Philadelphia Chesterton Society

"Facts... how facts obscure the truth."

10/19/2015

The Southeast PA Chesterton Society will meet again on Sunday, November 8th to discuss Chesterton's wonderful book of mystery stories from 1905, The Club of Queer Trades.

"Facts," murmured Basil, like one mentioning some strange, far-off animals, "how facts obscure the truth. I may be silly—in fact, I'm off my head—but I never could believe in that man—what's his name, in those capital stories?—Sherlock Holmes. Every detail points to something, certainly; but generally to the wrong thing. Facts point in all directions, it seems to me, like the thousands of twigs on a tree. It's only the life of the tree that has unity and goes up—only the green blood that springs, like a fountain, at the stars."

There are many ways to read this book. You can read an online version here. There is a nice PDF download version as well.

We recommend purchasing the paperback from the American Chesterton Society, which will give you the benefit of Chesterton's original illustrations along with the stories. At $7.95, it's a steal!

There is also a free Librivox audiobook of the work, for those inclined. You can download the MP3s from this site, or listen to the whole thing (4 hrs. and 50 minutes!) on YouTube.

Information for the November meeting follows below the jump.