THE OUTLINE OF SANITY by Alzina Stone Dale Eerdmans; 354 pages; $18.95
Decades ago, a controversial novel stirred England and America. Its action took place in 1984, and its theme was the encroachments of a future authoritarian state. The book was The Napoleon of Notting Hill, written in 1904, when George Orwell was an infant. The author was Gilbert Keith Chesterton, a man perpetually in advance of, and behind, his time.
As Chicago Biographer Alzina Stone Dale indicates in her spirited biography, Chesterton doted on paradox. The lover of tradition was a radical populist; the Falstaffian clown was a deeply committed intellectual; the...
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