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Tremendous Trifles by G. K. Chesterton
"The world will never starve for want of wonders, but only for want of wonder." — G. K. Chesterton The thirty-nine short essays that make up Chesterton's delightful book are the result of "sitting still and letting marvels and adventures settle on him like flies." Actually, the author does move around quite a bit—to Germany, France, and on foot in England when he tires of waiting for a train. Everywhere he goes, Chesterton looks at ordinary things and asks us to see how extraordinary they are: the contents of his pockets, the items in a railway station, pedestrians in the street. What appear to be trifles are actually tremendous, and he uses them as a springboard to expound on Christianity, the nuclear family, democracy, and the like with supreme clarity and wit. The essays gathered here are a testament to G. K. Chesterton's faith—not his faith in religion or a higher power, but in the ability to discover something wonderful in the objects, the experiences, and the people that cross our paths every single day. With his unique brand of humor and insight, he demonstrates how the commonplace adds enormous value to the landscape of daily life. Full of both good sense and nonsense, Chesterton's commentaries—first published nearly a century ago—remain fresh today. Reprint of the Sheed and Ward, New York, 1955 edition.
Table of Contents for Tremendous Trifles
1. Tremendous Trifles | 2. A Piece of Chalk | 3. The Secret of a Train | 4. The Perfect Game | 5. The Extraordinary Cabman | 6. An Accident | 7. The Advantages of Having One Leg | 8. The End of the World | 9. In the Place de la Bastille | 10. On Lying in Bed | 11. The Twelve Men | 12. The Wind and the Trees | 13. The Dickensian | 14. In Topsy-Turvy Land | 15. What I Found in My Pocket | 16. The Dragon's Grandmother | 17. The Red Angel | 18. The Tower | 19. How I Met the President | 20. The Giant | 21. A Great Man | 22. The Orthodox Barber | 23. The Toy Theatre | 24. A Tragedy of Twopence | 25. A Cab Ride Across Country | 26. The Two Noises | 27. Some Policemen and a Moral | 28. The Lion | 29. Humanity: an Interlude | 30. The Little Birds Who Won't Sing | 31. The Riddle of the Ivy | 32. The Travellers in State | 33. The Prehistoric Railway Station | 34. The Diabolist | 35. A Glimpse of My Country | 36. A Somewhat Improbable Story | 37. The Shop of Ghosts | 38. The Ballade of a Strange Town | 39. The Mystery of a Pageant |
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