Four Faultless Felons

By G.K. Chesterton

Book Overview

A series of four intertwined novellas whose central characters appear to be involved in murder, fraud, theft and treason. "Dazzling reading from cover to cover." -- The New York Times.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486258521
• ISBN13: 9780486258522
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Four Faultless Felons are Fine Fellows Indeed - More Wit and Whimsy from G. K. Chesterton

Any reader familiar with The Man Who Was Thursday, The Club of Queer Trades, or The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond will immediately recognize G. K. Chesterton's unique wit and whimsy in these four tales. Four Faultless Felons (1930) includes The Moderate Murderer, The Honest Quack, The Ecstatic Thief, and The Loyal Traitor. The individual stories were first published in 1929 and 1930 in London magazines; soon thereafter all four were published together as Four Faultless Felons (1930). Chesterton added a prologue and epilogue to tie these stories together. Chesterton's protagonists are indeed faultless. Their crimes - murder, fraud, theft, and treason - are motivated by virtue, by altruism, and by good intentions. These humorous fantasies are intended for enjoyment, although Chesterton does not entirely disguise his disapproval of unregulated capitalism and insensitive politicians. The four stories are essentially mysteries, albeit somewhat playful ones. A crime is committed and evidence points to the culprit. The problem is not so much in identifying the criminal (although the culprit's identity is not readily revealed), but in determining the motive for the crime. Chesterton's whimsical formula could have become repetitious, but by limiting his tales to only four they remain sufficiently novel and humorous to make this collection quite enjoyable. Four Faultless Felons had been out-of-print for several decades before Dover reprinted in 1989 the Cassell edition of 1930. Fans of G. K. Chesterton should add Four Faultless Felons to their collection. Four stars.

Four Faultless Felons

Early in life, G. K. Chesterton wrote "The Club of Queer Trades", a set of short stories in which it always appears that vile crimes are being committed. In the end, there's always an innocuous explanation, namely that the apparent criminal who's actually trying to gain admittance to a bizarre gentleman's club. Maay years later, Chesterton would return to the same idea in "Four Faultless Felons", again speculating about a club whose members must appear to be guilty of terrible deeds, while actually remaining innocent of wrongdoing. "The Club of Queer Trades" was basically a farce, as whispy and devoid of deep meaning as Chesterton could ever get. "Four Faultless Felons" may have fewer belly laughs, but it has far more food for thought. The first story, "The Moderate Murderer", takes us to the Middle East, where the governor of a generic British colony has been shot in the leg. In the space of fifty pages, Chesterton takes us on a whirlwind mystery tour, as three different suspects are raised and discarded. The final denounment not only wraps up every corner of the mystery perfectly, but also offers a fine philosophical defense from the true shooter. It has been remarked that Chesterton only grows more relevant to our messed-up modern world with each passing year. Despite having died seventy years ago, his pithy sayings and seemingly offhand political opinions always drop exactly onto the hot issues of today. In between the breakneck plot and the large cast of very real characters, "The Moderate Murder" finds room for an editorial on why making the Muslim world accept western values at gunpoint is both unethical and unworkable. If it seems unreal that a tale from four generations past could contain an editorial that would be devastating in today's papers, well, that's Chesterton for you. Too bad that bonobo in the White House never got a copy of "Four Faultless Felons". The remaining three stories are every bit as charming, clever, and wise as the beginners, and that's all I really need to say about "Four Faultless Felons". Or at least it should be all. Regrettably certain quotes from this book have sprung up as the centerpiece of claims that Chesterton was an anti-semite. This may be the most ridiculous smear campaign against an author since the infamous brouhaha over "Huckleberry Finn", and consequently I must answer the charges. The quotes in question come from the fourth story, "The Loyal Traitor". The chief of the Secret Police, aptly named Grimm, warns his superiors that a conspiracy of Jewish bankers is plotting the nation's downfall. He's wrong, of course, and the final resolution will amply prove the charges to be completely off base. In point of fact, the conspiracy never existed, and Grimm comes to look quite the fool by the end.