Alexandria Student Book Reviews

The Man Who Was Thursday  by Jenna Holliday

The Man Who Was Thursday, written by the famed British author Gilbert Keith Chesterton, was first published in 1908, yet it still creates an undeniable connection with the twenty-first century reader. C. S. Lewis called the novel, “a powerful picture of the loneliness and bewilderment which each of us encounters in his single-handed struggle with the universe.” Jonathan Lethem says that Chesterton’s “nutty agenda is really quite simple: to expose moral relativism and parlor nihilism for the devils he believes them to be. Although Chesterton himself subtitled the work ‘A Nightmare’, such a term may be a bit harsh. With an eerie mix of mystery and allegory, the book tells a story that certainly none of us has actually experienced, but that we all can relate to in some way.  

 

Gabriel Syme, the man who was Thursday, is the book’s chief character. First introduced as a “poet of law, a poet of order”, Syme goes through significant role transformations throughout the course of the book. Lucien Gregory, the anarchist poet of Saffron Park, is the first supporting character to come in contact with Syme. The additional supporting characters are the members of the Supreme Anarchist Council, five men “nicknamed” after the days of the week. Monday is the Council’s secretary, a man with a crooked smile and eyes that reveal a constant mental agony. Tuesday is a man named Gogol, a Pole with a ridiculous look about him. The Marquis de St. Eustache fills the place of Wednesday, a man carrying a rich atmosphere with him wherever he went. Syme himself was Thursday, elected to the position through a curious set of circumstances that cause a major shift and twist in the plot of the story. Professor de Worms fills the role of Friday, an old, worn man whose chair, the council believes, will soon be left empty by his death. Saturday is a young doctor called Bull, who seems perhaps the most harmless of the lot, except for the spectacles he wears that give him a frightening air of wickedness. Finally, the president of the council, known only as Sunday, is perhaps the most terrifying of all, carrying with him a constant air of darkening and dwarfing due to his size and countenance. The story begins in a suburb of London called Saffron Park. Syme and his companions progress through various locations in England in the course of their adventures, and Syme finally ends up back at Saffron Park at the close of the book.

 

Throughout the book, Syme’s struggle against the other members of the Anarchist Council plays out as the main conflict. Unbeknownst to the council, Syme is in reality a police detective from Scotland Yard. Thrusting himself into the position of Thursday after promising Gregory that he would not betray the council to the police, Syme can only watch the movements of the council without the help of his colleagues. Over the course of the book, Syme has several frightening encounters with the anarchists, including a duel with Wednesday in which his sword is of no avail against his seemingly supernatural opponent. Ultimately, Syme is fighting to stop an anarchist plot, but he must do it alone, by his own brains and wit, while surrounded by unearthly companions. The plot shifts and twists many times throughout the book, with several significant surprises for the reader. Characters reverse roles as Syme’s struggle against anarchy plays out.

 

Piece by piece, the conflict resolves as Syme discovers that each of the other men on the “anarchist” council is in fact a detective like himself. All have been employed by the same “man in the dark” to overcome an anarchist plot that, it turns out, does not exist. Syme chases after the various members, only to find that each is merely disguised as an anarchist. Even Sunday is revealed as a character (apparently allegorical) utterly different from what Syme first believed him to be. Sunday is, in fact, “the man in the dark” who commissioned the members of the council to their inexplicable mission in the first place. In the end, Lucien Gregory is the one true anarchist, the one who still wants a struggle: “Yes, I am the real anarchist…You are right. I am a destroyer. I would destroy the world if I could.” (Chesterton 180) Finally, the story ends as Syme “comes to”, it seems, and finds himself walking quite naturally with Gregory. Has it all been a dream? Syme never remembers what exactly had happened – all he knows is that there is “an unnatural buoyancy in his body and a crystal simplicity in his mind that seemed to be superior to everything that he said or did. He felt he was is possession of some impossible good news, which made every other thing a triviality, but an adorable triviality.” (Chesterton 182) 

 

In conclusion, The Man Who Was Thursday proves a fascinating read. G.K. Chesterton’s phenomenal writing draws the reader in from the first page. His gripping, engrossing style adds to his succinct and powerful mode of expression. The action does not stop for a moment throughout the entirety of the book. But beyond that, the story has a deeper, seemingly allegorical meaning. As an allegory, the characters each seem to represent ideas – it is obvious that they do, but difficult to pick out what each represents. At one point Chesterton seems to reveal the allegory somewhat just before Syme engages the Marquis in the fateful swordfight. There Syme realizes that the “fear of the Professor had been the fear of the tyrannic accidents of nightmare, and [that] the fear of the Doctor had been the fear of the airless vacuum of science. The first was the old fear that any miracle might happen, the second the more hopeless modern fear that no miracle can ever happen.” (Chesterton 114) This alludes to the conclusion that the characters represent certain ideas. Sunday especially is revealed as an obviously allegorical character when he declares himself to be “the Sabbath. I am the peace of God.” (Chesterton 178) This reveals the irony of Syme’s perceptions from the start of the story in that he feared as the most evil person the one who was truly good. It would seem, in fact, that nearly all of Syme’s perceptions had been wrong from the beginning of the adventure. But once he realizes the truth, and once Sunday reveals his true identity, Syme seems grateful for the whole episode in view of the lessons he has learned. He realizes that there is more to the world than he thought, and that realization is worth the struggles he has gone through. In the same way, sometimes we encounter struggles that seem absolutely pointless at the time – but we see later that they have taught us something invaluable. G. K. Chesterton’s fascinating novel, though difficult to decipher, is certainly worth reading.