Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born on 29 May 1874 in London to Edward Chesterton and Marie Louise Grosjean Chesterton. He was the second of three children. A sister, five years older than Gilbert, died at the age of eight. A brother, Cecil, five years younger than Gilbert, remained his close companion and debating partner throughout Cecil's life. Chesterton would look back on his childhood as a time of almost unshadowed happiness. Especially strong and positive memories focused on a toy theater he was given by his father. The unapologetic artifice of the theater, the hard-edged clarity of its figures, and the worlds of romance, adventure, and fundamental moral conflict that could be represented there may have shaped some of Chesterton's lasting views on the powers and functions of art.
Chesterton enjoyed a largely undistinguished academic career, first at Saint Paul's School and later at University College, London, where from 1893 to 1895 he attended classes in English, French, Latin, and fine arts, without ever sitting an examination or taking a degree. His fine arts classes were conducted at the Slade School of Art, then entering one of its great periods; Chesterton was asked to leave after a year. His study of art, though quickly terminated, confirmed in him a distaste for the aestheticism and impressionism that he saw as dominating the art world of the time.
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