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Journal ArticleDOI

Detections: Borges and Father Brown

21 Jan 1974-Novel: A Forum on Fiction-Vol. 7, Iss: 3, pp 220
TL;DR: In Other Inquisitions, 1937-1952, Jorge Luis Borges affectionately mentions G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories and hints that along with Poe's they are influences on his own stories of mystery, crime, and detection as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In Other Inquisitions, 1937-1952, Jorge Luis Borges affectionately mentions G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories and hints that along with Poe's they are influences on his own stories of mystery, crime, and detection. Borges' stories may be understood better by looking at Chesterton's priest, and at the way both authors experiment with conventions of the mystery genre to examine the supernatural and the nature of evil. Because of the enigmas and paradoxes of his character, the unprepossessing Father Brown, a small man with a dough-face and sea-flat eyes, has a distinct personality which especially appeals to Borges and affects his own detective fiction: the perfect figure for the butt of a joke, Borges sees, Father Brown is also the perfect figure for getting in the way and solving metaphysical jokes. Out of place in the physical world, Father Brown is always in the right place for the supernatural. His "mind was all of a piece, and he was unconscious of many incongruities" ("The Crime of the Communist").' As a priest he is a believer in magic and mystery who consistently produces the most mundane and naturalistic solutions. He works by reason and faith both, and the two are never at odds owing to a middle sense, intuition, which keeps him from acting mistakenly even if truth is not revealed to his intellect: he has a mystic's cloud on him when evil is near. When he doubts, he doubts only because he is not certain whether a case calls for a policeman, a doctor, or a priest. But if Father Brown, as a professional celibate, has a sexlessness about him which puts him further outside the human ordinary (unresponsive to the power of sex, he is not corruptible like ordinary men), nevertheless he is thoroughly a gentleman. The traditionally distinguishing features of the gentleman-power, rationality, and responsibility-mingle in Father Brown with the spy's invisibility and unreality, although in the priest these last two are treated as virtues, not as defects of character. Invisibility comes from his being so unobtrusively in the middle of things (he is, after all, a good priest doing his job), and his unreality is a supremely other-worldly quality. Detachment is his superiority. It fits him for super-impressions and mystical illuminations as well as reasoned solutions. The priest's sense of environment and his comfortable fondness for obscure, unique oddities and trinkets make him a perfect Borgesian character. Mysteries of Good and Evil, God and Devil, Body and Soul, Reason and Faith, Innocence and Guilt, Truth and Falsehood, Appearance and Reality, Time and Eternity, come up continually in the "fantastic" Father Brown tales.
Citations
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01 Jan 2019
TL;DR: The Church of England in Nineteenth Century fiction as mentioned in this paper is the subject of the article "Vicar Victoria: Writing The Church Of England In Nineteenth-Century Fiction".
Abstract: ........................................................................................................ii Dedication.....................................................................................................iii Acknowledgments ...........................................................................................iv Introduction: Vicar Victoria: Writing The Church Of England In Nineteenth Century Fiction.......................................................................1 Chapter I: Institutions and Individuals: George Eliot's Scenes of Clerical Life And The Humanity Of The Curate....................................22 Chapter II: Profession and Vocation: Margaret Oliphant On the Changing Character Of Called Clergy...................................................52 Chapter III: Church-Building and Church Buildings: Charlotte Mary Yonge's The Daisy Chain and The Tractarian Project........................................88 Coda: G. K. Chesterton And The Novel Clerical Detective.................................................................................126 Bibliography................................................................................................148 Vita..........................................................................................................166

22 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2011
TL;DR: The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) is the first collection of clerical mysteries published by Chesterton as mentioned in this paper, which contains some of the most celebrated stories in the canon, but also perfect examples of how Chesterton sought to articulate, in fictional form, the desirable qualities of the Catholic faith.
Abstract: Ellery Queen, in his survey of early detective fiction, was moved to describe Chesterton’s The Innocence of Father Brown (1911), his first collection of such stories, as the ‘miracle book’.2 There is just the faintest tinge of irony in this statement; this first set of clerical mysteries do indeed contain some of the most celebrated stories in the canon, but they are also perfect examples of how Chesterton sought to articulate, in fictional form, the desirable qualities of the Catholic faith: a faith which would ultimately become his own.