Talk:Father Brown

A Turd?
"Father Brown as a turd also appears in a third story building — making a total of 3 storys — that did not appear in the five volumes published in Chesterton's lifetime, "The Donnington Affair", which has a curious history"

I have absolutely no idea what this sentence means... can someone explain?

Thanks, Dominic — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.152.103.210 (talk) 09:35, 9 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Just silly vandalism, which someone else has fixed since then. — Narsil (talk) 18:42, 17 April 2018 (UTC)

Publication Dates
Are the compilation books the first occurrence of the Father Brown stories in print? Even if there are earlier publications of the stories, it would appear that Father Brown's good friend, M. Hercule Flambeau, detective and ex-criminal, was created before Hercule Poirot Agatha Christie's Belgian Detective. Is this merely a coincidence? Ileanadu (talk) 00:05, 2 July 2010 (UTC)
 * The first paragraph of the article indicates these were not the first printing:
 * "52 short stories, later compiled in five books"
 * When and where were the stories originally published? Ileanadu (talk) 00:09, 2 July 2010 (UTC)
 * The first story was The Blue Cross. I've added its date and location on that page. The first compilation (The Innocence of Father Brown) came out only a few months later, so presumably the other stories appeared at short intervals after the first. If I can reference the details I'll add them here as well. --Old Moonraker (talk) 11:09, 2 July 2010 (UTC)

WP:COPYVIO from Raymond Rosenthal
The poster claims that the text in a recent addition is his/her own translation of Antonio Gramsci, and is original. Comparing the version from a previous insertion of Raymond Rosenthal's translation (copyright 1994) suggests that WP:COPYVIO may still be an issue: see here. Changing detective to policeman, persistent to insistent, and so on, isn't a fix. However, it's not of great concern because the addition contravenes WP:NPS and isn't eligible anyway. Reverted. --Old Moonraker (talk) 12:52, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

Judge Grant stories
Hi, Does anyone think it would be appropriate to include a paragraph or two on Chesterton's Judge Grant stories? These were mysteries that Chesterton wrote before the Father Brown stories, which were published in a book called The Club of Queer Trades. I have not read the stories myself, but I have heard that they are similar thematically to the Father Brown mysteries. Any thoughts? Tygretus (talk) 22:13, 10 September 2013 (UTC)


 * If we have a reliable source for what you are saying that would be fine♫ SqueakBox talk contribs 22:21, 10 September 2013 (UTC)


 * Thanks for your response. After doing a bit of research online I found some sources not only on Judge Grant but on Chesterton's views on mystery/detective stories in general, including an article he wrote titled "A Defense of Detective Stories". I will try to put together a brief section summarizing this material soon, with proper references. Tygretus (talk) 00:57, 13 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Good idea SnailsSpace (talk) 17:16, 12 December 2023 (UTC)

"The Donnington Affair" — complete online edition?
All online editions of "The Donnington Affair" that I looked into seem to be based on the PG Australia text (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks13/1301541h.html), which includes only Chesterton's second part of the story, and not the first part of Pemberton.

Does anyone know whether the complete story or the first part can be found online somewhere (in the public domain)?

134.3.242.105 (talk) 12:59, 3 September 2016 (UTC)

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Other Recurring Characters
There are several recurring characters in the original stories, and it would be good to list them IMO.

As well as appearing in The Blue Cross, Aristide Valentin appears in The Secret Garden for example. Flambeau appears in several at least as well.

I think we should confine this section to characters that appear in the original stories. The TV adaptation has probably introduced others for reasons of casting and production, and if these were included it should be made clear that they are not in the original stories. But I'd leave them out for now. Andrewa (talk) 05:16, 16 July 2021 (UTC)


 * Sounds good. SnailsSpace (talk) 17:17, 12 December 2023 (UTC)