Who Was That

Simple text asks the reader a series of questions about the characters on each page, and the child must find the visual clues that give the answer.

In his fifth collection of law-firm humor, Kanter lets us see lawyers from the point of view of their clients and other outsiders. He shares with us the humorous perspectives of everyone from clients, jurors, and accountants, to the mother of a new associate trying to drum up business for her "little girl," a homeless person caught in a lawyer's well-meaning scheme to make him a charitable corporation, and the child of a two-lawyer couple who can't run a lemonade stand without everything becoming a major issue.

Chesterton’s finest achievement—at once a gripping thriller and a powerful allegory In a colorful neighborhood of West London, two poets are at each other’s throats. Gregory is an anarchist who longs to upend civilization with the power of his words, while Syme is a man of reason, convinced his opponent’s beliefs are nothing but a fashionable pose. To prove his seriousness, Gregory introduces Syme to the central council of European radicals, where the newcomer is given the codename “Thursday.” Though none will admit it, every man in the council is a liar—and each is deadly in his own way. Gregory has no inkling that his new comrade Syme is an undercover detective, sent by Scotland Yard to destroy the council from within. But as the other men reveal their secrets in turn, it becomes clear that Thursday is not the enemy; it is the mysterious figure named Sunday whom they all should fear. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

Mr. Chesterton is such a past-master in sophistries and casuistry, such a juggler of paradoxes, such an adept in the arts whereby the brilliant and quick-witted pull the wool over the eyes of their less gifted brethren, that he can give full and serious credibility to his tale of the astounding adventures of the detective who was admitted into the innermost circle of anarchists. It is the poetic anarchist, with hair like a Madonna's and the face of a prize-fighter, who tries (unsuccessfully) to become Thursday.

It is very difficult to classify The Man Who Was Thursday. It is possible to say that it is a gripping adventure story of murderous criminals and brilliant policemen; but it was to be expected that the author of the Father Brown stories should tell a detective story like no-one else. On this level, therefore, The Man Who Was Thursday succeeds superbly; if nothing else, it is a magnificent tour-de-force of suspense-writing. Aeterna Press

The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare is a novel by G. K. Chesterton. The book is sometimes referred to as a metaphysical thriller. In Edwardian era London, Gabriel Syme is recruited at Scotland Yard to a secret anti-anarchist police corps. Lucian Gregory, an anarchistic poet, lives in the suburb of Saffron Park. Syme meets him at a party and they debate the meaning of poetry. Gregory argues revolt is the basis of poetry. Syme demurs, insisting the essence of poetry is not revolution, but rather law. He antagonizes Gregory by asserting the most poetical of human creations is the timetable for the London Underground. He suggests Gregory isn't really serious about his anarchism. This so irritates Gregory that he takes Syme to an underground anarchist meeting place, revealing his public endorsement of anarchy is a ruse to make him seem harmless, when in fact he is an influential member of the local chapter of the European anarchist council. The central council consists of seven men, each using the name of a day of the week as a code name, and the position of Thursday is about to be elected by Gregory's local chapter. Gregory expects to win the election, but just before the election Syme reveals to Gregory after an oath of secrecy that he is a secret policeman. Fearful Syme may use his speech in evidence of a prosecution, Gregory's weakened words fail to convince the local chapter he is sufficiently dangerous for the job. Syme makes a rousing anarchist speech and wins the vote. He is sent immediately as the chapter's delegate to the central council. In his efforts to thwart the council's intentions, however, Syme discovers five of the other six members are also undercover detectives; each was employed just as mysteriously and assigned to defeat the Council. They all soon find out they were fighting each other and not real anarchists; such was the mastermind plan of their president Sunday. In a surreal conclusion, Sunday himself is unmasked as only seeming to be terrible; in fact, he is a force of good like the detectives. However, he is unable to give an answer to the question of why he caused so much trouble and pain for the detectives. Gregory, the only real anarchist, seems to challenge the good council. His accusation is they, as rulers, have never suffered like Gregory and their other subjects, and so their power is illegitimate. However, Syme is able to refute this accusation immediately because of the terrors inflicted by Sunday on the rest of the council.