Chesterton - Napoleon of Notting Hill

Can't say I'm a huge fan of the recording (Ray Clare's style simply isn't mine), but this is what my book club is reading this month.  Feel free to join us and give it a listen.  You can download in different formats and chapter-by-chapter at the source, Librivox.

The Napoleon of Notting Hill

by G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

While the novel is humorous (one instance has the King sitting on top of an omnibus and speaking to it as to a horse: “Forward, my beauty, my Arab,” he said, patting the omnibus encouragingly, “fleetest of all thy bounding tribe”), it is also an adventure story: Chesterton is not afraid to let blood be drawn in his battles, fought with sword and halberd in the London streets, and Wayne thinks up a few ingenious strategies; and, finally, the novel is philosophical, considering the value of one man’s actions and the virtue of respect for one’s enemies. (Summary from Wikipedia)

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• Gutenberg e-text


• Wikipedia – G. K. Chesterton


• Wikipedia – “The Napoleon of Notting Hill”


• M4B audiobook of complete book


• LibriVox’s The Napoleon of Notting HillInternet Archive page


• Zip file of the entire book 171.3 MB


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Total running time: 5:56:47 Read by Ray Clare

Free Chesterton Audiobooks

Just in case you were running low on audio, here you can find some G. K. Chesterton audiobooks:

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	Title & Author	Description
	Eugenics and Other Evils Gilbert Keith Chesterton	"Eugenics and Other Evils," by Gilbert Keith Chesterton. I think G.K. Chesterton explains his book rather well in his introduction, but it might help to start with a sense of the time in question. Chesterton started work on Eugenics and Other Evils in about 1910, but it was not completed and published until 1922. In his own introduction he talks about the period before and after "The War." The war he refers to is now called World War One. We now have a distaste for the word Eugenics,...
	Heretics G.K. Chesterton	"Heretics," a series of essays by Gilbert Keith Chesterton. First published in 1905. Read by David "Grizzly" Smith. Chesterton had a sense of humor, had a sense of drama, and had sense. He was a man of strong opinions, and quite willing to argue vehemently for his own opinions, even with his friends -- and they remained his friends -- like George Bernard Shaw and Rudyard Kipling. Seems to me that is hard to find anymore. He wrote prolifically. He wrote humor. He wrote mystery novels,...
	Orthodoxy G.K. Chesterton	"Orthodoxy," a series of essays by Gilbert Keith Chesterton. First published in 1908. Read by David "Grizzly" Smith. "The only possible excuse for this book is that it is an answer to a challenge. Even a bad shot is dignified when he accepts a duel." This is how Chesterton explains "Orthodoxy," the sequel to Heretics. "I have attempted in a vague and personal way, in a set of mental pictures rather than in a series of deductions, to state the philosophy in which I have come to believe. I...

American Chesterton Society Podcast

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Unbeknownst to me, the folks over at Chesterton.org have a podcast! (Sidenote: IMHO, Chesterton would be horrified at the isolationism that the Earbud Culture breeds, but, redeemingly, would likely enjoy Podcasts as smalltalk writ large.)

The Podcast is called Uncommon Sense (libsyn here) and starts with a few of the usual suspects: Dale Ahlquist, Mark Shea, etc. They have over 40 episodes now -- check 'em out.

Here are a few just to whet your appetite:

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Dale Ahlquist and Local Chesterton Socities

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Interview with Victoria Darkey

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Interview with Mark Shea

MacLaurin Lectures

I haven't been disappointed by any lectures from maclaurin.org in the past, so here are some more. Understand that these are not all given by Catholics, so I'm not vouching for theological accuracy...just interesting stuff...


The Innocence of God, Udo Middelmann, MacLaurin Institute (Francis A. Schaeffer Fellow).

Pacifism in the Old and New Testaments: What Did Moses Teach That Inspired Jesus's Nonviolence?, Philip Friesen, Galilean Center (Fellow).

Wedded Bliss: What Makes for Happy Marriages, Dr. W. Bradford Wilcox, University of Virginia (Assistant Professor of Sociology).

Interpersonal Forgiveness: What's So Good About Loving Your Enemy?, Dr. Gayle Reed, University of Wisconsin Extension (Instructional Specialist).

From Da Vinci to Dan Brown: The skeptic as the new cultural authority, Dr. Vishal Mangalwadi, MacLaurin Institute (Fellow).

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And finally, the lecture which made me post this...and this one I CAN vouche for...

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Dueling with Darwin: A Night with GK Chesterton, Dr. Chuck Chalberg, Normandale College (Professor of History) and Dale Ahlquist, American Chesterton Society (President).

UPDATE: Here's another Dale Ahlquis lecture -- The Spiritual and Intellectual Delight of G. K. Chesterton