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Chapter 7 - G. K. Chesterton

Tradition and Ideals

from Part II - 1900–1945

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2024

By
Christos Hadjiyiannis
Edited by
Rachel Potter  and
Matthew Taunton
Rachel Potter
Affiliation:
University of East Anglia
Matthew Taunton
Affiliation:
University of East Anglia
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Summary

G. K. Chesterton’s debut novel, The Napoleon of Notting Hill, promotes what he called his ‘antiquated dogmas’ and ‘dead creeds’. Pitting the vendors of Pump Street against the magnates of Kensington and Bayswater, Chesterton sides with local ownership as against capitalism; slowness instead of speed; evolution for revolution; and tradition not modernity. However, in The Napoleon of Notting Hill Chesterton tests and questions all ideas – including his own. The key takeaway from Chesterton’s novel of ideas is not that some ideas are superior to others but that all social and political creeds are bound to be vacuous (and silly) unless they are based on external, communal frames of reference: on higher, unifying ideals that should underpin them.

Keywords

progressPaul ViriliodistributismimperialismNew Liberals
Type
Chapter
Information
The British Novel of Ideas
George Eliot to Zadie Smith
 , pp. 134 - 149
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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