In a surreal turn-of-the-century London, Gabriel Syme, a poet, is recruited to a secret anti-anarchist taskforce at Scotland Yard. Lucian Gregory, an anarchist poet, is the only poet in Saffron Park, until he loses his temper in an argument over the purpose of poetry with Gabriel Syme, who takes the opposite view.
After some time, the frustrated Gregory finds Syme and leads him to a local anarchist meeting-place to prove that he is a true anarchist. Instead of the anarchist Gregory getting elected, the officer Syme uses his wits and is elected as the local representative to the worldwide Central Council of Anarchists. The Council consists of seven men, each using the name of a day of the week as a code name; Syme is given the name of Thursday. In his efforts to thwart the council's intentions, however, he discovers that five of the other six members are also undercover detectives; each was just as mysteriously employed and assigned to defeat the Council of Days.
They all soon find out that they are fighting each other and not real anarchists; such was the mastermind plan of the genius Sunday. In a dizzying and surreal conclusion, the six champions of order and former anarchist ring-leaders chase down the disturbing and whimsical Sunday, the man who calls himself The Peace of God.
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"My only real association with Chesterton has been through Orwell's writings on him. Orwell despised C. as a chauvinist nationalist and a fetid Catholic. Despite that, I was strangely drawn to this novel and had it sitting around until now. I've always had a fondness for "anarchist" fiction (Conrad's "Secret Agent"; James' "Princess", etc.) so I found it odd that the conservative C. had written a novel about a group of mysterious anarchists who disguise their true identities behind names of the week. The main character Syme is a police detective infiltrating the group and out of blind luck becomes the 'Thursday' of the title. What follows is a bizarre, Flann O'Brien-esque mystery and chase film steeped in surreal imagery and outright beautiful prose! I don't want to give too much away: the wacky twists abound, but there is something really cool here that seems to be sadly under-appreciated."
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Jason (5 out of 5 stars)