The Napoleon of Notting Hill

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, well-known as the author of such fictional works as the Father Brown mysteries and The Man Who Was Thursday along with non-fiction like St.~Francis of Assisi and The Everlasting Man, published this novel early in the last century. Long before Orwell made the year 1984 famous, Chesterton posited a bizarre future for England, in which an incredible apathy has occupied the minds of his countrymen, such that democracy has died out, the king (an absolute dictator) is chosen by lot, and nobody could possibly care less about it. Not really a work of prophecy, however (as the first chapter makes amply clear), Chesterton wrote a novel about human nature, about local patriotism, and about what happens when ``men have found a thing to love.'' A humorous and delightful novel from one of the great masters of the English language.