Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton, Vol. 18

In this volume's studies in literary criticism and biography, Chesterton exhibits his congenital perception of character and motive which makes all of his biographies shine. Chesterton's warm affection for Stevenson and Chaucer is vastly evident in his volumes on them. He was heavily influenced by Stevenson's romances that were full of manliness, courage and hope. Polemical literary criticism flourishes at its most vigorous in Chesterton's Chaucer, a tribute to medieval England and Chaucer's literature. His monographs on Tolstoy and Carlyle reveal keen insights into two very different writers, thus providing four unique studies that teach us much concerning the distinctions in literature and in life between normality and abnormality.