ISBN: 9781434100443

Rabelais, or his wild illustrator Gustave Dore, must have had something to do with thedesigning of the things called flats in England and America. There is something entirelyGargantuan in… Mehr…

Rabelais, or his wild illustrator Gustave Dore, must have had something to do with thedesigning of the things called flats in England and America. There is something entirelyGargantuan in the idea of economising space by piling houses on top of each other, frontdoors and all. And in the chaos and complexity of those perpendicular streets anything maydwell or happen, and it is in one of them, I believe, that the inquirer may find the offices ofthe Club of Queer Trades. It may be thought at the first glance that the name would attractand startle the passer-by, but nothing attracts or startles in these dim immense hives. Thepasser-by is only looking for his own melancholy destination, the Montenegro ShippingAgency or the London office of the Rutland Sentinel, and passes through the twilightpassages as one passes through the twilight corridors of a dream. If the Thugs set up aStrangers' Assassination Company in one of the great buildings in Norfolk Street, and sentin a mild man in spectacles to answer inquiries, no inquiries would be made. And the Clubof Queer Trades reigns in a great edifice hidden like a fossil in a mighty cliff of fossils.The nature of this society, such as we afterwards discovered it to be, is soon and simplytold. It is an eccentric and Bohemian Club, of which the absolute condition of membershiplies in this, that the candidate must have invented the method by which he earns his living.It must be an entirely new trade. The exact definition of this requirement is given in thetwo principal rules. First, it must not be a mere application or variation of an existing trade.Thus, for instance, the Club would not admit an insurance agent simply because instead ofinsuring men's furniture against being burnt in a fire, he insured, let us say, their trousersagainst being torn by a mad dog. The principle (as Sir Bradcock Burnaby-Bradcock, in theextraordinarily eloquent and soaring speech to the club on the occasion of the questionbeing raised in the Stormby Smith affair, said wittily and keenly) is the same. Secondly, thetrade must be a genuine commercial source of income, the support of its inventor. Thus theClub would not receive a man simply because he chose to pass his days collecting brokensardine tins, unless he could drive a roaring trade in them. Professor Chick made that quiteclear. And when one remembers what Professor Chick's own new trade was, one doesn'tknow whether to laugh or cry. Trade Books>Trade Paperback>Fiction>Fiction>Fiction, Editorium Core >1<

ISBN: 9781434100443

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was an English writer, philosopher, lay theologian, and literary and art critic. As an author he created the fictional priest-detective Father Brown, … Mehr…

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was an English writer, philosopher, lay theologian, and literary and art critic. As an author he created the fictional priest-detective Father Brown, and produced several notable works on apologetics including Orthodoxy (1908) and The Everlasting Man (1925). He routinely referred to himself as an 'orthodox' Christian, and came to identify this position more and more with Catholicism, eventually converting to Catholicism from High Church Anglicanism. He was born in Kensington, educated at St Paul's School, and later attended the Slade School of Art, a department of University College London, to become an illustrator. He also took classes in literature at UCL but did not complete a degree in either subject. His first positions were within publishing houses, during which time he also became a freelance art and literary critic, and in 1902 the Daily News gave him a weekly opinion column, followed in 1905 by a weekly column in the London Illustrated News for which he continued to write for the next 30 years. In 1901 he married Frances Blogg who played a large role in his career as amanuensis and personal manager. Throughout the course of his career Chesterton wrote around 80 books, several hundred poems, some 200 short stories, 4,000 essays, and several plays. His writings consistently displayed wit and a sense of humour, and he would often employ paradox while making serious comments on the world, politics, economics, philosophy, theology, and many other topics.The Club of Queer Trades is a collection of six stories published together in book form in 1905. Each story is centred on a person who is making his living by some novel and extraordinary means, thus gaining admittance to the very exclusive Club. The framing narrative is by 'Cherub' Swinburne who is on a quest to discover the secret of the Club of Queer Trades, in which venture he is assisted by his friend Basil Grant, a retired judge, and Basil's younger brother Rupert, a private detective. Each of the stories describes their encounter with one of the trades, with the mystery of the Club finally unveiled in the final story, The Eccentric Seclusion of the Old Lady. Trade Books>Trade Paperback>Fiction>Fiction>Fiction, Editorium Core >1<