Chesterton, Gilbert Keith

G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) resists the easy abbreviations of literary survey, whether by period, subject, or style. He overspills the standard descriptive categories, self‐consciously opposing rather than reflecting the dominant moral, artistic, and intellectual ideals of his time, while writing prolifically on diverse topics across a dozen genres (and often indeed confounding the thematic and formal expectations within individual genres). His achievement may therefore be best understood in terms of the very characteristics that make his work hard to paraphrase: notably its paradoxical capacity for earnest humor, which animates not only his fantastic fiction but also his overtly philosophical and theological writings.