The Napoleon of Notting Hill

by G. K. Chesterton

Overview

This early novel is both expensive and hard to find in its first edition. Written by the prolific English critic and author of novels, short stories, essays and verse, G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936), it is a futuristic novel set in 1984 in a London that has changed little from the date in which is was written, 1904. Chesterton’s most accurate prediction was that in essence, people would not change, and would continue to regard government with indifference. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781473376403
Publisher:	Read Books Ltd.
Publication date:	11/04/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	230
File size:	982 KB

About the Author

G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) was an English author, poet, critic, and newspaper columnist known for his brilliant, epigrammatic paradoxes. His best-known character is the priest-detective Father Brown, featured in over fifty stories published between 1910 and 1936, who solves mysteries and crimes thanks to his understanding of spiritual and philosophic truths; and his best-known novel is The Man Who Was Thursday (1908), a metaphysical thriller. In addition to The Napoleon of Notting Hill, his first novel, he wrote several other near-future satires of England.

Madeline Ashby is the author of the Machine Dynasty series and the novel Company Town, as well as a contributor to How to Future: Leading and Sense-Making in an Age of Hyperchange. She has developed science fiction prototypes for Changeist, the Institute for the Future, the Smithsonian Institution, SciFutures, Nesta, the World Health Organization, the World Bank, the Atlantic Council, and others.

Table of Contents

Series Foreword ix
Introduction: Dystopias Are Problems Plus Time xv
Madeline Ashby

Book I
I Introductory Remarks on the Art of Prophecy 3
II The Man in Green 9
III The Hill of Humor 31

Book II
I The Charter of the Cities 43
II The Council of the Provosts 55
III Enter a Lunatic 69

Book III
I The Mental Condition of Adam Wayne 87
II The Remarkable Mr. Turnbull 103
III The Experiment of Mr. Buck 115

Book IV
I The Battle of the Lamps 135
II The Correspondent of the "Court Journal" 151
III The Great Army of South Kensington 163

Book V
I The Empire of Notting Hill 189
II The Last Battle 205
III Two Voices 215

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Whimsically expressed criticism… with a suspicion of gallimaufry and hints of the cap-and-bells here and there.”
—New York Times (1904)

“As irresponsibly ludicrous as a modern burlesque, as quaintly serious, at last, as a medieval morality.”
—The Bookman (May 1904)

Editorial Reviews

"Unquestionably a satirical masterpiece."
—Los Angeles Review of Books

“A strange social satire. . . . [and] a fascinating study of arrogance and folly, of progress and tradition and, oddly, of human nature itself.”
—Fortean Times

From the Publisher