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by: G. K. Chesterton
Amazon.com's Price: $9.95 Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780486255347
ISBN: 0486255344
Label: Dover Publications
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 128
Publication Date: January 01, 1988
Publisher: Dover Publications
Sales Rank: 881029
Studio: Dover Publications
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Six whimsical short stories by brilliant, witty, English author, poet and critic. Improbable plots, marvelously funny episodes, evocative descriptions of late Victorian London distinguish delightful tales focusing on a club devoted to completely original and unusual professions. First republication to include all 32 of Chesterton’s own original illustrations.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Well . . .
I couldn't help but get the idea that Chesterton had a good idea, but fluffed the execution because he couldn't think of enough "queer trades" (i.e., jobs new to the economy that no one else had ever made a living at before). Is it a satire on technology--surely in 1905 there must have been hundreds of these new jobs happening all the time--typists, for example, or auto mechanics. The book starts off well with the adventure of Major Brown, and in fact the opening tale made me think that THE CLUB ... Read More
Rating: - Funny and quick romp, though not his best.
G.K. is witty, and even his weaker works will still make you laugh out loud. This book is no different, a parody of the classic Sherlock Holmes type deductive reasoning. They are really several sub-stories that all merge together for a fitting conclusion, involving the queerest trade of them all. A lot of G.K.'s familiar themes are here, such as emphasis on atmosphere as opposed to details, and how things seemingly ridiculous not only make sense, but are actually necessary. Probably not the best ... Read More
Rating:  - Clever and Entertaining
This is a nice collection of stories, all well done in Chesterton's infectious style. There are little bits of social dogma stuffed into the margins, but the stories are primarily amusements.
One odd note - this edition of the book contains some very strange artifacts - noticably occasions where the word "die" is substituted for the word "the". Almost as if it were translated from German and somebody missed a few articles. There were several other instances, which I've forgotten, but ... Read More
Rating: - Join the club
G.K. Chesterton always had a knack for making ominous situations that turned out to be... pretty normal. And that's what "The Club of Queer Trades" is all about, a string of Sherlock-Holmes-style mysteries that spoof the elaborate deduction process. And show readers some of the bizarrest jobs Chesterton could think of.
The book introduces us to Basil Grant, a judge who came to realize that law and justice aren't the same thing, and who ended up giving sentences like "Get a soul" before leaving ... Read More
Rating:  - Awful Disappointment for Chesterton Fans
These six stories are completely missable for fans of the "Father Brown" tales. The "detective" here is Basil Grant, and he's omniscient and uninteresting-- he has no detecting to do since he just seems to "know" what's going on long before his dopy pals Rupert and Charles Swinburne.
I'm a big fan of the Holmes and Raffles and Thinking Machine stories, as well as all of the Father Browns. But these clunkers have no place in any canon of Victorian or post-Victorian detective/crime fiction.
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