The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond
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| "The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond" | |
| Author | G. K. Chesterton |
|---|---|
| Country | Great Britain |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Mystery Short Stories |
| Published in | 1936 |
The Paradoxes of Mr Pond is G. K. Chesterton's final collection of detective stories published after his death in 1936. Of the eight mysteries, seven were first printed in the Storyteller magazine. The Unmentionable Man was unique to the book.
The stories centre around a civil servant named Mr Pond (we are not told his first name). He is described as a very ordinary and fish-like man who has a habit of startling those who meet him with outrageous paradoxes of thought; otherwise he is a thoroughly unremarkable and even boring person.
For various reasons he comes to know of, or finds himself in the middle of, a dramatic, usually criminal, paradox. For instance, in The Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse, a general's career is ruined by his subordinates' ability to follow his orders perfectly:
- "The whole thing went wrong because the discipline was too good. Grock's soldiers obeyed him too well; so he simply couldn't do a thing he wanted....It is a military fact that Grock failed, because two of his soldiers obeyed him. It is a military fact that he might have succeeded, if one of them had disobeyed him. "
Although written at the end of his career, and though the stories contain narrative stretches and improbabilities, they do not lack from Chesterton's flashes of insight. In the story The Crime of Captain Gahagan Chesterton observes, through the character of Mr Pond, that "Love never needs time. But friendship always needs time. More and more time, until up past midnight."
Contents |
[edit] Characters
The main characters in the book are Mr. Pond, his friend Captain Peter Gahagan (whom Pond often defends from accusations), and a well-known government official, Sir Hubert Wotton. Also mentioned in more than one chapter is Violet Varney, an actress, and her sister Joan, whom Gahagan marries after being suspected of having an affair with Lord Crome's wife in "Ring of Lovers". While crucial witnesses in "The Crime of Captain Gahagan", only Joan appears as a character ("A Tall Story").
[edit] Stories
[edit] The Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse
The paradox is introduced when a casual discussion turns to matters of European politics, and Pond recalls an episode during a war between the Prussians and the Polish. The fact, insists Pond, to Wotton's dismay, is that the Prussian soldiers were too obedient. Marshal Von Grock failed in his attempt to execute the Polish poet and singer Paul Petrowski because two of his soldiers did precisely what he asked. Grock would have stood a chance of succeeding, says Pond, if only one of them had obeyed.
[edit] The Crime of Captain Gahagan
The chapter begins with an interview of Pond by a hyperactive journalist who cannot finish a sentence without interrupting herself. This is a clue to Pond when he is summoned by a lawyer who suspects Pond's acquaintance Captain Gahagan of murdering his client, the husband of a woman Gahagan had been known to be spending some time with. After hearing the lawyer's story of what Gahagan said when leaving the Varney house, Pond introduces the paradox: Gahagan said the exact same thing to all three witnesses, despite their conflicting reports.
[edit] When Doctors Agree
The paradox, simply put, is that two doctors once agreed so thoroughly that one naturally murdered the other.
[edit] Pond the Pantaloon
Pond introduces the paradox--that the pencil was relatively red, which was why it made such black marks--but Chesterton leaves it to Wotton to explain.
