Chosen this book as part of the curriculum for a course I am teaching to middle school/high school students on the works of G. K. Chesterton. This is a fantastic example of his writing, though I will admit his later works were better and more skilled. Still, it screams Chesterton with all the quirks of characters, strange details, and academic humor that he can always be counted on to supply. In addition, it is written in episodes, which makes it very easy to teach even just sections of this. As a novel, it is rather approachable from the surface, but if one wanted to you could also go to the philosophical and moral truths that hide just between the lines.
Overall: absolutely wonderful.

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Ro&Bo

An old favourite - read and laugh!

Revisado en Reino Unido el 30 de septiembre de 2013

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Read and laugh. Come back a few years later and read and laugh all over again. I have enjoyed these classic stories. Also recently read for BBC Radio. Great there too, but best in the original book form.

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Kevin Killian

Well . . .

Revisado en los Estados Unidos el 12 de octubre de 2008

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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 OF QUEER TRADES must been a tremendous influence on Agatha Christie's MR. PARKER PYNE INVESTIGATES (I don't want to give many spoilers, so I'll leave it at that, but Parker Pyne/Ariadne Oliver fans will see right away where Christie got her charming idea from 25 years later.) I think Christie did it better, but GKC scores points from me for thinking of it first.

Swinburne (the narrator) tells the stories of Rupert and Basil, the two brothers, but he was unable to differentiate them significantly, and I wonder why he even bothered creating a brother for Rupert? I'm not getting any Sherlock Holmes/Mycroft Holmes one brother is a genius vibes here, both of them seem equally equipped for sussing out the truth.

By the time you get to the story of the "wickedest man in England" (Aleister Crowley? If so, a significantly early appearance for Crowley in fictional form) and how he maintains his reputation as a wit, it's still cute, but the next story about the house agent takes a one-paragraph anecdote and blows it up to novella size through sheer padding. Same with the old lady imprisoned in the basement, and as for the dancing professor, I didn't understand how that fit into the club of queer trades, except that Basil forced the Museum to pay the professor money, and that was so implausible I was throwing the book against the wall.

I'm reading the "Hesperus Modern Voices" edition, with Gilbert Adair's skillful introduction. He ALMOST persuades me that GKC was a postmodernist on the order of Borges... too bad you then have to read the six stories that follow, for they contradict Adair at every turn. Sapphire sky my a**!

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Bob

Good read but annoying line spacing.

Revisado en Reino Unido el 19 de mayo de 2011

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I agree with the other reviews about the excellence of G K Chesterton's prose, but upon downloading the book I find that the line spacing is irritating. I will give you an example -
"No," he said. "Sir Walter may leave first in a
glow of rage. Or
again, Mr. Wimpole may leave first, feeling that his
last epigram is
a thing to be flung behind him like a firework. And
Sir Walter may
remain some time to analyse Mr. Wimpole's
character. But they will

You see hoe annoying it is to have each line to run over a line and a half. I have tried resetting things to no avauil. That said it is well worth persevering.

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Brother Beaker

Queer, Indeed

Revisado en los Estados Unidos el 4 de noviembre de 2021

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Like a collection of Holmes or of Wooster, these stories revolve around the lead characters solving a mystery. But since the mystery comes down to an imaginary and fanciful “queer trade,” the reader is deprived of the normal anticipation of trying to solve it ahead of the reveal. Instead, it is exposed like a pun at the end of each episode.

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The Club of Queer Trades (Penguin Modern Classics) Tapa blanda – 28 junio 1984

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G.K. Chesterton

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