Father Brown
Father Brown is a fictional detective created by English novelist G. K. Chesterton and who stars in five volumes of in total 48 short stories, later compiled in five books. He was based on Father John O'Connor (1870 - 1952), whom Chesterton knew in the days when he was a parish priest in Bradford, Yorkshire, and who was involved in his conversion to Catholicism in 1922. The relationship was recorded by O'Connor (by then Monsignor) in his 1937 book Father Brown on Chesterton.
Character
Father Brown is a short, stumpy Catholic priest, "formerly of Cobhole in Essex, and now working in London," with shapeless clothes and a large umbrella, but an uncanny insight into human evil.
He made his first appearance in the famous story "The Blue Cross" and continued through the five volumes of short stories, often assisted by the reformed criminal Flambeau. Unlike his more famous near-contemporary Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown's methods tended to be intuitive rather than deductive: indeed, he explained his method in "The Secret of Father Brown" thus: "You see, I had murdered them all myself... I had planned out each of the crimes very carefully. I had thought out exactly how a thing like that could be done, and in what style or state of mind a man could really do it. And when I was quite sure that I felt exactly like the murderer myself, of course I knew who he was." In "The Blue Cross", when asked by Flambeau, who had been masquerading as a priest, how he knew of all sorts of criminal "horrors", he responded: "Has it never struck you that a man who does next to nothing but hear men's real sins is not likely to be wholly unaware of human evil?". He also stated a reason why he knew Flambeau was not a priest: "You attacked reason. It's bad theology." And indeed, the stories normally contain a rational explanation of who the murderer was and how Brown worked it out.
Despite his devoutness, Father Brown always emphasises rationality: some stories such as "The Miracle of Moon Crescent" and "The Blast of the Book" poke fun at initially skeptical characters who become convinced of a supernatural explanation for some strange occurrence, while Father Brown, despite his religiousness and his belief in God and miracles, easily sees the perfectly ordinary, natural explanation. In fact, he seems to represent an ideal of a devout, yet considerably educated and "civilised" clergyman, due to his familiarity with contemporary and secularist thought.
Interpretations and Criticisms
Father Brown was the perfect vehicle for conveying Chesterton's view of the world, and of all of his characters, is perhaps closest to Chesterton's own point of view, or at least the effect of his point of view. Father Brown solves his crimes through a strict reasoning process more concerned with spiritual and philosophic truths rather than scientific details, making him an almost equal counterbalance with Sherlock Holmes, which Chesterton read and admired, the stories of which had been discontinued just a couple years before.
While the earlier stories enjoyed great popularity and acclaim due to their conciseness, philosophical issues and wit, the response to the later Father Brown stories is somewhat mixed. After Chesterton converted to Catholicism, the tone of the stories seemed to change in the eyes of some. Many readers saw the new stories as less punchy and more dogmatic, Father Brown being turned into a vehicle for espousing Chesterton's Catholic views. Certainly of the five volumes, the best known ("The Innocence of Father Brown" and "The Wisdom of Father Brown") are the earlier works.
Others consider the canon of Father Brown stories to be marred by elements of alleged racism and bigotry in some of the stories. In particular "The God of the Gongs" and some stories featuring Hindu fakirs are seen by some to perpetuate stereotypes of cultures and belief systems foreign to Chesterton's orthodoxy and the times he lived in.
Influences
While on set, filming the Father Brown movie, actor Alec Guinness was approached by a young Itallian boy who, seeing him in costume, exclaimed 'Padre, padre!' and, hanging on his arm, rambled on and on in a language that Guinness didn't understand. Eventually, the boy said goodbye and left. Guinness, amazed and impressed that the mere uniform of a priest could inspire such trust and happiness in a child who was such a complete stranger, that he started to investigate the Roman Catholic faith, and subsequently joined the church.
Father Brown in other media
- A 1954 film of Father Brown (released in the USA as The Detective) which had a formidable cast, with Sir Alec Guinness playing the part of Father Brown, is widely regarded as a minor classic.
- In 1974 a Father Brown television series was made with Kenneth More in the title role.
- Heinz Rühmann played Father Brown in two German adaptations of Chesterton's stories, Das schwarze Schaf (1960) and Er kanns nicht lassen (1962). The music-score was written by composer Martin Böttcher.
- A German television series superficially based on the character of Father Brown, Pfarrer Braun, was launched in 2003. Pfarrer Guido Braun, from Bavaria, played by Ottfried Fischer, solves murder cases in the (fictitious) island of Nordersand in the first two episodes. Martin Böttcher again wrote the score and he got the instruction by the producers to write a title-theme hinting at the theme of the cinema-movies with Heinz Rühmann. To date six shows have been made.
Compilation Books
- The Innocence Of Father Brown (1911)
- The Wisdom Of Father Brown (1914)
- The Incredulity Of Father Brown (1926)
- The Secret Of Father Brown (1927)
- The Scandal Of Father Brown (1935)