The Innocence Of Father Brown

The star of these stories is Father Brown, a character created by writer G. K. Chesterton. Based on a parish priest who was partially responsible for Chesterton's conversion to Catholicism in 1922, Brown is a stubby Catholic priest equipped with a large umbrella, a formless outfit and a sharp insight into the human nature. The 12 stories included here are: The Blue Cross, The Secret Garden, The Queer Feet, The Flying Stars, The Invisible Man, The Honour of Israel Gow, The Wrong Shape, The Sins of Prince, Saradine, The Hammer of God, The Eye of Apollo, The Sign of the Broken Sword, The Three Tools of Death. With Father Brown the author has entered upon a new literary field in a series of detective stories. Strange to say, his hero is not a Sherlock Holmes or a Lecoq, but a gentle little parish priest who uses his knowledge of human nature gained in his religious work to unravel mysterious crimes which have baffled the police. The stories are of the dashing and brilliant kind that Stevenson invented — exciting tales told in artistic manner by a first-class literary hand.

This first collection of Father Brown stories published by Cassell and Company in London in 1911. 5,000 copies in the first printing.