The Innocence of Father Brown, Part 2!

Tea, Tonic & Toxin

The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) is G. K. Chesterton’s first collection of short stories featuring Father Brown, a nondescript Catholic priest who solves crimes using intuition and by tapping into spiritual and philosophic truths rather than scientific details. The stories are clever, thoughtful, and lovely.
Meet our first guest, Deb Donner. She's a bookaholic. Reading is her escape but it's also her inspiration and my therapy. Her current favorite genre is Memoir; She loves to hear the stories of other people. Everyone has a unique life story. Her story is how she survived and escaped a religious cult. Her mother joined when I was 12. She escaped when she was 19. She writes about that experience and finds it more healing than therapy.

She also enjoy crafting and her latest joy is slow stitching little bits of fabric together into various fabric stories.

social media is:
@debdonner62, where she shares her crafty fun,
@letstalkcults, where she shares her story of being trapped in a cult.

How to Read It: Buy it on Amazon, buy a used copy, or read it for free, courtesy of Project Gutenberg.

Estimated Reading Time: 5 hours

Share your thoughts and check out the conversation starters below!
In what ways did the stories’ Christianity (Catholicism) enrich or complicate the stories? Where did your sympathies lie? Which tale hit home hardest for you, and why?

In the “The Invisible Man,” a woman admits she has felt the presence of a former suitor. Her confidant says, “if he were Satan himself, he is done, for now you have told somebody. One goes mad all alone.” In what ways do we tend to discount our intuition? Does one go mad all alone?

In “The Wrong Shape,” Father Brown says Mrs. Quinton is “over-driven. That’s the kind of woman who does her duty for twenty years, and then does something dreadful.” Do you know anyone who fits the description of Mrs. Quinton?

“The Eye of Apollo”: “A frigid fierceness (peculiar to the modern woman)” drove Pauline “to what she considered a harsher and higher existence.” She invested her wealth in her typewriting emporium and causes that advanced such work among women. What are your thoughts about Pauline? Have you ever resented someone for holding a door open for you (as she resents Flambeau)?

In the first few stories in The Innocence of Father Brown, Flambeau is a “good criminal” who commits bloodless crimes such as theft. He’s a tall, streetwise, outlaw hero who enjoys the “game” of crime. Under Father Brown’s influence, Flambeau reforms and becomes an amateur detective. In “The Wrong Shape,” Father Brown says to Flambeau, “You are my only friend in the world, and I want to talk to you. Or, perhaps, be silent with you.”

In “The Sign of the Broken Sword,” Father Brown asks Flambeau if he recalls whom Dante put in the last circle of ice. (Answer: Traitors who committed fraud against those with whom they shared special bonds of love and trust.) Flambeau “could almost fancy he was Dante, and [Father Brown was] Virgil leading him through a land of eternal sins.”

How do you feel about the good criminal and the road that “goes down and down”? How important is it to you to have friends with whom you can talk AND be silent? Has someone guided you through parts of your life? Have any Judas’ or Brutus’ in your life?
Tea, Tonic, and Toxin is a book club and podcast for people who love mysteries, thrillers, introspection, and good conversation. Each month, your hosts, Sarah Harrison and Carolyn Daughter

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