)
• The Thing (1929) -- text (426K) -- zipfile (161K)
• Alarms And Discursions (1911) -- text (273K) -- zipfile (111K)
• All Things Considered (1908) -- html (364K) -- text (352K) -- zipfile (132K)
• The New Jerusalem (1920) -- text (505K) -- zipfile (190K)
• The Common Man (1950) -- text (482K) -- zipfile (184K)
• The Outline of Sanity (1927) -- text (339K) -- zipfile (127K)
• Tremendous Trifles (1909) -- html (346K) -- text (300K) -- zip (119K)
• The Spice of Life and Other Essays (1964) -- html (503K) -- text (288K) -- zipfile (112K)
• The Defendant (1901) -- html (188K) -- text (174K) -- zipfile (69K)
• Robert Browning (1903) -- html (410K) -- text (369K) -- zipfile (142K)
• Autobiography (1936) -- text (634K) -- zipfile (247K)
• St Francis (1923) -- html (244K) -- text (243K) -- zipfile (91K)
• The Victorian Age in Literature (1913) -- html (305K) -- text (267K) -- zipfile (105K)
• Robert Louis Stevenson (1927) -- text (239K) -- zip (93K)
• George Bernard Shaw (1910) -- text (287K) -- zip (111K)
• The Apostle and the Wild Ducks (collected 1975) -- text (327K) -- zip (128K)
• The Crimes of England (1916) -- text (200K) -- zip (78K) -- html (183K)
• The Appetite of Tyranny, Including Letters to an Old Garibaldian (1915) -- text (126K) -- zip (48K)
• Varied Types (1905) -- text (247K) -- zip (95K)
• William Cobbett (1925) -- text (260K) -- zip (99K) -- pdf (630K)
• All I Survey (1933) -- text (349K) -- zip (134K)
• Fancies Versis Fads (1923) -- text (368K) -- zip (141K)
• Twelve Types (1903) -- text (174K) -- zip (67K)
• Irish Impressions (1919) -- text (225K) -- zip (86K)
• As I Was Saying (1936) -- text (308K) -- zip (118K)
• Lord Kitchener (1917) -- html (76K) -- txt (70K) -- zip (27K)
• What I Saw In America (1922) -- html (571K) -- txt (539K) -- zip (201K)
• Come to Think (1930) -- html (392K) -- txt (364K) -- zip (139K)
• All is Grist (1931) -- html (350K) -- txt (325K) -- zip (124K)

Fiction

• The Club of Queer Trades (1905) -- html (268K) -- html (Project Gutenberg) (268K) -- text (252K) -- zipfile (97K)
• Tales of the Long Bow (1925) -- text (345K) -- zipfile (135K)
• Manalive (1912) -- html (398K) -- text (334K) -- zipfile (133K)
• The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) -- text (442K) -- zipfile (175K) -- html (464K) -- LibriVox audio book
• The Wisdom of Father Brown (1914) -- text (419K) -- zipfile (164K) -- html (424K) -- LibriVox audio book
• The Oracle of the Dog (1927?) -- html (50K)
• The Man Who Was Thursday (1908) -- html (366K) -- text (331K) -- pdf (357K) -- zipfile (128K) -- LibriVox audio book -- Speech synthesizer reading from www.freeclassicaudiobooks.com
• Afterword to The Man Who Was Thursday -- text (3K)
• Mercury Theatre Dramatisation of The Man Who Was Thursday by Orson Welles (27MB MP3 file).
• How I Found the Superman (Daily News 1909) -- text (7K) -- html (8K)
• The Shop Of Ghosts (First appeared in London's Daily News and later collected into the book of essays Tremendous Trifles (1909)) -- text (9K) -- html (10K)
• The Man Who Knew Too Much (1922) -- text (329K) -- zipfile (126K) -- html (353K) -- LibriVox audio book
• The Trees of Pride (1922) -- html (165K) -- text (137K) -- zipfile (54K)
• Telegraph Poles -- text (8K) -- html (8K)
• For Lovers Only excerpt from The Poet and the Lunatics, Episodes in the Life of Gabriel Gale (1929) -- html (3K) -- text (2K)
• The Ball and the Cross (1909) -- html (492K) -- text (436K) -- zip (169K)
• The Incredulity of Father Brown (1926) -- text (393K) -- zip (151K)
• The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond (1937) -- text (305K) -- zip (119K) -- html (310K)
• The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904) -- text (308K) -- zip (121K)
• The Flying Inn (1914) -- text (498K) -- zip (201K)
• The Complete Father Brown (1911 - 1935) -- html (2,203K) -- zip (871K)
• The Return of Don Quixote (1926) -- text (409K) -- zip (159K)
• Magic: A Fantastic Comedy In a Prelude and Three Acts (1913) -- DjVu (2,150K) -- text (93K) -- zip (35K)
• The Poet and the Lunatics Episodes in the life of Gabriel Gale (1929) -- html (383K) -- text (360K) -- zip (140K)
• Four Faultless Felons (1930) -- html (412K) -- text (400K) -- zip (156K)
• Magic A Fantastic Comedy (1909) -- text (108K) -- zip (40K) -- html (142K)
• The Sword of Wood (1928) -- html (28K) -- text (27K) -- zip (12K)
• The Disadvantage of Having Two Heads Written and illustrated by G.K.Chesterton -- pdf (24K)
• The Turkey and the Turk A pastiche of the traditional Christmas mummers' play.
• Wine, Water, and Song (1915). A collection of songs are taken from The Flying Inn with the exception of The Good Rich Man and The Song of the Strange Ascetic, which originally appeared in The New Witness. -- html (70K) -- zipped html (46K) -- text (44K) -- zipped text (17K)
• The Ballad of St. Barbara and Other Verses (1922) -- html (138K) -- text (81K) -- zipped text (30K)

Essays

• The Case for the Ephemeral (From All Things Considered (1908)) -- text (10K) -- html (10K)
• Cockneys and their Jokes (From All Things Considered (1909)) -- text (13K) -- html (13K)
• On American Morals (From Generally Speaking, pp 222-229, Dodd, Mead (1929)) -- text (10K) -- html (11K)
• The God in the Cave (From The Everlasting Man (1925)) -- text (10K) -- html (11K)
• The Extraordinary Cabman (From London's Daily News and Tremendous Trifles (1909)) -- text (8K) -- html (9K)
• On Turnpikes and Medievalism (From All I Survey (1933)) -- text (8K) -- html (8K)
• A Defence of Rash Vows (An abridged version of a chapter in Chesterton's book The Defendant (1901)) -- text (9K) -- html (9K) -- mp3 (3.7MB) read by Chris Lansdown
• Child Psychology and Nonsense (This essay first appeared in the Illustrated London News on October 15, 1921) -- text (7K) -- html (7K)
• Philosophy for the Schoolroom -- text (5K) -- html (5K)
• The Pun (From The Daily News, 1911, reprinted in Lunacy and Letters 1958) -- text (7K) -- html (7K)
• Government and the Rights of Man (Illustrated London News, July 30, 1921) -- text (5K) -- html (6K)
• Concerning a Strange City (From The Common Man (1950), originally in The New Witness 25th November, 1925) -- text (4K) -- html (5K)
• Negative and Positive Morality (From the Illustrated London News January 3, 1920) -- text (4K) -- html (5K)
• Logic and Lawn Tennis (An essay reprinted in The Thing (1929)) -- text (9K) -- html (10K)
• Democracy and Industrialism (From All I Survey (1933). The original essay appeared as a column in the Illustrated London News, July 16th 1932) -- text (7K) -- html (8K)
• Christmas and the First Games (From The Coloured Lands (1938)) -- text (9K) -- html (10K)
• The Ideal of a Leisure State (From the Illustrated London News March 21, 1925) -- text (9K) -- html (10K)
• The Equality of Sexlessness (From GK's Weekly, July 26, 1930) -- text (4K) -- html (5K)
• On Mending and Ending Things (From the Illustrated London News, December 23, 1905) -- text (4K) -- html (5K)
• The Fallacy of Success (Excerpted from All Things considered (1909)) -- text (12K) -- html (13K)
• Cheese (Published in Alarms and Discursions (1910)( -- text (6K) -- html (7K)
• A Piece of Chalk -- text (8K) -- html (9K)
• The Great Shipwreck as Analogy (From the Illustrated London News May 11, 1912) -- text (7K) -- html (8K)
• The Runaway Abbot -- text (13K) -- html (13K)
• Asparagus, New Witness 18th June 1914 -- text (6K) -- html (7K)
• Dickens (Encyclopaedia Britannica article by G.K.C) -- text (50K) -- zip (20K)
• Leo Tolstoy (1903) by G.K. Chesterton, G.H. Perris and Edward Garnett -- text (37K) -- html (37K)
• Introduction to the Book of Job -- text (21K) -- html (22K)
• The Diabolist (From Tremendous Trifles (1909)) -- text (9K) -- html (10K)
• Dogs (Excerpted from a Daily News article, later collected as "On Keeping a Dog" in Lunacy and Letters (1958)) -- text (4K) -- html (5K)
• On Gargoyles (From Alarms and Discursions (1910)) -- text (8K) -- html (9K)
• A Defence of Penny Dreadfuls -- text (11K) -- html (12K) -- Russian translation (or so I am told!)
• The Methuselahite -- text (5K) -- html (6K)
• Skepticism and Spiritualism (From an essay which originally appeared in the Illustrated London News, April 14, 1906) -- text (7K) -- html (8K)
• The Nightmare (Originally appeared in the The Daily News, October 16, 1909) -- text (8K) -- html (8K)
• Upon This Rock -- text (19K) -- html (18K) -- pdf (103K)
• What is America? (From What I Saw in America, 1922) -- text (19K) -- html (20K)
• A Somewhat Improbable Story excert from Tremendous Trifles (1909) -- html (11K) -- text (10K)
• The Twelve Men excert from Tremendous Trifles (1909) -- text (7K) -- html (8K)
• French and English -- text (9K) -- html (10K)
• Divorce versus Democracy -- text (22K) -- html (23K)
• Social Reform versus Birth Control -- text (17K) -- html (17K)
• Anti-Religious Thought In The Eighteenth Century (1926) -- text (16K) -- html (17K)
• On Lying In Bed excert from Tremendous Trifles (1909) -- text (7K) -- html (8K)
• What is Right With the World From T. P.'s Weekly (1910), collected in The Apostle and the Wild Ducks (1975) P. J. Kavanagh, ed -- text (22K) -- html (23K)
• The Meaning of the Crusade From The New Jerusalem (1920) -- text (45K) -- html (46K)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream -- text (23K) -- html (24K)
• On Evil Euphemisms From Come to Think of It (1930) -- text (8K) -- html (9K)
• Mormonism From Uses of Diversity (1921) -- text (8K) -- html (8K)
• To Frances Excerpts from a letter to Frances Blogg (updated). -- text (21K) -- html (23K)
• The Angry Street -- text (10K) -- html (11K)
• Christianity and Rationalism (1904) -- text (17K) -- html (18K)
• The Terror of a Toy From Fancies versus Fads (1923) -- text (8K) -- html (9K)
• On Darwinism and Mystery From The Illustrated London News 21st August, 1920. -- text (8K)
• The Persecution of Religion From The Illustrated London News 8th March, 1924 -- text (9K)
• The Advantages of having One Leg From Tremendous Trifles 1909 -- text (8K) -- html (8K)
• Doubts About Darwinism From The Illustrated London News 17th July 1920 -- text (9K) -- html (10K)
• American Fundamentalists and the English Journalists From The Illustrated London News 1st August 1925 -- text (9K) -- html (10K)
• Compulsory Education and the Monkey Trial From The Illustrated London News 8th August 1925 -- text (10K) -- html (10K)
• Myths and Metaphors From The Illustrated London News 26th January 1929 -- text (8K) -- html (9K)
• Women in the Workplace - and at Home From The Illustrated London News 18th December, 1926 -- text (8K) -- html (9K)
• The Illustrated London News article of 19th April, 1930 -- text (8K) -- html (8K)
• Our Birthday From G. K.s Weekly, March 21, 1935. This was written on the occasion of the paper's 10th anniversary. -- text (7K) -- html (7K)
• The Roots of the World From The Daily News, 17th August, 1907. -- text (8K) -- html (8K)
• Humor From Encyclopaedia Britannica written May 1928. -- text (16K) -- html (17K)
• Two Kinds of Paradox From The Illustrated London News, 11th March 1911. -- text (8K) -- html (9K)
• Return of the Angels From Daily News, 14th March 1903. -- text (7K) -- html (8K)
• A Shy Bird From A Handful of Authors, 1927 -- text (17K) -- html (18K)
• Pickwick and the English Peoples From The Empire Review, Vol XXXVIII, October 1923, No. 273. Reprinted in 1927. -- text (12K) -- html (13K)
• The Polish Ideal From The Illustrated London News, 2nd July, 1927. -- text (8K)
• Half Hours in Hades (1891) (Thanks to Sean B. Palmer) -- html (13K)
• Dreams (1901) (Thanks to Sean B. Palmer) -- html (8K)
• Wonder and the Wooden Post (1912) (Thanks to Sean B. Palmer) -- html (9K)
• On Household Gods and Goblins (Thanks to Sean B. Palmer) -- html (11K)
• Milton: Man and Poet -- html (21K) -- text (20K)
• On Jane Austen in the General Election From Come to Think of It, 1930 -- html (8K) -- text (8K)
• On Abolishing Sunday From Come to Think of It, 1930 -- html (9K) -- text (9K)
• On Abraham Lincoln From Come to Think of It, 1930 -- html (16K) -- text (15K)
• On America From Come to Think of It, 1930 -- html (9K) -- text (8K)
• How Not To Do It From G.K.'s Weekly, 16th May 1935 -- html (5K) -- text (4K)

Poems

• By the Babe Unborn, -- text (1K)
• Antichrist, or the Reunion of Christendom: An Ode, -- text (2K)
• Songs of Education (extract), -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• The Battle of Lepanto -- html (8K) -- text (7K)
• The Battle of Lepanto, Spanish translation -- text (8K)
• The Ballad of the White Horse -- html (109K) -- text (88K) -- LibriVox audio book
• A Christmas Carol From The Wild Knight, first published 1900. Also published in The collected Poems of G.K.Chesterton -- html (1K) -- text (1K) -- Esperanto version and MIDI file
• A Prayer in Darkness -- html (1K) -- text (1K)
• The Donkey -- html (1K) -- text (1K)
• Christmas Poem -- html (2K) -- text (2K)
• The Rolling English Road (From The Flying Inn (1914)) -- html (2K) -- text (2K) -- LibriVox audio book
• Wine and Water (From The Flying Inn (1914)) -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• The Englishman (From The Flying Inn (1914)) -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• A Child of the Snows -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• The Secret People -- html (5K) -- text (4K)
• A Hymn -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• Elegy in a Country Churchyard -- html (1K) -- text (1K)
• The Logical Vegetarian -- html (3K) -- text (1K)
• The Song of Quoodle -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• Gold Leaves -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• The Song of Right and Wrong -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• The Last Hero -- html (4K) -- text (3K)
• Eternities -- html (4K) -- text (3K)
• A Little Litany -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• The Towers of Time -- html (7K) -- text (4K)
• The Strange Music -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• Variations of an Air -- html (3K) -- text (2K)
• Femina Contra Mundum -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• A Ballade of Suicide -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• Second Spring -- The House of Christmas -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• To Belloc (Preface to Chesterton's The Napoleon of Notting Hill) -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• The Sword of Surprise -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• The Unpardonable Sin -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• The Skeleton -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• The Human Tree -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• Who Goes Home? -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• Alliterativism (1914) -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• Americanisation -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• "The Myth of Arthur" -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• On the Disastrous Spread of Aestheticism in all Classes -- html (5K) -- text (3K)
• The Song of the Strange Ascetic -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• The House of Christmas -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• The New Omar -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• The Song of the Oak -- html (5K) -- text (2K)
• The Old Song -- html (4K) -- text (2K)
• The Higher Unity -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• The Convert -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• The Deluge -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• The Aristocrat -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• The Song Against Grocers -- html (3K) -- text (2K)
• The Great Minimum -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• To the Unknown Warrior -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• Greybeards at Play -- html (14K) (From The University of Notre Dame web site, maintained by Kevin Cawley)
• A Ballade of Theatricals -- html (2K) -- jpg scan (73K) -- text (1K)
• The Wise Men -- html (3K) -- text (2K)
• The New Fiction -- html (1K) -- text (1K)
• Tribute to Gladstone -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• Songs of Education -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• The Horrible History of Jones -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• The Praise Of Dust -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• Rotarians - (1927) -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• A Word -- html (4K) -- text (3K)
• The Ballad of Saint Barbara -- html (10K) -- text (8K)
• A Ballad of Abbreviations -- html (3K) -- text (2K)
• Here is the little door by Frances Chesterton. -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• GLORIA IN PROFUNDIS -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• The Mystery -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• To St. Michael in Time of Peace -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• A Broad Minded Bishop Rebukes The Verminous St. Francis -- html (1K) -- text (1K)
• The Judgment Of England -- html (1K) -- text (1K)
• The Song Of The Wheels -- html (1K) -- text (1K)
• A Ballade Of An Anti-puritan -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• The Philanthropist -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• "St. Francis Xavier" -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• For a War Memorial -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• Jealousy -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• Song (The Island of Nevercometrue) -- html (2K) -- text (1K)
• Poems -- html (161K) -- text (127K) -- zip (47K)

Introductions

• A History of the United States by Cecil Chesterton, Introduction by G. K. Chesterton. (The full text is available from Project Gutenberg) -- html (16K) -- text (15K)

Bibliographies

• A listing from the Emory University Library online card catalog (9K)
• General Bibliography of materials by and about Gilbert Keith Chesterton (227K)
• A listing of 409 items by and about G.K. Chesterton from the Library of Congress (261K)
• A further 131 items from the Library of Congress (46K) (You can access the Library of Congress catalogue via telnet to locis.loc.gov or from the web)
• An Annotated Bibliography by Dale Ahlquist (I copied this from The American Chesterton Society's web site)

Quotations

• Selected Quotes (8K)
• The The American Chesterton Society has a fine collection of quotes
• Chesterton Day by Day Selections from the Writings in Prose and Verse of G. K. Chesterton, with an Extract for every Day of the Year and for each of the Moveable Feasts. (From The University of Notre Dame web site, maintained by Kevin Cawley)
• Biographer Hugh Lunn interviewed Chesterton for the October 17, 1912, edition of Hearth and Home