Tales Of The Long Bow

So begins Tales of the Long Bow, in which a man eats his hat, another sets the Thames on fire, silk purses are made out of sow's ears, and pigs fly. Who says Distributism is boring? These tales certainly suggest the opposite. Yet some critics have dismissed this book as a mere "Distributist" novel, complaining that Chesterton has needlessly restricted his creativity in favor of his political agenda. As with all of Chesterton's writings, it would be useful if those who criticized them actually sat down and read the book before dismissing it. They would look less stupid to the increasing number of people who have read the book. . . and reveled in it. 

The reviewers in Chesterton's day were quite a bit better than the critics in our day. The Sunday Times said that Chesterton was "the legitimate successor to Rabelais and Swift," with "nonsense inextricably mingled with more wisdom than most 'serious' writers are capable of conceiving." Sir John Squire called it a book "which no other man living or dead could have thought of." He acknowledged Chesterton's greatness as a writer who has the unsurpassed skill to make us see things as if seeing them for the first time: "His power of playing with proverbs and stock metaphors depends largely on his ability to see what they mean, and ignore that they are stock. He is aware of every word."