The journalism<\/h2>\n
A brilliant polemicist, he indicated this aspect of his character in the spiritual, political, literary and, especially, journalistic fields. He contributed many years to the liberal newspaper Daily News<\/em> and to the Illustrated London News<\/em>, with a weekly column from 1906 onwards. Chesterton\u2019s media facet must be considered as an extension of the essayistic one. As editor-in-chief of G. K\u2019s Weekly <\/em>(1925-1936), which he founded himself, he confronted through his articles the English powers-at-be. He didn\u2019t, either in the journalistic or the literary domains, turn down any confrontation with contemporary English authors, particularly H. G. Wells and G. B. Shaw, with whom he engaged in significant controversies on questions of a moral, social or literary order. He became, thanks to his extraordinary talent with the pen and the atmosphere of dialectic freedom in which he played a part, one the most famous English writers overseas. In Catalonia he was greatly admired and developed friendships within literary and journalistic circles which fostered, during the 1920\u2019s and 1930\u2019s, the translation into Catalan of part of his work.<\/p>\n He has been defined as an engag\u00e9<\/em> journalist for his commitment to the intellectual debate, a commitment he made extensive to all his literary work. Chesterton didn\u2019t spare himself any discussions or controversies with the writers and journalists of the age, from H. G. Wells to Bernard Shaw, from the MP Charles Masterman to the editor of the socialist weekly The Clarion<\/em>, Robert Blatchford, and in later years he also made his voice heard on radio. His radical nonconformist attitude spoke out against matters as important in early 20th<\/sup> century Britain as imperialism or eugenics. In this day and age he would be considered an influencer in the years between the 1910\u2019s and the first half of the 1930\u2019s, since he put the common man at the centre of all the political and social battles being fought in the middle of an economic and moral crisis, and amidst a crisis of parliamentary democracies. Against the backdrop of the failure of big capitalism and fear of bolshevism, and amidst the rise of totalitarianism, he opted for a third way by giving shape to a social democratic ideology based on English authors of the 18th<\/sup>, 19th<\/sup> and early 20th<\/sup> centuries, as well as the social doctrine of the Catholic Church formulated by Leo XIII.<\/p>\n Manuscrit de The Fairy Tale of Father Brown<\/p><\/div>\n There is a certain consensus in considering that Chesterton wrote his best original work before 1910. His best essays on social matters (Heretics<\/em>, 1905; What\u2019s Wrong With the World<\/em>, 1910), a spiritual autobiography and great essay on Christian thinking like Orthodoxy<\/em> (1908), and, from the same year, what is considered to be his best compilation of detective stories, The Innocence of Father Brown<\/em>, all date from this period. His writings on Charles Dickens are noteworthy when it comes to literary criticism. A good part of his work is buried under the thousands of articles he published in newspapers and magazines and are currently being brought to public attention through several compilations. He\u2019s the author of an autobiography which appeared posthumously (1936), has been republished and translated to many languages and can be read as an introduction to his life, work and thinking. The literary might of his writings, whether in the press, as essays or fictional, make of Chesterton one of the more important authors of universal literature.<\/p>\n In his posthumous Autobiography<\/em>, Chesterton explains himself and his work in terms of a path through life. He unveils his childhood memories through family scenes and his father\u2019s literary ascendancy, the streets and neighbourhoods which formed the landscape of his daily life, his relationship with friends and foes, as well as plenty of subjects reiterated in the lengthy controversies in which he took part and echoed in many of his other works. Nonetheless, it\u2019s mostly his battle against the pessimism and scepticism ever-present during his formative years that pushes him to write and leave a mark on his time. Chesterton tends to reveal himself not only in his autobiography but throughout his entire work \u2013whether through journalism, essays, biographies or fiction\u2013, which must be understood as a whole that cannot be untangled from a literary universe which totally influences a romantic and idealistic world view, strongly rooted in Christianity.<\/p>\n Chesterton was Charles Dickens\u2019s (of whom he prologued the Everyman\u2019s Library editions) first great vindicator and the Victorian novelist with whom he most identified, for his vision of the common man and for his use of the romantic novel which gets through to everyone. Chesterton always defended a popular type of literature, exemplified first by Dickens, but also by the authors of detective \u2013a genre he cultivated himself with success in the Father Brown<\/em> stories\u2013 or adventure novels (like Walter Scott of R. L. Stevenson, two authors he really admired). Reluctant in regards to the realist or naturalist kind of novel (such as Zola\u2019s, for example), he decided on a romantic and idealist-based literature and the vindication of legends and fairy tales which, ever since his childhood, had initiated him in a world of transcendence, just as Shakespeare\u2019s or other great authors in world literature\u2019s works did when his father staged them on the toy theatre he had at home.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WorkThe literary and intellectual world Chesterton\u2019s literary and intellectual world can be assessed through the Victorian heritage of great writers and novelists he admired and by whom he was influenced, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1284,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1308","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nChesterton, a man of his time<\/h2>\n
Chesterton\u2019s original work<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/manuscrit_Father_Brown_fot-e1618828131700.jpeg\")
Chesterton on his work<\/h2>\n
Chesterton on literature<\/h2>\n