The Man Who Was Thursday

HarperCollins is proud to present our range of timeless literary classics. 'I am more than a devil; I am a man. I can do the one thing which Satan himself cannot do-I can die,' Poet-turned Policeman Gabriel Syme infiltrates a secret anarchist council suspected of plotting a terrorist attack. Alias 'Thursday', he enters a shadowy underworld, where nothing is as it seems. Roped into duelling, disguises and a hot air balloon chase, Syme begins to unravel a conspiracy which leads him into a mad caper across Europe. But is he any match for the mysterious President Sunday, the smiling figure at the heart of it all? Half comedy spy-thriller, half metaphysical puzzle, The Man Who Was Thursdayraises unsettling questions about law and order, identity and the nature of evil. G. K. Chesterton's classic novel, first published in 1908, shaped speculative fiction, political satire, and detective novels as we know them today.

G. K. Chesterton (1874- 1936) was an English Christian writer celebrated for his use of allegories and symbolism. A dominant figure in the London literary scene of the 20th century, he mixed in the same circles as George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, and Bertrand Russell and was compared to Edgar Allan Poe by Jorge Luis Borges. The creator of Father Brown, a detective-priest who was highly influential on the English detective genre, Chesterton converted to Catholicism himself later in life. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1935.