G.K. Chesterton was among the most popular English writers of the early Twentieth Century. As a novelist, poet, biographer, essayist, and Christian apologist he produced a large and grandly diverse body of writing that has in the past century inspired the admiration of George Orwell, Dorothy Sayers, C.S. Lewis, George Bernard Shaw, Franz Kafka, Theodore Roosevelt, Mahatma Gandhi, Agatha Christie, Kingsley Amis, and Orson Welles. Few writers of his time were more widely read, and fewer still so outspoken on issues and questions then current, many of which remain with us still.

Books: Mr. Banks will be teaching Chesterton‘s comic fantasy novel The Napoleon of Notting Hill, his early nonfiction book Heretics, and a variety of poems and other writings. No book purchases are necessary, as all of the texts in question are in the public domain, but students may choose to obtain hard copies of the first two titles if they like.

Time: 12:00 – 1:30 PM Eastern Time