The Napoleon of Notting Hill, Chesterton's first novel, tells the story of residents of a London suburb who take up arms and declare their independence from England. The Man Who was Thursday, his most famous novel, tells the story of a policeman who becomes unwittingly--and unwillingly--caught up in a resistance group that is infiltrating a secret organization of anarchists.
G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was one of C. S. Lewis' primary mentors in apologetics, and an influence even in his conversion. Novelist, poet, essayist, and journalist, Chesterton was perhaps best known for his Father Brown detective stories. He produced more than 100 volumes in his lifetime, including biographies of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Thomas Aquinas. His "Everlasting Man," which set out a Christian outline of history, was one of the factors that wore down Lewis' resistance to Christianity. Chesteron was one of the first defenders of orthodoxy to use humor as a weapon. Perhaps more important was his use of reason to defend faith.