The Man Who Was Thursday. A Nightmare.

Author: Chesterton, G[ilbert] K[eith]

Illustrator:

Reference #: 1981

Status: For Sale

List Price: $940.00

Arrowsmith, Bristol, 1908. First Edition, pp. 330, [2, adverts.]. First Issue, octavo, in red cloth, with lightly, but uniformly toned spine with gilt titles and publisher identification at the tail. Lightly bumped top corner and edge wear, especially along base. This copy also features a rarely found ‘presentation copy’, noted in the publisher’s blind stamp at the head of the title page. The leather book plate of a previous owner is affixed to the front paste-down, leaving a ghost on the fly leaf. Front hinge cracking, but still holding firmly. A Very Good copy with added mylar covering; Rare in first state.

Writing as one of the contributor’s to the 1974 publication G. K. Chesterton: A Centenary Appraisal, Dudley Barker wrote of this, Chesterton’s third novel, that it was “unquestionably his best. The surface narrative of this allegory is melodrama. The man who was Thursday – a detective smuggles on to the inner council of seven anarchists who aim to destroy the world, each bearing as code-name a day of the week (and of the Creation) – is engaged in successive wild combats with the others, only to find, in turn, that each is also a detective in disguise.” (p. 10-11).