''The Poet and the Lunatics: Episodes in the Life of Gabriel Gale'' is a 1929 work by

G. K. Chesterton Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was an English writer, philosopher, Christian apologist, and literary and art critic. He has been referred to as the "prince of paradox". Of his writing style, ''Time'' observed: "Wh ...

. It consists of a series of short stories about Gabriel Gale, who is a poet and painter. Every story involves another character who is mad in some way. The work is sometimes called a novel, and usually categorized as

detective fiction Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as s ...

. The stories were first published in ''

Nash's Magazine ''The Pall Mall Magazine'' was a monthly British literary magazine published between 1893 and 1914. Begun by William Waldorf Astor as an offshoot of ''The Pall Mall Gazette'', the magazine included poetry, short stories, serialized fiction, and ge ...

'' in 1921.

John C. Tibbetts John Carter Tibbetts (born Paola, Kansas, October 6, 1946, and grew up in Leavenworth, Kansas) is an American film critic, historian, author, painter, and pianist. He is currently a film professor at the University of Kansas. Career After rece ...

describes them as "among Chesterton's most evocative twilight tales."

References

External links

The Poet and the Lunatics
complete text Short stories by G. K. Chesterton 1929 short story collections Books by G. K. Chesterton Detective fiction short story collections 1921 short stories {{1920s-mystery-story-collection-stub