"The Everlasting Man" by G. K. Chesterton

Request for Reconsideration of Library Materials Responses

The Everlasting Man

Format: Book

Title: The Everlasting Man

Author: G. K. Chesterton

Publication Date: 1925

What brought this item to your attention?

Pretty much the following sequence of events transpired, as far back as I can remember.

1. When I was a child, my mother, observing that I had finished reading the omnibus volume of Sherlock Holmes stories that was in the house, suggested that I might like to try some Father Brown detective stories.

2. I must have read several of these stories, as I vaguely remember that Flambeau was some kind of master criminal before he became Father Brown’s apprentice detective and that there is one story in which it turns out that the postman is the murderer.

3. Many years later I read “Brideshead Revisited” by Evelyn Waugh which is set, mostly, in the years between WWI and WWII. The reading aloud of Father Brown stories by Lady Marchmain is an important part of the novel; the stories are more or less contemporary with the setting of the novel.

4. Several years ago I saw a play of the G. K. Chesterton novel “The Man Who Was Thursday” put on by a local theater troupe.

5. Quite recently I checked out “The Edinburgh Mystery” a collection of mystery short stories set in Scotland and found that one of them was a Father Brown mystery which I recognized as having read once in the past.

6. Also recently, I was in the library on my regular business, which generally includes venturing into the stacks to select from the shelves some books in which I have taken an interest, as well as returning items and picking up any holds that might be waiting for me. I had a list of three items, but one of them, “The Hornblower Companion” by C. S. Forester was not in the library. Usually when I search for a book that is in the catalogue but cannot find it on the shelf, it is because the book is no longer in the library’s collection, but in this case, the record showed that the book had been checked out by another patron and had not yet been returned. I was relieved that the book was not permanently gone but also disappointed that I could not have it immediately.

7. I decided, therefore, to glance over the 500s, looking for a book that would address some mathematical or scientific subject the study of which might give me a much needed rest or distraction from the political miasma by which I am generally beset in my usual daily life. Scanning the shelves, I lighted upon “The Pythagorean Theorem” by Eli Maor and decided that it was a pretty safe choice as the Pythagorean Theorem is even older than Pythagoras, purely mathematical and nowise political, and I have found Eli Maor’s other books that I have read to be rigorous yet accessible and overall excellent.

8. Having made my selection I spun around on my heel, turning rapidly over my right shoulder, and this book being at about eye-level it caught my attention due to its robust library binding, which in a modern library really makes a book stand out, and the title, which struck me as a bit out-of-place among a bunch of anthropology books. Taking a second look, I read the last name of the author on the spine and thought that taking all the facts available into account the book was probably a work by G. K. Chesterton and that it was odd that it should be shelved in the anthropology section and flanked by two books by Margaret Meade: “Coming of Age in Samoa” and some lesser known work. I picked up the book and having skimmed the Prefatory Note at the front, I decided that the book was indeed, shelved in a location far from that of its appropriate classification.

Did you read or view the entire work? If not, what parts did you read or view?

I read the whole work.

To what in the work do you object? (Be specific; cite pages, sections etc.)

N/A

What do you feel might be the result of reading/viewing this work?

The reader will likely wonder, with great perplexity, why the book is shelved with the anthropology books. For the rest, I’m not sure. I found the book clever and in places humorous, crammed with quotables, but also nonsense. It seems that, much like his contemporary, Oscar Wilde, Chesterton is best taken in microdoses, one quotation at a time.

What would you like the library to do about this material?

I would like the library to re-classify the book with a more appropriate Dewey Decimal Number than the one to which it is currently assigned. Its current assignment, 573, which LibraryThing tells me has the designation “Physiological Systems in Animals” is clearly inappropriate. It seems to be most usual to assign the book to the 200s, occasionally to the 100s. It was intended as an answer to or a refutation of “The Outline of History” by H.G. Wells which is generally shelved in the 900s, so the 900s might also be a reasonable choice.

Here are my supporting reasons:

Illustrated covers of the book generally, although not always, make use of Christian symbolism.

See for example Goodreads11 or Abebooks.

Chesterton is well known for his Christian writing, but not at all known for writing on animal physiology or anthropology.

See just about any brief online biography or perhaps this website.

My interpretation of the introduction to the book is that Chesterton believed his book to be about Christianity.

To support my interpretation I present a count of suggestive words that appear in the introduction:

• Christendom 2
  

• Christianity 3
  

• Church 13
  

“Christian” and “Catholic” also figure prominently.

In only a few chapters even in Part I does the book make prehistoric or uncivilized (in the sense of not building cities) humans its primary focus.

“Chapter III: The Antiquity of Civilization” takes as its chief subject ancient Babylon and Egypt. “Chapter VII: The War of the Gods and the Demons” takes as its chief subject the two Punic Wars fought by the Roman Republic against its greatest adversary, the city of Carthage. “Chapter VIII: The End of the World” takes as its chief subject the Roman Empire as it was during the time of the early Christians.

The title of Part II of the book is “On the Man Called Christ”.

Clearly the book does not confine itself to the subject of anthropology. The titles of the individual chapters, “The God in the Cave”, “The Riddles of the Gospel”, “The Strangest Story in the World”, “The Witness of the Heretics”, “The Escape from Paganism”, and “The Five Deaths of the Faith” would seem to support a con- tention that the book’s primary subject is more religious than anthropological.

Can you suggest other material on the same topic that would make a better addition to the library’s collection?

“Flights of Fancy” by Richard Dawkins is a work that is far more about physiological systems in animals and consequently a much better fit for a 573 designation. “Flights of Fancy” is available as a book from a few libraries in the MVLC already; but I would like to have the opportunity to listen to an audio version.

Consider this a formal request to purchase an audiobook edition of “Flights of Fancy” by Richard Dawkins.

The Everlasting Man

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