A Day of Small Things | The fantastic wit of G. K. Chesterton // The Napoleon of Notting Hill // Book Review @adayofsmallthings | Uploaded December 2022 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G. K. Chesterton is one of the novels that brought me the most surprise and delight this year. I mentioned it in my October Wrap Up. Here's a dedicated book review video - I love it too much to let it slip past!
The novel reads like a giant multi-layered allegory and it discusses topics like love and passion for one’s city, living practically or poetically, and seeing the mundane or the wonder in everyday things. The novel makes use of images from A Midsummer Night's Dream and borrows the name of the King of the Fairies for the King of England: Auberon Quin. The title character, the Napoleon of Notting Hill is called Adam Wayne.
While re-reading this novel I came across a collection of essays called the Defendant written by the author a few years before the novel. Some of them share the same keywords as the novel and they shed light on the author’s thinking behind it, especially on English patriotism, heraldry and nonsense literature. I found them very helpful in understanding the novel. We'll look at some of the ideas from the essays and think about the novel through these lenses too.
#chesterton wrote in his autobiography about how the idea of The Napoleon of Notting Hill came about. I included it in my October Wrap up, you can watch it here:
youtu.be/kN0U7mYz3zQ
Lastly, I found a cover design of a Japanese translation of the novel by #hayaomiyazaki - absolutely love it! The Japanese title of the novel is Chesterton's 1984.
The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G. K. Chesterton is one of the novels that brought me the most surprise and delight this year. I mentioned it in my October Wrap Up. Here's a dedicated book review video - I love it too much to let it slip past!
The novel reads like a giant multi-layered allegory and it discusses topics like love and passion for one’s city, living practically or poetically, and seeing the mundane or the wonder in everyday things. The novel makes use of images from A Midsummer Night's Dream and borrows the name of the King of the Fairies for the King of England: Auberon Quin. The title character, the Napoleon of Notting Hill is called Adam Wayne.
While re-reading this novel I came across a collection of essays called the Defendant written by the author a few years before the novel. Some of them share the same keywords as the novel and they shed light on the author’s thinking behind it, especially on English patriotism, heraldry and nonsense literature. I found them very helpful in understanding the novel. We'll look at some of the ideas from the essays and think about the novel through these lenses too.
#chesterton wrote in his autobiography about how the idea of The Napoleon of Notting Hill came about. I included it in my October Wrap up, you can watch it here:
youtu.be/kN0U7mYz3zQ
Lastly, I found a cover design of a Japanese translation of the novel by #hayaomiyazaki - absolutely love it! The Japanese title of the novel is Chesterton's 1984.
