The Man Who Was Thursday (1908) is not out of date, but the Introduction of the Woodsworth Edition (1995) a friend lent me is. Thursday begins at a hipster gathering in London, where the protagonist is annoyed at an anarchist wannabe. “Fantastic though they may be,” begins the 1990s introduction, “but anarchists, assassins, and spies played a chilling role in the history of the early 20th century.” Given the deadly shootings, mass arrests, and mass rapes at riots caused by antifa and Islamist trouble makers, perhaps someone in the 2090s will be equally naïve.

The Man Who Was Thursday is a short page-turner. Every chapter ends wither at a cliff-hanger or a shocking revelation. It’s also really funny in the dry British sense (“He has a face that grows on one. It has already grown on him, and I am sure one day it will grow on me.”) and an interesting allegory. I can’t describe it much without giving too much away, but the title refers to the “Supreme Anarchist Council,” a secret society where the duly-elected delegates are given code-names.

Two consecutive chapters, “The Criminals Chase the Police” and “The World in Anarchy,” reminded me of “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” (1931). The allegorical and supernatural nature, the quick writing, the insanity of what should be peaceful rural life, brought back the best of that story. I wonder if there was a genre of “being chased through small tranquil towns” that has since vanished.

This is the first fiction I’ve read by G.K. Chesterton (I earlier read his popular history of the world, The Everlasting Man (1925)). It evokes later C.S. Lewis books, like The Screwtape Letters (1942) and The Great Divorce (1945).

The introduction to the edition I read was poor. So was the postscript, written by the author but not intended for inclusion in the book, is not in keeping with the tone of the work. Skip both.