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The Man Who Knew Too Much

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The Man Who Knew Too Much

By: G. K. Chesterton
Narrated by: Harold Wiederman
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About this listen

Gilbert Keith (G.K.) Chesterton (1874-1936) was an English literary and social critic, historian, playwright, poet, Catholic theologian, debater, mystery writer, and foremost, a novelist. Among the primary achievements of Chesterton's extensive writing career are the wide range of subjects written about, the large number of genres employed, and the sheer volume of publications produced. He wrote several plays, around 80 books, several hundred poems, some 200 short stories and 4,000 essays. Chesterton's writings without fail displayed wit and a sense of humor by incorporating paradox, yet still making serious comments on the world, government, politics, economics, theology, philosophy and many other topics. His talent as a mystery writer is displayed in his collection of detective stories, The Man Who Knew Too Much. In each story, the star detective, Horne Fisher, deals with another strange mystery: the vanishing of a priceless coin, the framing of an Irish "prince" freedom fighter, an eccentric rich man dies during an obsessive fishing trip, another vanishing during an ice skate, a statue crushing his own uncle, and a few more.

Includes "The Face in the Targe", "The Vanishing Prince", "The Soul of the Schoolboy", "The Bottomless Well", "The Fad of the Fisherman", "The Hole in the Wall", "The Temple of Silence", and "The Vengeance of the Statue".

Public Domain (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
Anthologies Classics Detective Traditional Detectives Mystery Fiction Witty Fishing Royalty Outdoor Short Story

Editorial reviews

The eponymous "man" of this collection of short detective fiction is G.K. Chesterton’s protagonist Horne Fisher. Throughout these mysteries and investigations Fisher finds himself in the paradoxical spot of holding the key to the query while being immobilized by some privileged, often dangerous, information or connection. Harold Wiederman performs this collection with the tone of an experienced British orator who, although speaking loudly, seems constantly to be relating a secret. Perhaps this reflects the paradoxes that Chesterton was so fond of - and it certainly heightens the listening enjoyment of these enigmatic puzzling episodes. The collection includes 8 stories about Fisher and his friend the journalist Harold March, who meet in the first episode.

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Great stories, but very poor accent work.

These are diverting short stories; well written, but very much of their time, and no one could ever accuse them of being politically correct…
As whodunnits, they often rely on revealing important information at the last minute, and often that information is only known by the protagonist. Hmm…
But the real letdown here is the accent work by the narrator. There are several errors, which the director never pulls him up on. I’m guessing the narrator is American, doing the best English accent(s) he can… but “minny” for “many”, “mahn” for “man”… and “potAAHto sacks” for “potato sacks”?
Twice?! Seriously?

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Can't listen any more

The narration is tiresome, and overly attempts to pronounce all words. It is so distracting that I am no longer sure if there is a plot to the story.

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