Customer Reviews

What's Wrong with the World

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Recommendation:

Do read the book, but don't buy it. Or buy another version of it - buy anything but this version, unless of course quality is deemed totally irrelevant.

The Good:

Buying this book will expose the reader to more social insight than the majority of modern nonfiction. Anyone fortunate enough to have learned of its existence would be foolish not to study it thoughtfully. To prospective buyers who are indifferent to the issues I raise below and just want to read Chesterton's brilliant insights, I recommend any other publishing of this book (although admittedly this one is cheapest - read on to decide if that alone constitutes value).

The Bad:

Considering this particular book (Simon and Brown / "Scribbled Blue Globe" cover), to suggest that it may have been put together by chimpanzees would be rather unkind to chimpanzees. I was instantly disappointed on taking hold of it, and had the occasion to become much more so in time.

For starters, this is an out-of-copyright work and is available on the web at no charge in myriad formats, among them a manipulable Wiki book and a good quality-scan - hopefully Amazon will not scold me for pointing out the obvious. I had already read the book on-line; I bought it in order to re-read it more comfortably, and because it deserved a place in my modest library. The price seemed quite reasonable; however I was under the misapprehension that this was a properly-put together book. Given that I paid money for something available for the cost of Internet, printer paper and toner; and considering that the publisher is ostensibly catering to readers of relatively obscure polemics as opposed to readers of People magazine, I didn't think it unreasonable to take issue with this product's various faults.

The book's format is a floppy, almost magazine-like 6"x 9" paperback, which makes for a painful experience visually scrolling through the sea of text on each page - anyone who reads much must come to appreciate why newspapers and many older books are laid out in columns. I won't waste time lambasting the cover design except to say that it looks much worse in person, and that its creator remarkably achieved ugliness despite apparently aiming for bargain-basement plainness.

The book is set in the always-classy Times New Roman; by all indications it was a direct copy-and paste into MS Word, and a pathetic execution at that. For example, the title header atop each page is not spaced vertically whatsoever from the text! This would lose a student points in any high-school essay, yet the venerable 'Simon and Brown' apparently expects the paying public to turn a blind eye to their incompetence.

I feel reviews such as this one are only warranted where the disregard for due diligence is wanton, and this last issue proved that conclusively.

In the first twenty pages, a good fistful of typos occur (missing periods and/or capitalization on pgs. 16, 17, 18, 19... need I continue?)

You could read Chesterton from a book like this, just as you could could print out some Monet paintings yourself and frame them - chances are, there is a better way out there. Please spend your money elsewhere. I do wish Amazon had some better mechanism of weeding out products like this one...

This book is a must-have for any G. K. Chesterton fan, along with ORTHODOXY and THE EVERLASTING MAN. In this series of essays written by Chesterton, one is given a breath of fresh air from the nonsensical world of today. He makes many arguments, some of which may be taken in context. He fails to clarify some of his views, and to a non-Chesterton fan, he may come off as sexist. Otherwise, an extraordinary collection of essays, and I recommend it to anyone who wishes to know about G. K. Chesterton.

And these things are still what's wrong with the world

Chesterton wrote a great deal of fiction and nonfiction, and his nonfiction covers all sorts of topics including religion, literature, biography, and-as here-the social, political, and philosophical issues facing England at the beginning of the twentieth century. As an American at the beginning of the twenty-first century, I did find some of the references dated, obscure, or irrelevant; but there is still plenty here that is worth reading and thinking about.

I would not recommend this as an introduction to Chesterton, as it has not aged as well as some of his other works. But the Chesterton afficionado should not hesitate. GKC's unique style, wit, and insight are in full force here.

This book is a dandy -- a little social commentary full of Chesterton's ever-so-fun-and-clever humor and incredible way of making you realize that the ways in which we humans think is often the exact opposite of what we ought to think. The content is, I suppose, a bit dated... it is intended for the turn-of-the-century (the last turn, not this one) English reader; as such, issues such as women's suffrage might appear to be entirely culturally irrelevant. If read in its historical context, however, it can function both as a history lesson and poignant (in its time) social commentary. And, needless to say, as with all truly good observations about something in the past, there is a good deal which is extremely pertinent to the current social condition... even in those things that might appear outmoded. A good read.